Stratford & District Christian School 1 Results of Community Engagement Survey and Benchmarking April 29, 2014

Stratford & District Christian School 2 SDCS Community Engagement Background as to why this is strategic We wondered about the question: Do we have a good level of community engagement? It is not a given that we will even achieve quorum at Membership meetings (50%) Board positions are not easy to fill Committee and ad hoc positions take many calls to fill There is however a lot that needs to be done We are all busy and all wish there were more hours in a day

Stratford & District Christian School 3 SDCS Community Engagement What the results show Relatively speaking our level of community engagement is actually pretty good in comparison to the data from OACS Should that really be our standard though? 37 families responded – from the standpoint of surveys a response rate of around 75% is probably good, but for a parent governed school can we do better?

Stratford & District Christian School 4 SDCS Community Engagement What the results show - benchmarking How many years have you had students at SDCS? SDCSOACS 0-2 years19%33% 3-5 years43%31% 6-10 years27%26% 11+ years11%11% We are not dis-similar from OACS schools – we have a big bubble in the 3-5 years consistent with where our current class sizes are largest.

Stratford & District Christian School 5 SDCS Community Engagement What the results show - benchmarking Indicate your familiarity with SDCS SDCSOACS I know very little and am not keen to know0%2% I know very little and I want to ask lots of questions6%4% I have a good understanding but I still ask questions44%62% I have a detailed understanding & answer other parents’ questions47%28% I know everything that goes on at the school and why3%4% We describe ourselves as having a fairly good understanding and the answering other parents’ response rate is indicative of community engagement.

Stratford & District Christian School 6 SDCS Community Engagement What the results show - benchmarking I attend membership meetings? SDCSOACS Yes67%49% No33%51% Our 67% represents 24 of 37 families saying yes. That is about right given that we often have around 30 families. Better than the OACS average but are we truly satisfied with “achieving quorum” of 50%?

Stratford & District Christian School 7 SDCS Community Engagement What the results show How do you spend your time at SDCS? SDCS %FAMILIES Classroom16%10 Field trips/special days37%23 Board or standing/ad-hoc24%15 Not on a board or committee14%9 Not involved but would like to be2%1 Not involved & don’t wish to be8%5

Stratford & District Christian School 8 SDCS Community Engagement What the results show - inventorying We communicated with all committee heads to inventory where our 47 families are involved 4 or more committees6 3 committees/board4 2 committees/board5 1 committee/board11 0 committees/board20 20 out of 47 families! We can and should do far better than this can’t we?

Stratford & District Christian School 9 SDCS Community Engagement What the results show We all have gifts spiritual gifts! From the 37 survey responses there were 90 total acknowledgements of gifts related to prophecy, encourager, showing mercy, giving, evangelism, teaching, pastor/shepherd, ministry/serving, administration and other

Stratford & District Christian School 10 SDCS Community Engagement What the results show The answers as to what are holding people back, and comments as to how we can help people utilize their spiritual gifts, are harder to analyze Very few specific suggestions were given There is no doubt that time constraints and other commitments are a very real issue This is a real issue, but we need to balance that with what being a parent governed school means in terms of the responsibilities we all have to the school in that regard

Stratford & District Christian School 11 SDCS Community Engagement What the results show Not everyone agrees that as parent governed school we should all be involved 100% involvement should not be the goal – some simply won’t and some simply feel they can’t Further information about opportunities to be involved and what they entail may be helpful to some More advance notice may be helpful to some

Stratford & District Christian School 12 SDCS Community Engagement So what does this all mean? Our surveys and benchmarking do confirm that our level of community engagement and involvement is above average Praise God for a good number of families that are quite involved! We need to get better as a school with openly communicating, in a timely manner where people can be plugged in and what that involves, and to also be encouraging of them to do so

Stratford & District Christian School 13 SDCS Community Engagement So what does this all mean? We can all be in prayer that those who are not involved will seek out ways that they can use their spiritual gifts at SDCS and that we can help to find the right matches for them

Stratford & District Christian School 14 SDCS Community Engagement So what does this all mean? While we did not get a lot of comments this one seems to sum it up quite well: “It would be good to encourage more involvement from those who are not terribly involved. By the grace of God, we are blessed at SDCS with a large number of people who really do work hard and work together, but of course there is still quite a large group that does very little. The old adage ‘the more you put into it, the more you get out of it’ really does apply here. I feel blessed by the hours we put in, and I think others do also.”