Safety, communication, diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) and the return to in-person instruction are topics that are on the minds of many Jamesville-DeWitt Central School District staff members, students and students’ families.
With the end of the first quarter of the 2021-22 school year approaching, the district used ThoughtExchange, an online crowdsourcing tool, to give staff, students and students’ parents and guardians an opportunity to weigh in on their biggest successes and challenges of the new school year. ThoughtExchange allows users to anonymously respond to a question and then to read and rate other people’s comments.
There were 557 participants, 578 comments and 30,135 comment ratings for the exchange, which was open from Oct. 12-22. Of the participants, 21% were students, 16% were staff members and 63% were parents or caregivers.
“I appreciate everyone who took the time to participate so that we have a variety of perspectives and experiences,” Superintendent Peter Smith said. “We want to know what’s working and what we could be doing better.”
Based on the comments and ratings, it is clear that the district needs to continue communicating and clarifying its DEI initiatives, including how they are affecting curriculum review and revision and staff development, Smith said. Student mental health, which relates to safety, needs to remain a district priority as well as investigating how the district could perform symptomatic COVID-19 testing in its schools.
“This feedback is critical to making sure we are a district that is responsive to the needs and concerns of our students and their families as well as our staff members,” Smith said.
The most prominent themes in the exchange were athletics, communication, construction, COVID-19 testing, COVID-19 in general, curriculum, diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), mental health, return to in-person instruction and safety.