BETHEL - The Bethel School District Planning Commission announced they will be sending out a survey in fall 2007 to the surrounding community to see how parents and students feel about the district.
The survey would allow any concerned members of the community who have students in the Bethel-Tate Schools to share their feelings, concerns and ideas with the staff and board of education.
The survey will be approximately two pages long and will ask parents how they feel about certain key issues such as education, security and administration. The Planning Commission has gone over each question to assure the survey is not too long or tedious. Also, a section will be available for people to write in their own comments if they have an issue that is not covered by the questions.
"When the county collects the data, one of the nice things they do is to show the comments," teacher Susen Arn said. "If there's a comment that continues to show up, we'll know about it."
Council agreed to pay the initial $1,000 cost that would cover creating the surveys and the collection of data from the county when they are submitted. With the board's backing, the Planning Commission hopes to have the survey ready to go by fall, when surveys statistically have better participation.
"This is the first community survey we've done that I can remember," Superintendent James Smith said.
Also discussed was an ongoing plan for a student special needs program that would inform school faculty about certain situations where a student may need assistance. The overall goal is to have an informed faculty member close by if a special needs student has a problem or an accident. The program currently includes school transportation and school faculty, and will soon be included in Bethel-Tate's new student handbook.
In other business:
• Bethel-Tate Schools are preparing for the Ohio Achievement Tests, which will be given to students at the end of the school year. The students have already taken practice tests in December. The Board of Education spoke about having extracurricular activities canceled on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday of the week of the testing to make sure the students are well rested and at their best for the tests.
• The board of education agreed to get cost estimates from K-4 Stine Architects concerning a new transportation office and main office building. At present time, the board has not decided to build two individual buildings or one main complex to hold both, but will make a decision on the project after K-4 Stine gives their estimate.
• In a discussion of the student handbook, board members decided to remove a part that said that "all students must be quiet while in the class room" unless they have been called on by a teacher, since it is debatable that a quiet classroom is the best way to teach children. It is still up to the teacher to maintain order and their level of quiet.
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