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BY CHRIS LAFORTUNE Residents are pleased with the education River Forest School District 90 has to offer, a community survey shows, but the district needs to continue working on its resident communication, Superintendent Tyra Manning said. In a survey of 267 River Forests homes last June, residents gave each of the district's schools high marks. Ninety-six percent of respondents graded performance at both Lincoln and Willard school either an A or a B. Ninety-four percent of respondents gave Roosevelt School Middle School an A or B on performance. Last summer's survey followed up on results collected in 1999 and 1996. "I'm very pleased with the overall percentages of As or Bs at each of the schools," Manning said. "That's not to mean they can't improve." The district has been working to improve is its communication with village residents. In the district's 1996 survey, most respondents reported they received District 90 news from their friends or neighbors, Manning said. The district has since worked at sending more information home from the schools and through a district newsletter. In the latest survey, 30 percent of respondents said they got information about the schools through letters or notes home, the most of any category. Eleven percent said they received information through school publications. But communication could be improved further, Manning said. Asked if community organizations have access to school facilities, 38 percent said somewhat and 33 percent could not say. The elementary schools host activities most nights, some as late as 9 p.m., Manning said. "We as a district need to do a better job of communicating the availability of schools and the partnerships we have with community organizations to use the schools when we are not," Manning said. Fifty three percent of respondents said the district needs to put more emphasis on writing skills and grammar, the same as in previous surveys. The district sent out 5,000 surveys to River Forest homes last June, Manning said. The survey had a few additions, with questions asking parents to rank the district's special education services. Eighty-six percent gave Lincoln's special education program an A or B, 83 percent did so at Willard and 83 percent did at Roosevelt. The district also added new questions asking parents whether they had any preschool-aged children and whether they had them enrolled in preschool. District enrollment is projected to decline, Manning said, but data collected about preschool children will give the district a sense of how many kids may be coming and at what level of preparedness they are at. Seventy percent of respondents with preschool-age children said those children attend preschool, most of them three days a week. The School Board reviewed the survey findings at a committee meeting Feb. 3, and the information will be shared with the district's incoming superintendent, said Manning. She is set to retire in June. |