RCAS receives little feedback on new survey causing frustrations

RAPID CITY, S.D. (KEVN) - The strategic plan survey that the Rapid City Area Schools District did for the 2023 to 2024 school year didn’t receive much attention, and the survey is a good indicator of what the district should be doing or is doing correctly.

The strategic plan survey was divided into four categories: district services, employee experience, parents, and students. Each section was scored out of 5. Each category was then given areas for improvement; some common themes for parents and students were having more academic quality and wellness updates. As for the employees, the theme of having more workload, time management, and support for employees was the focus.

Although the data presented at Tuesday’s RCAS board of education meeting was helpful for the district as they plan to move forward ...the number of parents and students that took the survey was under 10%.

“A big focus is culture and climate; we know that that is an area that we need to improve in. This is an opportunity for the public to give us their input so that we can take action steps to actually move forward in a positive way and make changes where they’re needed to make changes,” explained Rapid City Area Schools superintendent Nicole Swigart. “When we have a low participation rate, it is likely that we may make a change that isn’t necessary because we didn’t have enough input.”

This was the first time the school district conducted this survey, and it will not be the last; it will be conducted every school year moving forward as part of the district’s strategic plan.

See a spelling or grammatical error in our story? Please click here to report it.

Do you have a photo or video of a breaking news story? Send it to us here with a brief description.

Copyright 2024 KEVN. All rights reserved.