Hudson city schools PHONE POLL Results THE IMPACT GROUP May 28, 2014

HUDSON CITY SCHOOLSPHONE POLL RESULTS

THE IMPACT GROUP

MAY 28 , 2014

Phone Poll Methodology

Conducted: 5/1/14 – 5/6/14

Appropriate sample from each ward

40% /60% Male – Female Respondents

Appropriate sample from age groupings

N=321 (Sample - Registered voters located within The City of Hudson)

Confidence Interval: + / - 5.381%

Confidence Level: 95%

Q1: In your own words, how would you describe the Hudson City School

District?

Positive Themes that Surfaced:• Parents are involved• Caring, hard working, looking to the future• High standards and strong education• Challenging, creative and stellar• Good school district for kids, good activities for kids• They prepare for college, considerate of students• Provide quality education and are serious about the

children• Focused on excellence• Evolving, flexible, fairly open to parent involvement• Administration is strong

Q1: In your own words, how would you describe the Hudson City School

District?

Positive Themes continued:• Great teaching staff and administration• Teachers are strong and students are focused• Best schools in the area• We moved here to attend the schools• Uses funds well and has good students and teachers• Communicates well with the city and has good

activities and events

Q1: In your own words, how would you describe the Hudson City School

District?

Possible Areas of Improvement:• Too academically strict and needs building

improvements• Needs more art and music programs• Needs more teachers• Buildings need to be updated• Could use some improvement but has a plan, I think• Middle school is old• Some improvements need to be made on the buildings• Additional buildings need to be built to meet

growing population• Buildings do not have air conditioning• Let us parents know what is happening

Q2: What do you believe is the biggest challenge facing the Hudson City School District?

149

51

35

31

86 41

Finances - 46.4%

District's buildings/facilities - 15.9%

Academic Performance - 10.9%

Quality of Staff - 9.7%

Safety - 2.5%

Trust - 1.9%

Other - 12.8%

Q2a: 149 stated finances are the biggest challenge facing Hudson

Schools. In 2 or 3 words of your own, tell us

why.• They do not spend the right way• Pay a lot in taxes and the state is not fair• Concerned about child to teacher ratio and cuts that

have occurred in the past• They have severe problems because of the high employee

costs • They spend too much money• Teachers need more pay to do a better job• Not enough sports, music and arts• Community is not educated enough to make financial

decisions at the polls• Wish for more transparency on costs• Need to see better results with the money spent

Q2b: 33 said academic performance is the biggest challenge facing Hudson Schools.

In 2 or 3 words of your own, tell us why.

• Because of large class sizes• Lack of art and music programs• Teachers don’t always seem concerned about poor

performers• Need to focus more on arts and sports• More focus on college prep• Need to improve sports programs and facilities• Lack of music program to encourage gifted students• Arts and sports programs are poor• Technology needs to be improved• Losing the attention of lower performing kids

Q2c: 6 said trust is the biggest challenge facing Hudson Schools. In 2 or 3 words of your own, tell us

why.

• In where the money goes• Politicians (school board) do not understand finance• Need more visibility to the money trail• Need people with a better understanding of the

educational system• Less focus on politics – more on the children• Need more visibility to the process and how decisions are

made

Q2d: 8 said safety is the biggest challenge facing Hudson Schools. In 2 or 3 words of your own, tell us

why.

• More and more kids doing drugs• Drugs• Drugs are a problem• Social issues• Bullying and gangs• Drugs and gangs• Bullying

Q2e: 31 said quality of staff is the biggest challenge facing Hudson

Schools. In 2 or 3 words of your own, tell us why.

• Keeping good teachers motivated and letting go of those just biding time for retirement

• Teachers have authority issues• Hold teachers accountable• Need to improve the teaching staff constantly• Teachers need to have fewer students to do a better

job• We need more teachers• Keeping the children focused when classes are so

large

Q2f: 51 said buildings and facilities is the biggest challenge facing Hudson Schools.

In 2 or 3 words of your own, tell us why.

