Parent Survey Feedback by Kelli Knowles

Parent Survey Feedback by Kelli Knowles https://padlet.com/mrsknowlesLPOSD/d9xkviyvcq0m Please add your feedback from the 2017 Parent Survey Results 1. Celebrations 2. Areas to focus attention/improvements 3. Ideas to make KT even better, based off survey results. en-us 2017-11-27 03:44:42 UTC 2026-02-24 14:22:22 UTC hello@padlet.com Norton Feedback mrsknowlesLPOSD https://padlet.com/mrsknowlesLPOSD/d9xkviyvcq0m/wish/210249927 Celebrations

So many kids feel safe and are learning at our school

Many kids feel like bullying is being addressed

Areas to improve

A telling log or teacher must know form box could be located on the playground or in the office

I had one at my previous school because of some of the same reasons listed in the comments, also it alleviates the my child told and no one did anything

The bus could benefit by having assigned seating so kids could report misconduct and foul language

Educating parents on PBIS may get them on board more with our style of behavior intervention and support

Also many parents do see certain kids "getting away" with more than others kids need to feel safe, and the kids that are hurting others need to know they can't, the sooner they understand and can work on that the more their peers will support them

on our home webpage having links to teacher communication could be helpful

]]> 2017-11-27 03:49:59 UTC https://padlet.com/mrsknowlesLPOSD/d9xkviyvcq0m/wish/210249927 Sandell Feedback https://padlet.com/mrsknowlesLPOSD/d9xkviyvcq0m/wish/210252017 While this was a relatively small sample of our parent population, it seems to be pretty accurate. Its so good to see families generally feeling safe and welcomed here, and that they believe in us! I love that theyfor the most part) feel their kids are being appropriately challenged and that school has been a positive environment. It does not surprise me to see complaints of problem behaviors in the cafeteria, playground, and bus! These are our 5% that we also struggle with almost daily. Have we been able to provide PBIS information to parents whose kids are in problem situations with peers? It seems to me some of them still don't really 'get' how our behavior system works. I think most of the respondents are satisfied, we'll never please them all. I think it's great that so many are using various media to help stay informed, this is a MAJOR improvement from past surveys. I am encouraged by these responses. Go Pirate]]> 2017-11-27 04:10:13 UTC https://padlet.com/mrsknowlesLPOSD/d9xkviyvcq0m/wish/210252017 Leisy Feedback https://padlet.com/mrsknowlesLPOSD/d9xkviyvcq0m/wish/210509134 Overall it seems that parents and kids feel safe while at school. This makes me happy because I feel like we work hard to make this a safe learning environment. One thing that I noticed was a lot of parents talking about the bully problem. I feel like maybe parents do not fully understand what a bully is. Kid will be mean and sometimes not include others but I do not see this as them being bullies. I think it would be great if we could send home some of the second steps material. That way parents could go over with their students and fully understand what is happening.
As for the bus I also do not enjoy the bus and what happens on there. I hear horror stories from my own child. I wish there was a way to get more buses so they were not so full and we could separate the big kids from the little kids more. ]]> 2017-11-27 16:44:39 UTC https://padlet.com/mrsknowlesLPOSD/d9xkviyvcq0m/wish/210509134 Roget 1. I thought overall the surveys were very positive. It seems that most kids are feeling safe and learning! https://padlet.com/mrsknowlesLPOSD/d9xkviyvcq0m/wish/210537732 2. It seems that there was a concern about some teacher communication by at least one parent. I think that is an easy fix.
3. It would be lovely if we all had a similar way of communicating and recording grades for parents to access.]]> 2017-11-27 17:28:02 UTC https://padlet.com/mrsknowlesLPOSD/d9xkviyvcq0m/wish/210537732 Miller https://padlet.com/mrsknowlesLPOSD/d9xkviyvcq0m/wish/210538012 It was exciting to see that so many families feel that their students are safe and the school and that they are receiving challenging work within their classrooms. I am happy that there were so many positive comments about the teachers at Kootenai School.
One of the main issues that I saw parents were concerned with is the time that can be devoted to each student that is always right on track or Golden, the increased attention to detail at recess duty, and bus safety.
Thankfully we are addressing the increased time devoted to those Golden kids by giving them meaningful work in their WIN groups, incorporating the WOW boards, looting them up, and now using the positive behavior forms!
I have no suggestions for recess duty because that is a staffing issue. : (
As far as bus safety is concerned, is there anything the school can do to improve the quality of bus rides? ]]> 2017-11-27 17:28:29 UTC https://padlet.com/mrsknowlesLPOSD/d9xkviyvcq0m/wish/210538012 Kemink Feedback https://padlet.com/mrsknowlesLPOSD/d9xkviyvcq0m/wish/210552587 1. I liked the community involvement sections. Most people love the fall fest. This year I had more families attending the fitness night as well and library events.
2. Bullying could be improved.
3. I think having the counselors here this year could improve the bullying. The fall fest comment of how certain families could not afford it is already addressed because we send home tickets to those who are in financial need. I am not sure why that specific family did not know this. Perhaps next year a form to ask who needs help could be sent home as well.]]> 2017-11-27 17:53:48 UTC https://padlet.com/mrsknowlesLPOSD/d9xkviyvcq0m/wish/210552587 Travers' https://padlet.com/mrsknowlesLPOSD/d9xkviyvcq0m/wish/210573488 This lengthy survey was really very pleasing to read! There were several areas to celebrate! I feel like we are truly building a stronger and more positive environment for our students and teachers. I appreciate the comments regarding homework. We see throughout the district the differences among teachers and their philosophy of homework. I wonder when we can come up with a close agreement? And how to we address those angry kids that are repeatedly mean to others because they themselves hear words that same way?
I love Emily's idea of a box~ We used to have a tattle book in the classroom... Then the students could write down their issues. I would read it ever so often and decided what needed addressed. ( And truly, the bus situation should go to Shawn. These little kids are being subjected to amazingly horrific and adult topics...)
Based on the survey, I will work on notes home using Remind, more often... and I am excited to send some honorable mentions home too!]]> 2017-11-27 18:25:39 UTC https://padlet.com/mrsknowlesLPOSD/d9xkviyvcq0m/wish/210573488 Kopsa https://padlet.com/mrsknowlesLPOSD/d9xkviyvcq0m/wish/210609034 I am impressed with how positive the results of the survey are overall. It confirms what we already know: Kootenai is a great school and that is recognized by many parents and students!

