BACKGROUND

Dr. Scott Robison is the Superintendent of Zionsville Community Schools in Zionsville, Indiana, a suburb of Indianapolis. The school district supports 5,000 students from pre-Kindergarten through 12th grade. Of these, nearly 1,600 attend the high school.

Zionsville Community Schools were facing a decision of whether or not to build additional school facilities. But because the community is primarily residential, the accompanying debt for any large project, such as the building of a second high school, would be borne in the main by the community’s homeowning taxpayers. The topic had huge potential for controversy and divisiveness. One driving factor for those pushing for the new high school was varsity athletics – a priority to some families, but not others.

THE CHALLENGE

Because Dr. Robison knew that such issues could, through heated debates, divide a community, he wanted to find a way to prevent damaging rhetoric before it had the chance to spiral out of control. He knew he needed to accurately gauge community opinion so that board members could make the correct decision. Dr. Robison said, “If we were to build a second high school now, the community’s taxation pain would escalate sharply. I needed a way to get the message out consistently, receive timely feedback, and alleviate tensions.”

He had used some successful techniques in the past that worked. He liked small-group forums where he could meet with people face-to-face to obtain their feedback through coffee talks and informal house meetings where people invite friends and neighbors. But when he saw TurningPoint® used in other applications, he was sold on the technology as the missing piece that could serve his unique needs in this case.

THE SOLUTION

It was the use of TurningPoint that helped Dr. Robison and the School Board decide against a long-term debt in excess of $130 million that would also have divided the community.

In public sessions over six months starting in November 2006, Dr. Robison’s team developed a powerful list of “Did You Know?” questions he delivered to groups of 100-200 residents that, “…made these meetings amazingly productive!” He adds, “For instance, when we asked parents whether building a second high school should be decided on sports alone, only 7.5 percent of respondents agreed that sports should lead the way in determining the one or two high school decision.” He continued, “While early process feedback before TurningPoint indicated otherwise, the use of Turning Technologies showed, in real time, that the majority of residents believed that sports should not be the primary factor driving the decision. Anonymous responses through TurningPoint helped everyone be very open and transparent about stating their real position on the issue.”

By May, the Board voted against the building of the second high school, which would avoid more debt in a rapidly growing, high debt district. Additional debt loading would have been a community burden, and viable alternatives were discovered through the community process. He muses, “Thanks to Turning Technologies, the Board’s vote was anti-climactic!”

Another win was that Scott learned that the building of other high school spaces could wait for several years, perhaps as long as a decade. Responses to TurningPoint questions revealed that 78 percent of the residents responding could tolerate letting the high school population grow to a maximum of 2,500 to 2,800 students. This growth could be accommodated by looking at new configurations and creative uses of existing space.

CONCLUSION

Dr. Robison says, “TurningPoint is great for organizing meetings and it helps direct the content. Public sessions are more interactive and useful because participants give me important information as well as hear information I have to share.”

He adds, “TurningPoint provides a more directed approach. It takes participants’ awareness and the experience to a higher level.”

Further integrating TurningPoint into his communication with constituents does not stop with this issue. Dr. Robison is using it to address some of the district’s other pressing issues. “We have begun a community conversation using Turning Technologies for information sharing and input gathering around the sensitive topic of students’ access to and use of alcohol and drugs. Our schools have both a unique opportunity and the obligation to serve well in this important area of our students’ growth as decision makers. Once again, Turning Technologies will assist our leadership team in elevating our community’s awareness of and engagement with a high leverage matter of significance.”

“By stating the cold hard facts in coffee talks with parents, we will be able to be direct in asking them what they know of the issue and what role they see the schools taking in helping with solutions.” He says that people love using the ResponseCards®. “There is a certain credibility conferred on answering questions honestly and it encourages great input from the audience.”

“I am very accessible,” Dr. Robison says. “I love listening to the views of our students, staff, and parents. By wrapping canned questions around informal time with constituents, I have a complete package that brings our community together to forge solutions to thorny issues. TurningPoint is a great tool that is helping us accomplish this.”

For more information about purchasing Turning Technologies’ audience response systems for your organization, contact us at 866-746-3015.