• Building needs to be updated, lots of leaks• Things that need repaired should be repaired in a timely

fashion• Too many students per class• Upgrades need done• Middle school is getting old, needs updating• There is no air conditioning in some of the buildings• Schools are getting old and we are not keeping up• Buildings are too old and too small for the number of children

we have• Outdated technology and buildings• Some of the buildings don’t have what is needed for the

children in comfort

• Sports facilities are not in good shape• Better facilities are safer

Next Question series

When evaluating the quality of the education provided by the Hudson City School District, how important are the following items on a scale from 5 to 1, with 5 being the most important and 1 being the least important?

Q3: How important is the national AP ranking?

130

122

46

13 10 5 - Most Important - 40.5%4 - 38.0%3 - 14.3%2 - 4.0%1 - Least Important - 3.1%

It is interesting to note that of those who thought the AP ranking was most important, it was almost equally divided between male (127) and female (125). Of the 53 non-parent re-spondents, 50 (94.3%) of those felt that the na-tional AP ranking was most important.

Q4: How important is the district’s report card published by the Ohio

Department of Education?

122

125

50

1113 5 - Most Important - 38.0%

4 - 38.9%

3 - 15.6%

2 - 3.4%

1 - Least Important - 4.0%

It is interesting to note that more women (133) look at the report card than men (114).

Q5: How important are the ACT and SAT scores?

128

141

39

67 5 - Most Important - 39.9%

4 - 43.9%3 - 12.1%2 - 1.9%1 - Least Important - 2.2%

It is interesting to note that of those who thought ACT & SAT scores were most impor-tant, it was almost equally divided between male (131) and female (138). Of the 53 non-parent respondents, 46 (86.8%) felt that the ACT and SAT scores are most important.

Q6: How important is the student/teacher ratio?

17699

357

4 5 - Most Important - 54.8%4 - 30.8%3 - 10.9%2 - 2.2%1 - Least Important - 1.2%

It is interesting to note that more women (154) look at the student/teacher ratio than men (121). Student/teacher ratio received the highest percentage of “most important” rankings. As we have already seen from pre-vious questions, the public believes class size is very important.

Q7: How important are the awards and recognition of the district, schools, staff and students?

90

127

73

1714 5 - Most Important - 28.0%

4 - 39.6%3 - 22.7%2 - 5.3%1 - Least Important - 4.4%

Q8: How important are the music programs?

97

129

68

1314 5 - Most Important - 30.2%

4 - 40.2%3 - 21.2%2 - 4.0%1 - Least Important - 4.4%

It is interesting to note that significantly more women (138) value the music pro-gram more highly than men (88).

Q9: How important are the fine arts programs?

92

149

614 10 5 - Most Important - 28.7%

4 - 46.9%3 - 17.4%2 - 4.4%1 - Least Important - 3.1%

It is interesting to note that significantly more women (143) value the fine arts program more highly than men (98).

Q10: How important are the athletic programs?

59

11598

2425

5 - Most Important - 18.4%4 - 35.8%3 - 30.5%2 - 7.5%1 - Least Important - 7.8%

It is interesting to note that it was almost equally divided between male (84) and fe-male (90).

Q3-10: Overall Percentage Summaries of Most Important (5)

plus Somewhat Important (4)

• Student/teacher ratio – 85.60%• ACT & SAT scores – 83.80%• National AP ranking – 78.50%• District report card – 76.90%• Fine Arts – 75.60%• Music programs – 70.40%• Awards and recognition of the district –

67.60% • Athletic programs – 54.20%

For question 11, we repeated the previous eight possible

areas for evaluating Hudson Schools, and then asked

respondents to choose the THREE areas that they believe

to be most important.

Q11: Of the 8 areas, which 3 are the most important when

evaluating Hudson Schools?

• Student/Teacher ratio– 199• ACT/SAT scores– 163• National AP ranking - 147• District report card – 128• Music program – 81• Awards and recognition – 74• Fine Arts program – 70• Athletic programs – 64• Other - 6

For questions 12-16, we asked respondents to rank

the financial priority of 5 areas

from most to least important.

