Rochester Public Schools Asks Community For Help in Future Planning

Just in case you don't open your e-mail very often, there's a very important message sitting in your inbox from Rochester Public Schools in Rochester, Minnesota waiting for you to open.  It involves your kids and their future so as the kids would say, "it's kind of a big deal.".

“Even in the context of a budget reduction process, it is imperative that we continue to set a strategic direction to continue to improve the education we provide for students.  We want to hear from our community on how we can best prioritize the needs of our students.” - Interim Superintendent Dr. Kent Pekel

Rochester Public Schools asking families to fill out a survey to help with strategic direction for the education of students.

If you've got kids enrolled in Rochester Public Schools, you should have received an e-mail on Friday, January 8th, with a link to an optional survey to fill out by January 16th along with the following statement:

Hello! Rochester Public Schools (RPS) needs your help to achieve our district-wide goals of Access and Equity, Student Achievement, and Accountability. RPS is partnering with Wilder Research to ask students, families, school staff, and other community members about the following topics:

• Families’ needs and preferences about their child’s school
• Impacts of the COVID pandemic
• Long-term changes needed to make RPS a school district where all students feel they belong, are successful in school, and are prepared for careers and college

 

It will take 10-15 minutes to complete. It is optional and will not affect the services your child or family receives. Your answers are confidential. Wilder Research will not share your name or any identifiable information about you with anyone at Rochester Public Schools.

 

Wilder Research will analyze the results and prepare a summary report. RPS will use the report to create a strategic action plan for RPS for 2022-2025. We will share the results of the survey at a school board meeting in Spring 2022 and the results will be posted on our website.

 

Thank you for sharing your ideas with us!

Kent Pekel, Interim Superintendent, Rochester Public Schools

If you don't have kids in school, your input is also welcome!  According to the press release from Rochester Public Schools, community members are invited to complete the survey at this link: https://us1se.voxco.com/SE/1145/RochesterCommunitySurvey/

What types of questions are being asked in the latest survey from Rochester Public Schools?

I started to fill the survey out and thought I'd give you a glimpse of what to expect and also help give you a push to fill it out because there are some great questions being asked.

The first question is wondering what issues you think the school district should focus on.  Here are the options to pick from:

The next question made me scratch my head a bit and made me feel like a loser mom...because I had to really think about the answer.

If you have more than one child who attends Rochester Public Schools, please think about your child who had the most recent birthday and the school they attend when completing these questions. Please indicate which school this child currently attends.

For me, this question brought back some flashbacks to when a nurse asked me "what's the birthdate of your child?".  I have 2 kids that are 2 days apart and I always screw it up.

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