Wakefield Community School’s Board of Education received a report on the recently conducted survey to the community and district concerning the bond election that was held in November of 2023.
The Board had asked questions concerning demographics of responders – location of residence, kids in school, how long lived in the district, as well as questions about how much of a bond the people would consider supporting.
The Board received around 244 responses for the survey or about 38 percent of the number of ballots that were returned in the bond election (642 returned.) Some answered every question, and some did not answer specific questions, resulting in some differing numbers in responses below.
The Board did not take any action with the information at this meeting.
The Board asked directly for a response concerning a level of bond proposal that the respondents would support.
According to the direct survey responses, the community respondents gave support for the following:
$35 million bond: 19% (44/235)
$24 million bond: 38% (90/235)
$12 million bond: 31% (74/235)
No new bond at all: 11% (27/235)
Order of importance
243 respondents also answered their top four important facility-related issues facing Wakefield Schools.
The top four totals according to the survey were:
1. Classroom space for elementary (81%, 196 votes)
2. Kitchen/Cafeteria space (57%, 138 votes)
3. Classroom space for high school (52%, 127 votes)
4. Vehicle Circulation (37%, 91 votes)
Safety/security, parking, Career/Industrial Tech room, Gym/wrestling/locker rooms, band/choir/art, labs and classrooms were also on the list, and in that order by votes received.
Other Demographics
The majority of replies came from those voters living in town – 52% or 127 replies. Another 40% or 96 replies indicated they lived elsewhere in the district. 20 of the replies were from people that don’t live inside the district.
Fifty-two percent of the respondents said that they had attended one of the school’s special informative meetings prior to the vote, with 166 (48%) saying they did not attend one.
Two-hundred and thirty-five of the respondents said they were registered voters with just eight replying that they were not.
144 replies indicated that 59% of the respondents had children in the school with 99 saying they did not
A majority of the respondents indicated that they had lived in the district for more than 16 years – 156 replies. 10-14 years had 30 replies, 5-9 years had 26 and 28 replied that they had lived in the district under four years.
Thirty-eight pages were returned as survey results, with a good portion of those pages as short phrase answers about the open-ended questions posed to voters.
Question 7 was “What did you like most about the facility plans presented in the previous bond?”
Answers ranged from “nothing” to “I like the idea of building up given limited space…classroom space is critical…improved school security and safety…I think the plan had all those in mind.” 201 replies had answered the questions in some form.
Question 8 was “What were your most significant concerns about the facility plans presented.”
Answers came from 206 respondents, ranging from everything like “cost” to “sports heavy, not enough for the arts,” to a paragraph indicating that the entrances were too far apart from each other, suggestions about office areas, repurposing one of the existing areas instead of a new gym and moving classrooms to reuse space.