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OVERVIEW

District 58 administered a communication survey in 2012.
In 2019, the Communications Feedback Council (a Strategic Plan working group) updated the 2012 survey, keeping several original questions
The 2019-2022 communication surveys are identical
429 community members responded from April 18-May 1

Fewer responses than usual; results may not be as reliable, since it’s a smaller sample size
Earlier survey window; survey usually takes place in late May/early June

Raw results will be posted at www.dg58.org/surveys.
Keep in mind: Some survey-takers gave the District poor scores in all/most questions, and provided an open-ended comment regarding a frustration they had that did not relate to communication. It is possible survey responses like this may have skewed some results, especially with the lower-than-usual response rate.

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OVERVIEW

Survey goals:

To measure communication/feedback satisfaction changes over time
To understand the community’s communication satisfaction and preferences
To use this data to inform communication priorities and decisions

2020-2023 communication plan will be updated next school year; this data will be analyzed and incorporated into the new communication plan’s development.

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SURVEY RESULTS:

SATISFACTION

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“I am satisfied with the District’s overall communication efforts.”

2012:

64%

2021:

76%

2022:

73%

2019:

72%

Numbers indicate the percentage of survey-takers who answered �“Strongly Agree” or “Agree” to this statement.

2020:

82%

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“I generally feel well-informed �about District 58.”	70%	84%	89%	83%	86%
“I know how to find information �about District 58 when I want it.”	73%	80%	82%	79%	82%
“I am satisfied with the way(s) in which I �currently receive information about District 58.”	72%	80%	85%	79%	83%

STATEMENT 2012 2019 2020 2021 2022

Numbers indicate the percentage of survey-takers who answered �“Strongly Agree” or “Agree” to the corresponding statements.

Takeaway:

Improvements from 2021 across all questions

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SURVEY RESULTS:

PREFERENCES

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COMMUNICATION PREFERENCES: FREQUENCY

85% satisfied with frequency of District communications

5% said “too few” and 10% said “too many”
2021: 85% were satisfied; 7% said “too few” and 8% said “too many”

88% satisfied with frequency of school/principal communications

9% said “too few” and 3% said “too many”
2021: 85% were satisfied; however, 12% said “too few” and 3% said “too many”

In general, survey takers receive “just enough” information on most topics.

42% wanted more new programs/initiatives info (38% wanted more in 2021)
39% wanted more curriculum info (45% wanted more in 2021)
31% wanted more student support services (31% wanted more in 2021)

Takeaway: �• Good balance between “too few” and “too many” responses for District�• Consider improving communication in topic areas described above

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What information do you seek on our website?�

WEBPAGE 2021 2022

Takeaway: Ensure calendar and contact information are up-to-date; train schools to update their website consistently, continue goal 2.3c work; in “other” line, 8 people mentioned visiting website for COVID information

Calendar	94%	93%
Contact information	56%	64%
Specific school webpage	63%	53%
District news	40%	35%
School news - stories, photo galleries	38%	32%
Curriculum information	32%	29%
Board of Education information	30%	26%
Staff resources	16%	14%

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COMMUNICATION PREFERENCES: NEWSLETTER

Survey-takers prefer to receive Communicate 58 mid-week in the morning.
Most prefer all current topics that the newsletter currently features.
Event calendar, District news and student/staff accomplishments highly valued as individual topics.

Takeaways:

Consistently publish newsletter mid-week in the morning.
Will emphasize the event calendar (we moved it to top of newsletter this year after input!)
Communicate 58’s readership is increasing!

January-May 2022: 64-70% open rate
August-December 2021: 53-61% open rate
2020-21 school year: 37-60% open rate
Industry average: 33% open rate

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COMMUNICATION PREFERENCES:�ANNUAL REPORT

Most prefer all topics that the Annual Report currently features
Curriculum, new initiatives/programs, facility planning, school news, finance, and Strategic Plan highly valued as individual topics.

Takeaway:

Ensure most highly-valued topics continue to be well-featured.
Facility planning saw a 10% increase from last year.
Consider audience -- this survey did not capture many individuals without children currently in D58. Contact information should be included, since it may be the only way some residents learn how to contact the District.

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COMMUNICATION PREFERENCES: BOARD NEWS

93% are familiar with Board Briefs; 76% read them.

2021: 90% were familiar and 77% read them

86% aware that Board meeting video and audio exists; 54% say they’ve listened to or viewed the meetings.

2021: 83% were aware and 60% had listened/viewed them.

Takeaway:

After consistently increasing awareness/engagement of Board information for a few years, these questions maintained similar answers (and even some decreases) compared to last year

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PREFERENCES: INFORMATION SOURCES

Top 10 CURRENT Sources of Information:�(considering categories that are “sometimes” and “regularly” a source of info) �↑↓ ↔ denotes how this year’s ranking compares to 2021��1. District 58 website (96.91%) ↔ �2. School/principal email (96.59%) ↑�3. School/principal newsletter (96.02%) ↓�4. District email (95.74%) ↑�5. Communicate 58 (94.86%) ↓�6. Personal contact with staff member(s) (89.74%) ↔�7. School website (89.02%) ↔�8. Board Briefs (85.14%) ↔�9. Others in the community/word of mouth (83.33%) ↑ �10. Online communication tools (i.e. Seesaw, Google Classroom) (82.8%)↓

