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Community Survey of Parents <br />New School at Southern Village <br />September 9,1998 <br />Purpose <br />The school system surveyed by telephone 600 parents of students in grades pre -K- <br />3, including a subset of parents of students in Southern Village. The primary purpose of <br />the survey was to assist the principal in planning for the new school. The survey was <br />designed to obtain statistically reliable feedback from a random sampling of parents <br />about the school's calendar and about the major components proposed for the new <br />school. Although the feedback was obtained primarily for the new school, planners also <br />believed that the information could be useful for the existing schools in considering <br />modifications to their current programs. <br />Design <br />The survey targeted parents of students only in grades pre-K -3 because current <br />fifth graders would age out of the school before it opens and current fourth graders would <br />likely be given the option of remaining at their current schools. Lists of telephone <br />numbers were generated at each school and a pool of 900 randomly selected numbers <br />were chosen for the survey. <br />The calls were preceded by a mailing from the school system which contained a <br />flyer which described the proposed program at Southern Village and a cover letter from <br />the superintendent advising parents of the upcoming survey and its purposes. The calling <br />occurred between August 25 -31. <br />The survey was conducted by FGI in Chapel Hill. The company reported a high <br />degree of completion of the survey instrument (approximately 75 percent completed <br />calls), strong interest among parents in participating in the study and great willingness to <br />comment upon plans for the new school. <br />The completed surveys represent the opinions of the parents of approximately 920 <br />students, including the parents who have multiple children. In general, the responses <br />show a measurement error of five percent in either direction. In other words, if all parents <br />of students in grades pre-K -3 were surveyed, the results would be within five percent <br />below or above the numbers shown. <br />Summary of Findings <br />Program <br />The results show that a majority of parents rate all of the proposed characteristics <br />as very important or somewhat important. The plan to reduce class size to 20 students <br />was considered to be important by the largest segment of responders, 96 percent. <br />