School levy follow up: Two surveys on the table for Colfax staffers

Two surveys are now in the works to evaluate the Colfax school board and administration. The first survey was e-mailed May 21 to all 98 school staff members. The second, a longer, 61-question survey, will be distributed to the school staff May 28.

At a workshop session before the school board meeting May 24, the board was presented with a selection of surveys which Superintendent Michael Morgan detailed to them.

The board later made a motion to approve a nationally researched survey with 61 questions. Staff has nine days to complete it, starting May 28.

Kirby Dailey of Colfax approached the board about an evaluation of the district’s performance after the public voted down the district’s $1.3 million levy in February of this year.

In the aftermath of the first levy failure, Dailey, in working to get the next levy passed, said he heard many complaints about the school administration and school board.

Dailey put together the first survey with the help of ESD 101 Superintendent Mike Dunn. ESD 101 serves educational districts in Eastern Washington.

The first survey was sent via the school e-mail system Friday.

The second survey is from a nationally researched program and is geared toward identifying long-term solutions for helping districts.

Still in the planning stage is a third survey which Dailey intends to send out to Colfax district residents.

At Monday night’s board meeting, Dailey reported to the board that 59 school staff members had responded to the e-mail survey. That’s about 60 percent of all staff.

Staff members can respond anonymously.

High school teacher Kathryn Vogler said she had already turned in her survey and endorsed the idea of the staff having an opportunity to give feedback.

“In order to make a decision or determine a direction, I would think it would be appropriate to gather information from the stakeholders- those that are affected,” Vogler said.

Dailey said later he had looked through about half of the surveys turned in and saw both positive and negative feedback. He was hesitant to discuss the full scale of the data until after the deadline May 28. Once he gathers all of the data, Dailey said he would pool it with the help of Dunn and former Colfax superintendent Donald Cox.

The result will be a single sheet summarizing the staff’s feedback, Dailey said.

Both the school board and Superintendent Morgan have publicly remained open to the idea of the surveys.

“I think the survey has some valid purpose,” Morgan said in a later interview. He pointed out the end goal of the longer survey is to help improve student achievement.

“It should be a good start to figuring out what is going on,” said ag teacher Brian Long, who has already returned the e-mail survey. He said he feels such data would be a good starting place for school staff to start working as a whole, versus the current conflicts among staff members.