In November, Hayes students were asked to fill out the Panorama survey, which lets students rate how they feel about issues at school.
Near the beginning of every school year, the school will give students a time period during class in order to fill out the survey. This year, there was a 40 minute time period built into the schedule between first and second period.
The survey started during the 2020-2021 school year after students missed the end of the 2019-2020 school year due to the Covid-19 lockdown.
“We felt a little disconnected when students and staff were home due to the pandemic, and then we came back in a hybrid when some students were here and others weren’t,” principal Ric Stranges said. “It just was a time of disconnection, so I think for us, we wanted to get a gauge on where everyone was and is now. Students did not originally have a chance to tell us how they feel.”
Staff have also found ways to implement new ideas into the school. One recent idea being the house mentors program during ninth period.
“The survey has been very beneficial in the sense that it is a great opportunity for students to use their voice and give us feedback,” data coordinator Toby West said. “We can think we know what students would say, but until we ask the questions, we don’t really know. It has helped us narrow our focus on supporting the whole child in ways that benefit all students.”
The process of tracking and analyzing the data takes a few months, but West and Stranges both said the results are very important to the faculty, as they want to help the students feel safer.
“We set up the surveys about two weeks prior to the survey window,” West said. “The survey window was originally designed to be two weeks long but ended up being extended to three weeks. We are still in the analyzing phase and making sure each building knows and understands their results. It’s a month or two month long process in total.”
Delaware City Schools faculty members hope to use this year’s results in order to create a safer environment for the students who attend all schools within the district.
“[The survey] reinforces what we are trying to do,” Stranges said. “ It shows areas where we need to get better, and I think if you never look at data, then you really are just guessing. It really gives us a pinpoint on what we are trying to do.”