My heart hurts for those few who expressed negative comments, probably the same few who disagreed or strongly disagreed. As this was an anonymous survey, could the summary results be shared with parents with steps that are being taken and an invitation to resolve specific concerns? Likely those who made the comments will also want to read the results.

The comment about the assigned seats at lunch sparked an idea. Could students earn the privilege of choosing their own lunch seat, even just at their class tables? I have tried this in the library with success as 80% or more of students are usually fine. Can the lunch hour be extended so a smaller number of students is in the cafeteria at any time?

Mean comments via text should not be tolerated, nor in person. Texting is something that our students will experience more and more. What can we do to educate them about proper use of social media? How can we help them be more kind and resilient? I love the ideas of educating parents on the PBIS system. I have seen a lot of difference.

If the bus lines are any indication of what happens on the bus, I'm appalled. Is there a way we could at least line up differently, perhaps on the blacktop for each bus? Many kids try to compete with the noise of the bus. They push, shove, kick, and put papers and backpacks in others faces. When the older kids get off the bus, there is no room on the sidewalk and kids use that as a cover for doing things they should not. Because of bus noise, it is hard to get their attention and deal with the issues

]]> 2017-11-27 19:20:39 UTC https://padlet.com/mrsknowlesLPOSD/d9xkviyvcq0m/wish/210609034 butler https://padlet.com/mrsknowlesLPOSD/d9xkviyvcq0m/wish/210615098 Overall the surveys are on the positive side. It comforts my heart to see that most feel safe and secure in the school environment. What concerns me is the bullying...or the perception of bullying. I don't think parents understand what bullying really is and just label mean students as a bully. Need some outreach on this; parent education.