Q12: How much of a financial priority is having 1-1 technology

available for each student during instruction to you?

107

102

75

1918 5 - High priority - 33.3%

4 - 31.8%3 - 23.4%2 - 5.9%1 - Low priority - 5.6%

153

127

3263

5 - High priority - 47.7%4 - 39.6%3 - 10.0%2 - 1.9%1 - Low priority - 0.9%

It should be noted that significantly more women (152 – 90.5%) believe leading edge technology should have fi-nancial priority than men (128).

Q13: How much of a financial priority is it to provide

leading edge technology and digital learning opportunities to

you?

162128

26

3 25 - High priority - 50.5%

4 - 39.9%

3 - 8.1%

2 - 0.9%

1 - Low priority - 0.6%

Of the financial questions, this one re-ceive the highest “high priority” votes. It is also interesting to note that it was al-most equally divided between male (135) and female (155) respondents.

Q14: How much of a financial priority is it to recruit

highly qualified teachers to you?

79

83

129

18 12 5 - High priority - 24.6%

4 - 25.9%

3 - 40.2%

2 - 5.6%

1 - Low priority - 3.7%

It is interesting to note that 62.3% of the non-parents ranked air condition-ing high while only 48.1% of the par-ents thought it was a priority.

Q15: How much of a financial priority is it to you to have air

conditioning for school buildings that don’t have it?

114

119

78

5 5

5 - High priority - 35.5%

4 - 37.1%

3 - 24.3%

2 - 1.6%

1 - Low priority - 1.6%

Q16: How much of a financial priority is it to have facility

maintenance and upgrades to you?

Q12-16: Overall Percentage Summaries of Highest Financial

Priorities (5) plus (4)

• Highly qualified teachers– 90.40%

• Leading edge technology– 87.30%

• Facility Maintenance– 72.60%

• 1-1 technology– 65.10%

• Air conditioning– 50.50%

For question 17, we mentioned five possible areas deserving of

Hudson’s financial priority, and then asked respondents to

choose the TWO areas that they believe to be most

deserving.

Q17: Of the 5 areas just mentioned, which 2 deserve

the highest financial priority?

• Recruitment of Highly Qualified Teachers – 230

• Digital Learning and Technology – 152

• Facility Maintenance and Upgrades – 98

• 1-1 Technology for Instruction – 68

• Air Conditioning for Schools that don't Currently have it – 53

• Other - 12

120

143

4763 Excellent - 37.4%

Good - 44.5%Neutral - 14.6%Poor - 1.9%Very Poor - 0.9%When combining ‘excellent’ and ‘good,’ a large majority thinks well of the present financial condition (81.9%). However, according to previ-ous questions, they also perceive fi-nances as the biggest challenge facing Hudson Schools.

Q18: How would you describe the present financial condition of

the Hudson City Schools?

89

135

64

146 2 11Excellent - 27.7%Good - 42.1%Neutral - 19.9%Poor - 4.4%Very Poor - 1.9%Other - 0.6%Unsure - 3.4%

Q19: How would you describe the Hudson City School’s

management of finances?

203

95

18

3

Very safe - 63.2%

Somewhat safe - 29.6%

Somewhat unsafe - 5.6%

Very unsafe - 0.9%

Q20: In your perception, how safe are the Hudson City Schools?

188

99

25Very good - 58.6%Good - 30.8%Okay - 7.8%Poor - 0.0%Very poor - 0.0%Other - 2.8%

No one believes the Hudson teachers are doing a poor job. Men (132) and women (155) both strongly indicated that Hud-son teachers are doing a very good job.

Q21: How would you rate the quality of the teachers at the Hudson City Schools?

162

106

36

2 4 11

Very good - 50.5%Good - 33.0%Okay - 11.2%Poor - 0.6%Very poor - 1.2%Other - 3.4%

Q22: How would you rate the quality of the Hudson City Schools

administrators?

143

156

1012 Strongly agree - 44.5%

Somewhat agree - 48.6%

Somewhat disagree - 3.1%

Strongly disagree - 3.7%

Q23: If I was to say that the Hudson City Schools were

leaders in their field, would you…

Q24: Where do you presently receive most of your information

about the Hudson City School District?

