When asked where they go to find district information, the majority of people who participated in a recent Jamesville-DeWitt Central School District ThoughtExchange said the district website and ParentSquare.
In the past year, the district has made several changes to how it shares information, including redesigning its website and community newsletter, launching a district Facebook page and implementing a new communications platform, ParentSquare, to facilitate two-way communication.
The district sought input from students and their families, district staff and community members on what is going well in terms of communication and where there are opportunities to improve. To gather that feedback, the district used ThoughtExchange, an online communication tool that asks participants to respond to one open-ended question and then consider and assign stars to the ideas shared by others.
Thoughts and stars are confidential, and the exchanges purposely ask open-ended questions so as to not limit respondents’ feedback. Filters are in place to flag personal attacks and inappropriate language.
The exchange was open through Dec. 9. The summary report that was shared with the J-D Board of Education at its Jan. 9 meeting is available online.
The district will be evaluating the results and determining where it needs to make adjustments, and in some cases, share more education on how to navigate the various platforms.