Survey: Vestavia school district good on communication, needs more transparency

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The Vestavia Hills school system is doing a good job of communicating with its stakeholders but could improve on its transparency and trustworthiness, according to a communications audit done this fall by the National School Public Relations Association.

Seventy-nine percent of parents and 83% of employees who answered a survey indicated the school district was doing an excellent or above average job with communication, but only 45% of survey respondents in the broader community felt that way, according to survey results released by school officials Monday.

Nine percent of community respondents rated the district’s communication as below average or poor, as did 4% of parents and 2% of employees. The rest, including 45% of the community respondents, rated the district’s communication as average.

However, it’s worth noting that the survey given to the broader community Aug. 26 through Sept. 9 was only completed by 12 of 38,600 people surveyed, which is less than 1% of a community response. There’s a much higher margin for error with that level of response.

Of 5,000 parents or guardians surveyed, 708 people (14%) completed the survey, and of 500 faculty or staff surveyed, 228 (46%) completed the survey.

Between 75% and 85% of parents indicated school system communications were easy to understand, accurate, timely and trustworthy, but only about 63% of parents who responded deemed the communications as open and tranparent.

Among school system employees, between 85% and 90% indicated school system communications were easy to understand, accurate, timely and trustworthy, while about 70% of employees deemed communications as open and transparent.

Parents and employees indicated they felt more informed about school events, safety and crisis issues, district achievements and student successes and less informed about district finances, facilities and leader decisions.

Focus groups conducted Sept. 23 and Sept. 24 found there was universal pride in the school system and appreciation for district communication efforts, but there was a desire for school officials to take an active role in combating social media misinformation and rumors and a desire to see the school system’s website design and accessibility improved.

An audit performed by the National School Public Relations Association recommended the school district develop a comprehensive communication plan, conduct a review of its communication platforms and consolidate communication efforts, enhance the district website’s usability and accessibility, prioritize proactive and transparent communication, foster two-way communication and provide professional development on consistent communications.

See more details about the audit and survey here.

Superintendent Todd Freeman told the school board Monday afternoon that in the last couple of months, district officials have tried to release information more quickly if there are safety questions involved.

“Less is not always more,” Freeman said. “That helps combat some of the misinformation that can get out there or rumors or speculations that can occur.”

He cited an incident that took place Monday morning in which school officials arrived at the central office to find a glass panel at the front entrance to the building had been shattered. Multiple police vehicles were on the scene as parents were bringing their students to school at Vestavia Hills Elementary West next door, which may have raised some concerns, Freeman said. School officials decided to release a statement to let parents know there did not appear to be any threat to safety on school campuses to try to quell any concerns or misinformation due to the higher than normal police presence, the superintendent said.

However, whenever police are involved, school officials take their cues from police as to how much information is released and when because they do not want to do anything to interfere with a police investigation, Freeman said. Sometimes that can be frustrating because school officials can’t always release a lot of information, he said.

Police Chief Shane Ware was at Monday afternoon’s school board meeting and said the shattered glass at the front entrance appeared to have occurred late Sunday night and said this appeared to be an isolated incident — that no other buildings in the U.S. 31 corridor had similar damage over the weekend.

Detectives are investigating the incident, and “they are working to exhaust all leads in this matter,” Ware said. But “it’s an active investigation, so I’m very limited in what I can say.”

He did say the incident Monday morning did not have any impact on anyone’s safety; it was damage to a building.

In other business Monday:

  • Freeman informed the school board the sale of the former Vestavia Hills Elementary Central campus finally closed this month for $1.25 million. It took more than a year since the school board voted to sell the campus to Wellspring Holdings, which has an affiliate nonprofit called Hub in the Hills that plans to turn the Central campus into a hub for educational nonprofits that will support needs in the community.
  • The school board agreed to pay almost $1 million to upgrade the school system’s technology infrastructure. Brendan Lovelady, the system’s technology director, said the school district has to pay about 60% of that, and other funding comes from the federal government.
  • Accepted a $1.3 million check from the Jefferson County Commission that is from Jefferson county sales tax proceeds.
  • Amended a job description to change a job title for Sandy Ritchey from director of exceptional education to executive director of exceptional children. Ritchey said she is picking up some additional duties related to the school district’s multi-tiered support system.