Bay Village Schools conducting community survey

The Bay Village City School District is conducting a survey of its residents to collect opinions on how the schools are managing academic offerings, finances and other district responsibilities.

“We engage with our residents in many ways, whether through formal groups and meetings, or just through consistent responses to phone calls and emails,” said Amy Huntley, president of the Bay Village Board of Education. “This random sample and survey is one way to reach out to people we seldom hear from.”

Invitations to participate in the survey were mailed to a randomly-drawn sample of 1,350 Bay Village residents. A link to an online survey includes a unique, one-time-use password to access the questionnaire. A paper version of the survey will be provided to those invitees who are not comfortable taking the survey online. The survey responses will be completely anonymous. 

“The results will help us in a number of ways,” said Clint Keener, superintendent. “If there are perceptions out there that are factually incorrect, we’d like the opportunity to publicly address them. If there are questions about our practices, we’d like to explain the rationale behind those decisions. If there are suggestions about how we might do things better, we’d like to hear them.”

Keener explained that the value in collecting opinion through a random sample of survey respondents is that it offers a way to listen to the community’s “collective voice.”

“It is natural to give greater weight to opinions that are particularly well-phrased, or emotional, or repeated frequently, even if only by a few people,” he said. “This process gives every participant’s opinion an equal level of importance and helps us better understand the big picture in terms of public opinion.”

The survey closes Thursday, June 30. If district officials hear of others interested in taking the survey, the questionnaire will be made available to the general public on the district’s website once the survey of randomly-selected residents is closed.