103

6138

35

30

129 5 4

16 8 The Hudson Hub - 32.1%

Word of mouth - 19.0%

School building e-subscribes - 11.8%

District Newsletter - 10.9%

Website - 9.3%

District employees - 3.7%

Meetings - 2.8%

Radio - 1.6%

Facebook - 1.2%

Other - 5.0%

Unsure - 2.5%

Q24: Where do you presently receive most of your information

about the Hudson City School District?

• It is interesting to note that of those who chose the Hudson Hub, the majority of the respondents were 18-34 and 45-65 years old.

• Those 35-44 years old got their information through school building e-subscribes and the district newsletter.

Q25: How would you like to receive more information about the Hudson City School District?

70

42

3433

29129

54

38The Hudson Hub - 21.8%

E-mail - 13.1%

District Newsletter - 10.6%

Website - 10.3%

School building e-subscribes - 9.0%

Community forums - 3.7%

Facebook - 2.8%

Twitter - 0%

Other - 16.8%

Unsure - 11.8%

Q26: How do you presently get information about school board business?

52

17

15

12

66

198

15 District website - 16.2%

Board meetings - 5.3%

Online streaming of the meetings - 4.7%

HCTV cable channel - 3.7%

Board Coffee - 1.9%

Meeting minutes - 1.9%

Other - 61.7%

Unsure - 4.7%

Q27: In general, do you feel that the Hudson City School District is

headed in the right direction or the wrong direction?

275

1927

Right Direction - 85.7%

Wrong Direction - 5.9%

Unsure - 8.4%

Q28a: 275 said they believe the school district is heading in the right direction. In 2 or 3 words of your own, tell us why.

• Fiscal responsibility. High quality recruitment and dynamic technology in the classroom

• There is one thing they do very well – create leaders• Superintendent is very fantastic and in tune with what we

need• Change of administration and improvements of

technology• Happy with performance of the superintendent• Head of the game technology• They are always keeping up to date with technology

and good quality of teachers• The excellent ratings through US News and Ohio News

Reports• The teachers and administration really care about our

student’s education and future

Q28a: 275 said they believe the school district is heading in the right direction. In 2 or 3 words of your own, tell us why.

• They have educated administrators that are on top of education needs

• Great leader (superintendent)• Handling things financially well• Great superintendent• Superintendent is doing a great job• Good fiscal responsibility• The emphasis they put on quality teachers as well as

technology• Good test scores, ratings• Like the way the teachers communicate with families• Exceeding state standards• Superintendent is a great addition• Students have a good chance for college and careers

Q28b: 19 said they believe the school district is heading in the wrong direction. In 2 or 3 words of your own, tell us why.

• Physical plant is in poor condition• They are adding unnecessary security, poor water quality,

unsanitary• Need to improve focus on every child, not just the smart

ones• Would like to see more focus of spending money on the

important things• Need to increase sports• Need more extra curricular activities to build well-rounded

adults

Q29: Into which age bracket do you belong?

1734

64

84

52

41

2918-to-24 - 5.3%

25-to-34 - 10.6%

35-to-44 - 19.9%

45-to-54 - 26.2%

55-to-64 - 16.2%

65 or older - 12.8%

Refused - 9.0%

Break out of Wards

Ward 1 – 86 residents

Ward 2 – 76 residents

Ward 3 – 73 residents

Ward 4 – 86 residents

Q30: Are you the parent of a current, soon-to-be or past Hudson City School District

student?

268

53

Yes - 83.5%

No - 16.5%

Q30a: What grade level is your child in?

26

49

30

78

93

10 Younger than preschool - 0.7%

Preschool - 2.2%

Elementary school - 18.3%

Middle school - 11.2%

High school - 29.1%

My child already graduated - 34.7%

Refused - 3.7%

Q31: Caller to identify if respondent is:

153168

Male - 47.7%

Female - 52.3%

Q32: Phone type:

225

96 Landline - 70.1%

Cellphone - 29.9%

Questions?