Pocantico Hills School District Community Connect Poll Results

1
Pocantico Hills School DistrictCommunity
Connect Poll Results

• Report to the Board of Education March 26, 2007
• Heather T. Adams, Business Development Manager
• New York State School Boards Association

2
Overview

• What is Community Connect?
• Pocantico Hills Poll
• Poll Results
• Things to consider

3
What is
4
From your residents telephone...
Residents are invited to call a toll-free phone
number and answer a series of questions designed
by the district in cooperation with NYSSBA. Lines
are open 24 hours a day 7 days a week.
5
Questionnaire is recorded into the NYSSBA
computer
Participants respond to questions by pressing the
number keys on their phone or leaving a
voice-recorded message.
6
The Poll

• The 39-question poll was developed, recorded and
  approved by the district.
• 696 households were contacted by mail.
• Reminder Phone messages.

7
The Poll

• Poll was conducted from Monday, February 27
  through Monday, March 12, 2007.
• A total of 168 individuals responded.

8
Who responded

• 57 of respondents had lived in the district for
  11 or more years,
• 29 living in the district for more than 20
  years.
• 30 of respondents had a household income more
  than 150,000
• 27 choose not to disclose their household income

9
Who responded

• 79 of respondents indicated they voted on the
  May 2006 school district budget.
• 49 supported the budget
• 30 did not support the budget
• 21 declined to disclose how they voted
• 74 of respondents indicated they voted on the
  June 2006 school district budget.
• 66 supported the budget
• 16 did not support the budget
• 19 declined to disclose how they voted

10
Who respondedLength of residency
11
Who respondedHousehold income
12
Who respondedZip code
13
Who respondedrespondents with children in school
distribution across grade levels
14
Who respondedHigh school child is attending
N48
15
Results
16
Using a traditional grading scale, what grade
would you give the Pocantico Hills School
District overall?
17
What grade would you give the school board
overall?
1 among respondents residing in the district for
2-5 years.
1 among respondents not supporting either
budget, those declining to disclose how they
voted, those residing in the district for more
than 20 years.
1 among those choosing not to disclose income
18
What grade would you give the district's
administration overall?
1 among supporters of 1st budget, residents of
2-5 years and those with a HH income of
100,000-149,999.
1 among parents with children in grades 9-12,
non-supporters of either budget and those
declining to disclose how they voted, residents
of more than 20 years
19
What grade would you give the district in
preparing students for high school?
1 among those declining to disclose how they
voted in either budget and those declining to
disclose HH income.
20
If you had to pick one specific area of the
academic curriculum to strengthen in order to
prepare our students for high school what would
it be?
21
What grade would you give the district in
providing the opportunity for parents and the
community to be involved in the school district?
1 among those voting in the first budget, those
not supporting either budget and those living in
the district for 11-20 years
1 among those declining to disclose how they
voted and residents of more than 20 years
22
What grade would you give the district food
service operation?
1 among those not supporting the budgets and
those declining to disclose how they voted.
23
What grade would you give the district's
technology program?
1 among residents living in the district for
more than 20 years
24
District Report Card
25
To what degree do you think it is important for
the Board of Education to support small class
size in the elementary schools?
1 among non-supporters of the second budget
26
How important should it be to address
improvements in building infrastructure?
1 among those not supporting the budgets
27
How important should it be to repair the leak in
the swimming pool?
1 among non-voters and those declining to
disclose how they voted as well as respondents
with a HH income between 75,000-99,999
28
How important should it be to keep the district's
computer systems updated?
1 among those not supporting the 2nd budget
29
If given a choice, would you prefer to have more
than one proposition on the bond issue ballot,
allowing residents to vote on different project
items separately?
30
Most effective means of communicating information
about a future facilities project to the
Pocantico Hills community
31
Did you vote on the 2006 school district budgets?
May
June
32
How did you vote on the budget?
May
June
33
Primary reason for supporting
May
June
34
Primary reason for not supporting
May
June
35
Level of satisfaction with the educational value
provided by the school district given the
community's investment through taxes.
1 among parents of students attending Briarcliff
High School, HH income of 50,000-74,999
1 among supporters of the budget, HH income of
75,000-99,999.
1 among voters, non-supporters of the budget, HH
income of more than 150,000 and those not
disclosing HH income.
36
How well informed do you feel you are about
school district budget issues?
1 among parents of students attending Briarcliff
High School and respondents with a HH income of
75,000-99,999
37
Currently the state has set one tax rate for both
commercial and residential property within the
district and taxes are based on residential
property value. Over the last few years,
residential property assessed values have
increased and commercial property has remained
level resulting in commercial property being over
taxed. As a result, the district has been and
will continue to be faced with numerous judgments
ordered by the court, totaling millions of
dollars.
Tax Certiorari
38
How do you think the district should plan for
payment of future judgments ordered by the court?
39
Summer Day Camp
40
Do your children attend or have you considered
sending your children to the Pocantico Hills
Summer Day Camp?
41
How important is it to increase the Summer Day
Camp hours on Fridays from 12 noon to 3 PM?
1 among parents with children in grades 6-8 and
non-voters
42
If the district increased Friday Summer Day Camp
hours would you be willing to pay an additional
amount?
1 among parents with children in grades Pre-K
8, non-voters, HH income of 75,000 and above
1 among parents with children in grades 9-12,
voters, HH income of less than 75,000
43
Information Sources
44
Top source for school district information
45
1. Lower response rate than 2003
survey 2003 291 2007 - 168
Things to consider
46
2. Lack of information on Tax Certiorari issue
Things to consider
47
3. Importance of school newsletter and other
school publications as an unfiltered source of
information
Things to consider
48
4. Baseline datacontinue to gather community
input
Things to consider
49
Questions