VC hosts ‘thought exchange forum’

Posted 2/20/19

The Valley Central School District hosted a forum called “Join the Conversation” through online platform, ThoughtExchange, as it begins its process to develop a budget for the school …

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VC hosts ‘thought exchange forum’

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The Valley Central School District hosted a forum called “Join the Conversation” through online platform, ThoughtExchange, as it begins its process to develop a budget for the school year, 2019-2020.

ThoughtExchange is a digital forum that provides the opportunity for participants to share their thoughts on a given topic and then view others’ thoughts and rate the level of their agreement with those thoughts. All participation is anonymous.

The District hosted the exchange from January 28-February 11, 2019 to check in with stakeholders to see what they thought was working well and what the district needed to improve upon as they begin the process of proposing a budget for the 2019-2020 school year. Participants were invited through social media and email to participate. There were 423 participants which included; parents and guardians, staff, students and community members. Nearly 300 thoughts were shared which received 11,588 ratings- or an average of about 165 ratings well over the average of 30 ratings per thought. Gagan Leekha of ThoughtExchange, who helped the district facilitate this forum, told VCSD that this shows the participants were highly engaged with the exchange.

The top “highly rated” thoughts had to do with curriculum and programming, facilities and transportation. Participants expressed concern that students have many opportunities to learn K-12, and that the opportunities be varied and practical and prepare them for the future. They also want to see the chromebook initiative expanded to more students. Participants also expressed concern for the facilities, that they be up to date with particular concern for the entrance/exit at the HS/MS complex. The participants were quite united on their concerns with the transportation provided to the District by East End Bus Company and their want of improvement of that service. Other topics that were expressed through the forum addressed; support and safety, the elementary program, staff, BOE, athletics, and class size.

Xanthis did point out that this is just one tool being employed by the District in the budget process. There will be a public Budget Process meeting hosted by the district on March 19 at 6:30 p.m. at Berea Elementary School which will give all stakeholders the opportunity to learn about the budget process and comment on it to the Administration. Senator James Skoufis has been invited to participate in this meeting.