Everett Schools Move Into Phase 2 of Community Conversation

The Everett School District is looking for input from the entire Everett community as they narrow down the largest concerns expressed in a new Community Conversation exercise. It’s now moved into the second phase and here are the details as provided by the district.

On Wednesday, Feb. 11, Thoughtexchange sent a second round of invitations for district residents, parents, students and staff to Join the Conversation.

This phase of online conversations is the most recent of the district’s series of community engagement projects over the last few years, including summer symposiums, school board “community conversations,” and strategic planning sessions.

What is Thoughtexchange? What are these “phases?”

Thoughtexchange is a Canadian company which designed a way for thousands of people to respond to open-ended questions. That was phase one of the Thoughtexchange process that opened on Jan. 17 and closed on Jan. 27.

Phase 2 lets you review the comments others made and “star” the ones you like or agree with the most.

Phase 3 will collate the most popular comments, based upon the star review, and organize them by school and district on a Thoughtexchange website that will be live in March.

Two ways you can take part:

1. Respond to the latest email invitation from Thoughtexchange. Those were sent starting Feb. 11. Thoughtexchange sent them on behalf of school principals and the district, so you may see a principal name on the invitation.
2. If you did not get an invitation, or if you did not take part in the first phase, you can still sign up for the remaining two phases by registering online.

The process is flexible!

Phase 2 gives you lots of time to think about others’ responses. You can go back and forth through the pages of comments, and you can move your stars around. Even after you hit the “submit” button at the end of the process, you can go back to change your stars – as long as you do that BEFORE 11 p.m. on Sunday, Feb. 22 – and use the link included in your original email invitation.

Thoughtexchange received more than 6,000 comments on the district’s behalf in phase one of this conversation.

Superintendent Cohn was pleased with the number of people who responded to this new way of hearing from the community, “I thank all who took time to share thoughts and suggestions and look forward to seeing even more people reflect and evaluate those thoughts in this second phase. When phase 3 information is available in March, we will all have a clearer picture of what our community believes is important in our district and our schools.”

A look “inside” the process

Below is a screenshot of responses to What are your CONCERNS about the district this year? Participants can drag or click to add stars to comments they agree with. Online, the comment boxes “expand” so all the wording is visible. The top 25 comments about each question will appear on a Thoughtexchange website in March.

Click here if you’d like to register and participate.