On Monday, January 12th, there was a Hastings School Board Collaboration meeting at the middle school. 
The purpose of the meeting was to review the results of the School Perceptions Survey and receive public feedback about the survey results. The School Perceptions Survey was offered in mid-October to staff, parents, and students. At the meeting about forty people were in attendance, which was a blend of school board members, city council members, staff, and parents.
Hastings Superintendent Dr. Wehrkamp Herman led the meeting and began with a presentation covering the School Perceptions Survey results. Then folks formed groups to discuss the survey results. The meeting was planned to go from 6PM to 7:30PM but went almost an hour longer. Questions rolled in, and emotions began to run high towards the end of the meeting. But the point of a collaboration meeting is to receive questions and deliver answers.
ISD 200 is open to improving communications between staff and administration and parents. The survey is a piece of this open communication that expresses raw feedback, and the collaboration meetings are another avenue of open communication. ISD 200 administrators say that they are committed to perfecting communication across the board.
KDWA spoke with Danielle Ritter, vice president of the Kennedy Elementary PTA. Ritter offered a glimpse into the mission of the Kennedy PTA. When asked if the School Perceptions Survey data tracks with Ritter’s experience at Kennedy, Ritter says:
KDWA spoke with Chairperson Carrie Tate. When asked about ISD 200’s action plan after reviewing the survey results. And when is the next Community Collaboration meeting? Chairperson Tate offers that information.
(Listen the the broadcast sound bite for the full interview.)