I don't see unfairness in handing out discipline. I think sometimes those comments came from just a few and it is not a true representation of the population.

I didn't know we had assigned seats in lunch room...is it just certain grades.

]]> 2017-11-27 19:29:42 UTC https://padlet.com/mrsknowlesLPOSD/d9xkviyvcq0m/wish/210615098 Gray erika_gray1 https://padlet.com/mrsknowlesLPOSD/d9xkviyvcq0m/wish/210622976 After reading the survey results, I thought that Kootenai Elem is really doing an amazing job! Kids and parents mostly feel safe and have a positive view of the school and the teachers. It is nice to see the comments from parents to address them but overall, it think it was very positive!]]> 2017-11-27 19:43:08 UTC https://padlet.com/mrsknowlesLPOSD/d9xkviyvcq0m/wish/210622976 Heather heather_howard1 https://padlet.com/mrsknowlesLPOSD/d9xkviyvcq0m/wish/210640840 Being new to Kootenai I though the survey was overall positive. I agree parents are likely looking at bullying different and students need reminders. There is a student who recently brought the issue of bullying up and has a few ideas they've come up to try and help. Maybe teachers could give feed back: 1. having a class representative from each room who students can report bullying to and that student is part of a larger school wide anti-bullying group (this may open the door for more triangulation?) or 2 . a bullying reporting box, maybe one in each room or the office. There is also a parent link through Second Step that might have some useful tools. ]]> 2017-11-27 20:14:06 UTC https://padlet.com/mrsknowlesLPOSD/d9xkviyvcq0m/wish/210640840 Litven https://padlet.com/mrsknowlesLPOSD/d9xkviyvcq0m/wish/210669427 The bullying rating was a little concerning to me. Academic expectations were rated very positively, which made me very pleased to see. It seems like the results, overall, showed that parents were generally pleased with our school. That's good.]]> 2017-11-27 21:19:37 UTC https://padlet.com/mrsknowlesLPOSD/d9xkviyvcq0m/wish/210669427 Larsen https://padlet.com/mrsknowlesLPOSD/d9xkviyvcq0m/wish/210690039 I am glad to see that there is a very positive attitude about this school. On the other side I hate the anonymity of this type of survey. They complain about bullying but they don't communicate with us directly. Have we seen reports from parents about these issues? I'm also personally offended by the comment that 6th grade isn't preparing them for middle school but to my knowledge not one person has communicated this frustration to either Kim or myself. Talk about bullying!]]> 2017-11-27 22:28:41 UTC https://padlet.com/mrsknowlesLPOSD/d9xkviyvcq0m/wish/210690039 Williams nancy_williams2 https://padlet.com/mrsknowlesLPOSD/d9xkviyvcq0m/wish/210694722 I noticed that the safety rating was amazing. I am happy that students feel like Kootenai is a safe place to be. Kelli is doing an amazing job and I am glad that the parents agreed as well. The couple areas of concern that I noticed is the perception of parents feeling welcome at our school and the "bullying" issue. I feel that the parents have to make some effort about coming in and communicating with us as well. We often ask for volunteers and help with so many things. It ends up just being a few doing everything.
This is a huge school, we should have a lot more help. As for the bullying, we are working so diligently about helping students learn the difference about bullying and just being mean. Maybe a modified parent presentation that gives ideas and help. ]]> 2017-11-27 22:50:58 UTC https://padlet.com/mrsknowlesLPOSD/d9xkviyvcq0m/wish/210694722 Tigert https://padlet.com/mrsknowlesLPOSD/d9xkviyvcq0m/wish/210697587 Great job with communication as principal, Kelli! What a great score :) I do not think students fully understand "bullying"--I know that's something we are working on as a school, but I think students view being mean as "bullying." When reading the parent note about a teacher saying not to "tattle"--I continuously remind/ask students, "have you talked with the other student about this first?" Something I want to work on in my classroom is calling more parents or communicating more with SUCCESS... Something I personally want to do a better job of :) Even if I just pick one student a week and send a simple note home--something simple that's easy to remember but will make a big difference :)]]> 2017-11-27 23:06:38 UTC https://padlet.com/mrsknowlesLPOSD/d9xkviyvcq0m/wish/210697587 Tracey Karst https://padlet.com/mrsknowlesLPOSD/d9xkviyvcq0m/wish/210697665 Overall, I think our kiddos and parents are happy with Kootenai School! It was very encouraging.
One thing that I noticed was on most of the areas, only around 10% would 'disagree.' I am left to wonder if this is the same group of parents who are unhappy in general. Overall, I felt that the notes were extremely positive.
With areas of improvement, obviously bullying. I feel that this has drastically improved in the 6 years that I have been here-otherwise I would never have brought my own children here.
However, some of the 'bullying' complaints are the same verbiage that we are trying to teach the kiddos-being unkind isn't always bullying.
Maybe sending home some of the literature or information that we are teaching in Second Step might be a good idea.
Based on the survey, I feel that parental contact and providing more info is always positive (with the exception of killing trees for more paper :)
Is there a way we can update our websites more regularly?

