By Dave Fidlin
CORRESPONDENT
Nearly half of the respondents of a recently administered Whitewater Unified School District facilities-related referendum survey indicated they would support a $32 million proposal, according to recently revealed data.
The WUSD School Board on Nov. 25 heard a presentation from Scott Girard, a project manager with the firm School Perceptions, on the results of a community survey that was distributed to households throughout the district’s geographic footprint early this fall.
WUSD entered into a contract with School Perceptions for the study. The firm works with districts across the state to gauge community support for district facilities and operational referendums.
Respondents were asked to share their support for two proposals. The first is a $32 million base plan that would encompass many of the district’s core, high pressing needs; the second is a $5.3 million add-on that would fund music classrooms and an auditorium project.
Survey respondents were divided into three buckets, based on the responses: staff residents, parent residents and non-parent/non-staff residents.
According to School Perceptions, the weighted average between the three classifications indicated 48.2% support for a $32 million base plan and 39.8% support for the $5.3 million add-on component.
Girard indicated School Perceptions received a total of 832 responses. It closely mirrors a prior survey the company administered within the district eight years ago; at that time, 869 responses had been logged.
All told, the response rate on the 2024 survey stands at 10.2%, Girard said, which results in a statistical margin of error of plus or minus 3.47%.
“While that percentage looks a little low, given the number of respondents, similar to 2016, when our prediction was accurate, we feel really good about the data we got here, and the number of respondents,” Girard said.
Seniors age 65 and up were the highest representation in the recent School Perceptions survey, accounting for 34% of the responses. Percentages in other age brackets (35-44, 45-54 and 55-64) were in the upper teens or low 20s.
Predictably, most of the respondents resided within the City of Whitewater, though people in all of the surrounding townships within the district’s geographic footprint also weighed in.
For the full story, please see the print edition of the Whitewater Register.
