Parents, residents praise school district and staff

Published on Apr 18, 2022

Bloomington parents and residents uniformly praised the school district’s leadership and staff, quality educational programs, handling of the pandemic, fiscal responsibility and communication efforts in the latest community survey. The survey was administered to 400 randomly selected adult residents and 400 parents of Bloomington Public Schools children.

Despite the positive results, survey findings were tempered in comparison to previous survey data in large part because of the pandemic, according to Dr. Bill Morris, president of The Morris Leatherman Group, the firm that administered the surveys.

Responses and ratings reflected a pandemic regression, where residents have moved to “less enthusiastic, not necessarily unfavorable, simply less enthusiastic,” said researcher Peter Leatherman.

Morris and Leatherman said residents and parents showed “post-pandemic blues” in their responses, which mirrored results in other metro area surveys.

Among the survey’s key findings:

  • 86 percent of respondents rated the quality of education as excellent/good, up from 81 percent in 2017.
  • Among all residents, a comparatively high 75 percent rate the district’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic as excellent/good. Among parents, the percentage rises to 85 percent. Fifteen percent of residents and parents are more critical.
  • Both groups agreed on what they like the most. “Good teachers” leads the list, followed by “high quality education,” “good programs,” and “broad curriculum.”
  • Favorable job performance ratings for the district’s leadership and staff reflected similar results from the 2017 survey. In each case, favorable job ratings range between 67 percent and 80 percent in the overall sample. Compared to other metro area school districts, BPS ranks in the top quartile on the ratings for school board, district administration and teachers.
  • By a 63 percent to 20 percent margin, residents are satisfied with the district’s decision-making. Parents agree by a wider margin of 73 percent to 22 percent.
  • The threshold for a positive evaluation of economic management of a school district is 50 percent. Both groups give BPS a high favorable rating of 66 percent and 71 percent respectively.
  • Both groups provide supermajorities in agreement with the district’s communication efforts: 83 percent of residents and 92 percent of parents; decision-making: 58 percent and 77 percent respectively; and community involvement in decisions about the school: 77 percent to 88 percent respectively.
  • 71 percent of residents and 91 percent of parents favorably rate technology opportunities in schools.
  • One in five respondents noted “lack of funding” as the most serious issue facing BPS.

Survey Methodology: The survey was conducted between Jan. 31 and Feb. 11, 2022. The non-response rate is five percent. The resident and parent results are projected to within ± 5% in 95 out of 100 cases.