Savage Pacer - District 719 School Board to review referendum survey results - Comments

I'm hoping the school

Lori Carlson — Mon, 05 May 2008 14:45:25 -0500

I'm hoping the school district makes all of the questions available to the public in an easily accessible way (a.k.a. the Web). The newspapers, as Nancy said, likely would not publish all of the questions, due to space limitations. But I agree it's important for residents to know what questions were asked.

Unfortunately, you are right

Nancy Huddleston — Fri, 02 May 2008 12:45:50 -0500

Unfortunately, you are right -- these surveys are written with a very specific purpose so the questions are very narrowly defined. We will see if they have a power point presentation that shows the questions and results and try and post that on line. I know when Decision Resources has done city of Savage surveys in the past, we've gotten the power point slides, and last year we posted the entire thing on line with the written story. I'm not sure how Springsted operates -- in fact, this is the first time I've heard of anyone using the financial advisors for this type of service. I find that rather odd -- why not use the granddaddy of these things -- Decision Resources. But this is a service, which means government doesn't have to go out for bids -- they can choose who they want to use and that's that.

I will get the questions,

Robert Thibodeaux — Fri, 02 May 2008 11:50:53 -0500

I will get the questions, but my concern is how bad the survey was.

After my column on never getting called - we got called.
The questions were less like a survey and more like a "push pole."

It was almost impossible to answer any question that wouldn't indicate you would support a referendum regardless of how the money would be spent or how the district was using the budget.

Questions were like - Would you support a referendum for A or for B or for A&B?
Would support a referendum for the same amount or for more?

This will undoubtedly allow the school board to announce at the next meeting that a majority support a levy since in the survey you had little choice in the answers allowed.

The Pacer will not, as there

Nancy Huddleston — Fri, 02 May 2008 09:46:38 -0500

The Pacer will not, as there is not enough room in the paper for all of the questions. But if you call the school district, I'm sure they can give you a copy of the lengthy list of questions.

Lori or Nancy, Will the

Robert Thibodeaux — Thu, 01 May 2008 13:51:32 -0500

Lori or Nancy,
Will the paper be publishing the actual survey questions that were asked?

District 719 School Board to review referendum survey results

Lori Carlson — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 13:05:05 -0500

Results of a survey gauging public views on a school referendum will go to the Prior Lake-Savage Area School Board for review on Monday, May 19.

The board will meet at 6 p.m. at the District Services Center, 4540 Tower St., Prior Lake, to discuss the results of the survey conducted by Springsted Inc.