Many thanks to everyone who took the time to complete our community PTSA survey. We had 89 responses (amazingly, that’s exactly the same number as last year!) and we truly appreciate the feedback we received as a result of your comments. In general, we had very similar feedback this year as we did last year in the survey. Could that be that the same people filled out the survey as last year?! Perhaps… Regardless, knowing what our community needs and desires are core to our planning, we used the survey results to prioritize plans for next year and we incorporated many of your suggestions into our planning and budgeting for next year. Some of the feedback you provided included the following:

COMMUNICATIONS: In general, those who responded to the survey felt well informed about PTSA events and activities. 98% responded “yes” to feeling adequately informed. In addition, the most effective forms of communication are class newsletters/emails, The Howler, Coyote Connection, classroom representatives, and our PTSA website (in that order). This is great news for us because over the years, we have consciously moved away from paper communications in favor of electronic means of providing information, and we know it has taken time to implement this change. In addition, we were thrilled that our website made it to the “Top Five” because we have spent countless hours and effort into revitalizing and renewing the website to make it a primary means of providing current and timely information. This will continue to be a focus in the coming years. There is also ongoing work every month to provide relevant and timely information through our Howler and the Coyote Connection, and we hope this information continues to be important to the community. We do all we can to push current information and to utilize our website, enews, and classroom representatives to keep all information current and available to the community. I invite everyone to continue to spread the word and encourage your friends to utilize the website and to read the weekly Connection and monthly Howler emails.

PRIORITIES: In our survey, we asked you to rank the various Curriculum and Community Programs that we have funded throughout the year. Having this information is key for us in planning for the coming year, and according to your answers, priorities continue to be similar to previous years. We will continue to fund the Arts & Science Grants, Reading Support, and Staff General Grants, K-4 Drama, & 5th Grade Curriculum, among others. We will also continue to focus on Student and Community programs such as the Science Fair, Eager Reader, Safety Patrol, and Great Kids, to name just a few. We were excited to hear that Great Kids has quickly become a popular program and we have our new principal, Mrs. Fowler, to thank for bringing this great program to our school! We also found that our community recognizes the value of supporting and appreciating our staff, and we will continue to encourage and support that.

Other popular and new/improved programs that we will continue to support through our and volunteers include the Math Club, Spelling Bee, and Geography Bee, and we will

make some significant changes to what was previously the K-Kids program. Next year it will be called “Caring Coyotes” and will be primarily run by a few teachers and will continue to be supported through parent volunteers. Be sure to look for more information on this when school gets started again.

FUNDRAISING: We asked about participation in our various fundraising activities. Again this year, and based on community feedback, we continued in the path requested in previous years that we focus our fundraising efforts to a single primary fundraiser. We also combined our Walkathon with a community event to bring everyone together and meet our fundraising and some socializing needs early in the year. Our survey told us that 92% of the community participated in this. In addition, 86% responded that this combination of the fundraiser and the community event is your first choice. With these responses, we plan to continue in this direction for fundraising in the coming year. We will also continue to offer the other “passive” fundraising opportunities that continue to be popular such as the Book Fair, Coyote Wear, Car Wash tickets, our “Mixedbags”, and of course, we will continue to rely on other passive fundraising opportunities including Labels for Education and corporate Matching Funds to gain additional funding.

KEEP DOING WHAT WORKS: We were happy to get some very positive feedback regarding generally doing the right amount of things at the right scale. We are such a lucky group at Cascade Ridge in that we have an amazing staff and community that are very involved, dedicated, and committed to supporting our students to be all they can be, and obviously all that we do is a broad community effort. We plan to keep offering the quality programs that you have come to expect, and based on your feedback we will continue to focus on the areas that are viewed as important.

We also surveyed our school staff to get their valuable feedback. We heard back from 21 staff members and we received good information regarding the value of the support and programs that the PTSA provides for them as well. The results told us that we are providing positive support to the needs of the teachers and the students and we know what areas we need to continue to focus to provide the best possible support to our kids during their time at Cascade Ridge.

Our survey results are summarized on our website, so if you would like to see more, please check them out there!

Finally and as always, I invite you to continue to provide feedback regarding what you consider important and I welcome your thoughts. Please do not hesitate to drop me an email with any feedback or contact any of our current or upcoming Board members.

Tina Yerges, Outgoing PTSA President
(tinayerges@msn.com)