Parent survey finds 'surprising' results

Date: 12/1/2008

By Courtney Llewellyn

Reminder Assistant Editor



EAST LONGMEADOW Some of the opinions gathered from the East Longmeadow Public Schools' online parent survey surprised Superintendent Edward Costa.

Nearly 700 households responded to the survey, which was linked from the town of East Longmeadow's home page. There are roughly 1,500 households with children in the town's school system.

The last parent survey was conducted four years ago, and since then, parents and caregivers have drastically changed their opinions on school uniforms and school security measures.

Question 14 on the 21-question survey asked, "School uniforms (research) has shown to save money for parents and households. Uniforms can be as simple as golf shirts and khaki pants, for an example. Would you support the use of school uniforms for your child?"

In 2002, nearly 90 percent of parents were disinterested in switching to school uniforms. In 2008, however, the superintendent was "quite surprised" by the responses.

"Sixty-one percent of parents said yes," Costa noted. "I think the economy has changed the opinion on this. You can go to any department store and get khaki pants and golf shirt for less than a $20 bill."

The follow-up question asked those who were in favor of a school uniform at what school level they would like to see uniforms become mandatory elementary, middle school, high school or all levels. Eighty-six percent of those who were in favor of uniforms said they'd like to see them at all levels.

"We'll have a full year of discussion about this," Costa said. "It's just giving us food for thought."

"We're putting the topic of uniforms into the reserves for discussion," School Committee Chair Bob Mazzariello said.

If the possibility of requiring uniforms is seen as serious by the School Committee, they will host a number of public hearings throughout the town to gather input from parents.

Questions 17 and 18 dealt with school security. Two years ago, locked doors and buzzers for entry were installed at every school in the district.

"It was a big change and a lot of parents didn't like the idea of it," Costa explained. "These survey questions were designed to see if the fervor has died down."

The first question asked parents if they thought locked door security is a must for today's society, or if they didn't like the door security at the schools. Eighty-eight percent approved of the security measures, four percent were against and seven percent specified another opinion.

"Additional security is an expense to our schools," Question 18 stated. "However, there are areas of security we want to know if you would support." The listed options were installing security cameras on the playgrounds, call box systems on playgrounds and emergency buzzers in schools (like fire alarms but for security purposes). Sixty-nine percent were in favor of security cameras on the playgrounds, and 68 percent were in favor of the emergency buzzers.

"It's the nature of society right now, that there can't be enough security," Mazzariello stated. "We're very fortunate we have the support of the community now."

In some ways, parents and caregivers remained very traditional. When it came to the length of the school day and the school year, a majority of those taking the survey wanted to keep the school day at about six hours and the year at about 180 days. Parents were also in favor of keep February break and keeping a relatively short holiday break, between five and eight days in length.

"It makes great sense to get feedback and input from our parents," Costa stated. "It gives us a pulse."

He added that because of the success of this year's survey, the school is considering hosting a parent survey every year.

The complete results of the 2008 parent survey are available online at www.eastlongmeadow.org/Schools/central.htm.