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Madison-Plains phone survey starts Jan. 23
(by Kristy Zurbrick, Madison Editor - January 22, 2010)
On Jan. 21, the Madison-Plains school board voted to contract with polling firm Strategic Visioning Inc. to conduct a telephone survey. Calls to random registered voters in the district will start this weekend.
Based on the survey results, the board will decide whether or not to return to the ballot with a bond levy request to construct a new K-12 building.
The polling period will end Feb. 8, after which the district will release the list of questions and the results to the public. The board will meet at 7 p.m. Feb. 11 in the high school auditorium to review the results and make their decision about going on the ballot.
The contract with Strategic Visioning will yield 400 completed phone surveys at a cost of $12,775. The other option was 350 calls for $11,800. A larger sampling comes with less margin of error, said district treasurer Scott Hiles.
“If we’re going to pay almost $12,000, another $900 is not that much more. I want this to be as accurate as possible,” said board member Don Swonger in favor of the 400-call contract.
That was the consensus of a committee that met with the polling experts this week to create a list of 35 questions for the survey. The committee included Swonger, Hiles, board member Linda Blankenship, Superintendent Boone Hall and district residents Wilma Lewis, Rick Helton, Sue Shilling and Jennifer Talbert.
“I’m happy with the questions. I think the results should be interesting,” Talbert said. “We tried to stay focused with questions that will decide whether to do a levy or not.”
Blankenship commented, “Did we please everyone (with the questions), no...but we did hit every area that pertains to every taxpayer.” That includes the question of location of the building, she said.
Shilling, a Mount Sterling resident and proponent of a building location other than Linson Road, also is happy with the survey.
“I think this is a great non-partisan way to get answers about how people really feel about the school district and the bond levy,” she said. “I wish it had taken place a year ago before anything was put on the ballot. It will give the school district direction.”
Shilling praised Diane Lawrence, president of Strategic Visioning, and Deidre Soileau, president of The Flagg Group, the firm out of Cleveland Heights that will analyze the results.
“These people know what they’re doing. We have a professionaly constructed survey. I think we’re going to get a big bang for the buck,” Shilling said.
Each survey phone call will take about 10 minutes. Each employee at the professional call center, located in Cincinnati, will go by the same script. Only surveys that are completed will count.
The calls will go out to Madison-Plains residents who are registered voters with a track record of going to the polls. Calls will go out to all parts of the district, Swonger said.
After the calls are done on Feb. 8, the polling firm will supply school leaders with preliminary results on Feb. 9 and a full breakdown by demographics on Feb. 24. If the board decides on Feb. 11 that they want to put a levy request on the May election ballot, they have until Feb. 18 to file the appropriate paperwork with the county auditor and the Board of Elections.
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