A report on a Parent Survey in the Saskatchewan Rivers School Division shows some consistent numbers with parents happy with how the division operates.
Previously, the data was collected using the OURSCHOOL survey tool and now it is done internally.
This data was reported by director of education Neil Finch during the board’s regular meeting on Monday.
“’23-24 was a non-year for the feedback, but when you look at the last four years, there’s a slight increase in all of our areas except for one,” Finch said. “It’s trending in the right direction.”
The way that the Saskatchewan Rivers School Division collects parent surveys changed last year. Previously, the data was collected using the OURSCHOOL survey tool and now it is done internally.
The survey was adjusted to remove redundant questions in 2024-2025 but maintained the same themes.
There was no survey conducted in 2023-2024 because of the data collection changeover. The survey asks if parents feel welcome, are informed, support learning at home, support learning overall, school support positive behaviour and if the school is safe and inclusive.
The survey returned for 2024-2025 with parents rating the division in several areas from 1-5. That number was doubled to create a grade out of 10, which is the rate the OURSCHOOL data uses.
This year, the 10 point grading scale returned.
According to the ratings average, “Felt Welcome” received an 8.6, “Feel Informed” received an 8.1, “Support Learning at Home” received a 9.2, “Support Learning Overall” received an 8.4, “Believe the School Supports Positive Behaviour” received an 8.6, “View our Schools as Safe” received an 8.3, and “Believe School is Inclusive” received an 8.2.
The only metric that received a smaller number was Support Learning at Home which declined from 9.2 to 9.3 year over year. Finch said collecting this data is important.
“Anytime you can get feedback from our stakeholders is a good thing,” he said. “We look at the feedback that we get from parents in this is a good check in for us or good pulse check to ensure that what we think we’re when we’re doing a good job, we actually have others saying the same thing.”
The data collected this year was a slight decline over the previous number, in 2022- 2023 there were 377 surveys completed and in 2024-2025 there were 717 surveys completed. This year there were 536 surveys completed. Finch was still satisfied with the participation numbers despite the slight decline.
“We still have pretty good participation, with over 500 people giving us feedback,” Finch said. “That’s good feedback.”
michael.oleksyn@paherald.sk.ca
