Ken Mitchell, Ed.D.
Superintendent of Schools
kmitchell@socsd.org

January 2010

Dear South Orangetown Central School District Community Members,

As you know our District has been involved in the process of collecting data from various constituent groups. This information will help us gather a variety of perspectives in our efforts to seek continuous improvement. This first generation of data from staff, the community, and our high school students will serve as a baseline to guide our thinking, decision-making, and planning over the next few years. Eventually this set of data will be a point of comparison when we collect information again in two years.

As promised the District is sharing the results of this survey with the community (please see links above). Following analysis, we will share our interpretation of the information and our plans to incorporate key findings into our school improvement efforts. Such information will be presented in either District or school-based forums.

On Thursday, January 21, 2010, we presented an overview of the community survey at the Board of Education meeting.  We are still in the process of developing a plan to share the student survey results with staff and students.

I want to thank all of those who chose to participate. We had over 30% of those families with children currently in the system complete the survey. We have been informed that for a first survey, this is a good response. When we do this again in two years, I am hopeful that we can increase the number of respondents.

Ken Mitchell, Ed.D.
Superintendent of Schools