]]> 2017-11-27 23:07:11 UTC https://padlet.com/mrsknowlesLPOSD/d9xkviyvcq0m/wish/210697665 Ryan Dignan https://padlet.com/mrsknowlesLPOSD/d9xkviyvcq0m/wish/210700002 My 2 cents as someone who teaches at multiple schools:
1) Bullying needs to be more clearly defined for kids and parents (and for us too I suppose, as I have not been privy to staff discussions). It seems that anything that someone doesn't like can be construed as "bullying". I would like to see us all start encouraging kids to appropriately respond to unkind or unwanted comments or actions, and only inform teachers once actions cross a clearly defined boundary. Kids need to develop some of their own tools to deal with unpleasantness so they are not always dependent on us to resolve conflicts. I don't think our goal should be to completely eliminate unpleasant interactions between kids, but rather helps students deal with them proactively, using mostly their own resources. That said, there are real instances of malicious bullying, both subtle and not. If a student has taken steps to stick up for him/herself and problems persist, we need to step in.

]]> 2017-11-27 23:22:33 UTC https://padlet.com/mrsknowlesLPOSD/d9xkviyvcq0m/wish/210700002 Kim V. https://padlet.com/mrsknowlesLPOSD/d9xkviyvcq0m/wish/210700010 In looking over all of the comments that were given so many of them were very positive about our School and staff. The bullying comment worried me. I know that in my class my kids have been confusing bullying with being mean. We do have a conversation on this at least once a week. If a student comes to me and tells me they are being bullied I have taken the time to discuss this with them to see if it is bullying or someone being mean. . I do want to give a shout out to Kelli on an awesome job she is doing with our community of kids and making parents feel very welcomed here. !!!! Our kids really love her a lot. Let's keep up the positive talking with all of our kids and be open to new ideas that will guide our kids to success]]> 2017-11-27 23:22:35 UTC https://padlet.com/mrsknowlesLPOSD/d9xkviyvcq0m/wish/210700010 Spade https://padlet.com/mrsknowlesLPOSD/d9xkviyvcq0m/wish/210702617 Celebrations
The overall satisfaction at our school is very high. The area of concern is bullying. I feel 2nd Steps is a great tool to help with this issue. We all encourage the 5 p's and all staff members teaching to the value (patients) of the month helps increase awareness. I know some of my students are not reporting incidents to staff on duty when something happens during recesses. I will continue to encourage them to report what happens when it happens. How many parents took the survey? ]]> 2017-11-27 23:42:25 UTC https://padlet.com/mrsknowlesLPOSD/d9xkviyvcq0m/wish/210702617 Christa - para https://padlet.com/mrsknowlesLPOSD/d9xkviyvcq0m/wish/211202108 Celebrations
I feel blessed to be able to work with such incredible individuals!
It's refreshing to see that the majority of parents who responded feel that their children are safe at school. We do our best to ensure students that KT is their safe place and we will keep it safe for them.
Based on the comment made that the "whole" is being punished by the actions of a few: Teachers can make and take an opportunity to celebrate their students who consistently demonstrate the classroom pirate Ps. For example, they can take this class majority to a bonus teacher PE, dance party in the gym, etc. while the consistent five or so students who are not valuing the pirate P's finish quiet classwork or read AR in a buddy classroom (something in addition to the golden party). I think it's imperative that the teacher is who is celebrating their awesome classroom behavior with them.

