Balanced wins--again

The results are in. The balanced calendar wins in this attempt at determining the preferences of families using the Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools. Remember this attempt to set the 2008-2009 calendar must still be voted on by the MNPS Board of Education. That's scheduled for December 12.

Next to weigh in--the Chamber of Commerce, the TEA and the SEIU, et al.

While the press release points folks to the MNPS website--I don't see any comprehensive information there yet.

MEDIA RELEASE

Contact: Woody McMillin
woody.mcmillin@mnps.org
(615) 259-8405

MNPS releases results of calendar survey

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (Dec. 1, 2006) – Metro Schools today released results of its telephone survey of families and staff regarding their calendar preference for the 2008-2009 school year.

MNPS provided three opportunities for families and staff to vote – Nov. 16, Nov. 17 and Nov. 20. In addition to calls to English-speaking families, the survey was recorded and issued in Spanish. After a home was designated as having received the survey call by a household member answering the phone, that number was not called again. Homes where calls were unanswered or answered by machine were redialed on the second and third nights.

Because the district’s call-home system automatically sorts phone numbers to eliminate duplicates, homes with multiple employees and/or students were called just once. MNPS has a total of 58,945 “unique” telephone numbers associated with staff and students of the district. For survey purposes, this also allowed MNPS to peg one vote per family.

During the three-night period of the telephone survey, MNPS made 95,814 total calls to its 58,945 unique phone numbers. A person answered the survey call at 42,215 homes. Of those 42,215 calls, a total of 23,000 households choose to register a calendar preference while 19,215 chose not to respond. It is important to note these 19,215 were logged as "no response" because they listened to the entire message or a large portion of the message before disconnecting from the call.

The overall survey results show:
Balanced 11,216 48.8%
Traditional 9,655 42.0%
No Preference 2,129 9.3%
Note: percentage affected by rounding

Results have also been sorted based on preferences by families, faculty, staff, tier and cluster. Complete charts are posted on the school district’s website, www.mnps.org.

These survey results will be included as information for members of the Board of Education to consider as they decide which school calendar to adopt for the 2008-2009 school year. That discussion is set to go before the Board at its Dec. 12 meeting.

This is the second time the district has polled families regarding their school calendar preference. A paper ballot survey conducted in December 2005 yielded 10,942 family responses, with 43% preferring balanced, 38% preferring traditional and 19% having no calendar preference.

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Metro Nashville Public Schools provide a range of educational opportunities to nearly 74,000 students in Nashville and Davidson County. The governing body for MNPS is the Metropolitan Nashville and Davidson County Board of Public Education, a nine-member group elected by residents of Metropolitan Nashville. For more information, please visit www.mnps.org.

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