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PREFERENCES: INFORMATION SOURCES

Top 10 MOST FREQUENT Sources of Information:�(considering only categories that are “regularly” a source of info) �↑↓ ↔ denotes how this year’s ranking compares to 2021

1. School/principal newsletters (80%) ↔�2. School emails (70%) ↔�3. District emails (55%) ↑�4. Communicate 58 (53%) ↓�5. Online communication tools (ie Seesaw, Google Classroom etc) (49%) ↔�6. Personal contact with staff members (48%) ↑�7. PTA newsletters (47%) ↓�8. School website (44%) ↔�9. District website (40%) ↔�10. Board Briefs (35%) ↔

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PREFERENCES: INFORMATION SOURCES

Top 10 PREFERRED Sources of Information:�(considering categories that survey-takers “prefer” and “sometimes prefer”) �↑↓ ↔ denotes how this year’s ranking compares to 2021��1. School/principal newsletters (96.84%) ↑�2. School/principal emails (96.82%) ↓�3. Personal contact with staff member(s) (94.49%) ↔�4. Communicate 58 (92.46%) ↔�5. District emails (92.13%) ↔�6. District website (91.95%) ↑�7. School webpage (91.64%) ↓�8. District texts/push notifications (85.00%) ↔�9. PTA newsletters (81.98%) ↔�10. Board Briefs (81.10%) ↔

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PREFERENCES: INFORMATION SOURCES

Top 10 MOST FREQUENTLY PREFERRED Sources of Information:�(considering only categories that survey-takers regularly prefer �↑↓ ↔ denotes how this year’s ranking compares to 2021

1. School/principal newsletters (78.74%) ↔�2. School email (68.79%) ↔�3. Personal contact with staff members (65.22%) ↔�4. District emails (56.4%) ↔�5. School webpage (56.2%) ↔�6. Communicate 58 (54.49%) ↔�7. PTA newsletters (48.84%) ↑�8. Text messages/push notifications (47.94%) ↓�9. District website (43.97%) ↓�10. Online classroom communication tools (i.e. Seesaw) (44.44%) ↔

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PREFERENCES: SOURCES BY GROUP

MOST FREQUENT SOURCES:

PARENTS: (369 people)�1. School newsletters�2. School emails�3. District emails�4. Seesaw/similar�5. Communicate 58

STAFF: (52 people)�1. District emails�2. School newsletters�3. School emails�4. Personal contact�5. District website

RESIDENTS w/ NO KIDS: �(10 people)�1. District website�2. School webpage�3. Communicate 58�4. Board Briefs�5. School newsletters�

MOST PREFERRED SOURCES:

PARENTS:�1. School newsletters�2. School emails�3. Personal contact�4. School webpage�5. District emails

STAFF:�1. School newsletters�2. School emails�3. Communicate 58�4. District emails�5. Personal contact

RESIDENTS w/ NO KIDS:�1. District website�2. School webpage�3. Communicate 58�4. Board Briefs�5. School newsletters

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PREFERENCES: INFORMATION SOURCES

Takeaways:

Need to closely review this data as a team and consider improvements made from this feedback.
School newsletters and emails continue to be highly desired - we continue to enhance this area!
Personal contact with staff members is also desired -- important to continue to keep our staff informed so they can continue to share information with others
Preferred sources aren’t too different from actual sources, but there is an overall greater preference for school and district emails/newsletters, and less for the website.

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SURVEY RESULTS:

FEEDBACK

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“I know who to contact when I have feedback.”	59%	65%	64%	66%
“I receive a timely response to my feedback.”	56%	63%	66%	66%
“I feel like my feedback is valued.”	51%	62%	56%	59%
“I feel like my feedback is appropriately addressed.”	50%	57%	57%	60%
“I feel like I have sufficient opportunities to provide feedback.”	55%	59%	62%	63%

STATEMENT 2019 2020 2021 2022

Numbers indicate the percentage of survey-takers who answered �“Strongly Agree” or “Agree” to the corresponding statements.

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FEEDBACK

Takeaways:

2019 was first year we measured feedback statements.
Communications Feedback Council created and implemented District 58 staff service expectations in 2019, which covered email response timeliness and other customer service expectations
Dr. Russell has encouraged responsiveness and timeliness and provided increased opportunities for stakeholders to provide feedback.
Feedback statements showed improved between 6-10 percentage points since baseline year.
District worked hard during COVID to offer opportunities for feedback and to be more responsive.

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SURVEY RESULTS:

OPEN COMMENTS

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OPEN COMMENTS

87 open-ended comments
Plus, many added comments to the quantitative questions
We ended the survey asking community members if they wanted a District employee to contact them about their survey responses.

12 responded, and the District is in the process of reaching out and looks forward to having conversations with them.

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OPEN COMMENTS

Major constructive open comment takeaways:

Streamline communication channels.
Decrease quantity of communications
Shorten messages (but include a link for more info)
This is similar to last year’s feedback and we’ve been working to improve these areas; we will continue this work.

Things to consider:

Unrelated comments: When the survey was filtered for respondents who were dissatisfied with our communications, their open-ended responses often expressed frustration with the *content* of the communication and not the actual methodology. (i.e. they disagreed with a decision); other surveytakers who gave District 58 poor scores expressed frustrations that did not relate to communication.