Areas of Focus
The majority of results that were returned were positive. Don't let one or two of bad apple comments weigh you down. Teachers, you are fantastic at being you! Out of 422 students, only 77 surveys were completed - that's less than 20% return. I wonder if there is a way to award an incentive for those families who complete the survey (drawing for a free gas card or grocery card? - I understand it's tough with anonymity though).
The bus comments should be forwarded to James in Transportation.

Ideas to Make KT Better
Encourage PTA to offer FREE family fun nights (no side sales - IT'S ALL FREE NIGHT) each quarter. PTA can also offer social media and internet safety parent education nights (with free childcare) which could highlight the true definition of bullying. We need to give families multiple opportunities to feel invested in KT and feel a part of the crew by offering free family bonding fun and parent tools to use at home. In turn, this could help stimulate volunteerism.
Updating the cover photo of our webpage to 4 different seasonal photos and updating the group staff photo each year will help with the updated image parents are seeking. Furthermore, "subscribe to posts" is a great way for parents to stay connected, however, when I clicked on it, I was re-directed to a page of code. Also, the Facebook posts and daily video messages are great ways to keep parents feeling connected. KUDDOS to KELLI!]]> 2017-11-28 22:36:40 UTC https://padlet.com/mrsknowlesLPOSD/d9xkviyvcq0m/wish/211202108 Dalessio https://padlet.com/mrsknowlesLPOSD/d9xkviyvcq0m/wish/211522776 So many celebrations...there is a lot of positive feedback throughout the survey. I appreciate parents recognizing the entire staff for going above and beyond. I am glad students feel safe at our school. Overall, parents seem to be happy with the new forms of communication -- remind, and such.

I feel that we are tackling bullying well, and have taken steps to improve playground behavior, kindness, and tolerance. I am not sure I agree with the comments regarding bullying -- but appreciate parents sharing how the feel and what they hear. Communication stood out to me -- as part of our Title I plan is to improve school wide communication. I would love to have a PLC on strategies/ideas to improve parent contact -- both positive and negative. The daily announcements are such a great tool to reach all students -- maybe these could be shared with families as well somehow. I would also love to see our website more interactive and become a useful tool for parents -- with reading strategies, reading support, links to websites they can use from home, basically tools for learning. ]]> 2017-11-29 17:32:18 UTC https://padlet.com/mrsknowlesLPOSD/d9xkviyvcq0m/wish/211522776 Cheri - Tech https://padlet.com/mrsknowlesLPOSD/d9xkviyvcq0m/wish/211572328 Overall results were great, so glad for all the positive feedback!
The bullying seems to be a concern and is perhaps an area for extra awareness on all our parts. A personal area to focus on would more reward for the students on task and not giving a class reprimand when it is only a small amount of the students not behaving. ]]> 2017-11-29 18:54:50 UTC https://padlet.com/mrsknowlesLPOSD/d9xkviyvcq0m/wish/211572328