Thursday, December 08, 2005  
Open-Ended Results Detail
 
 
Please provide any other comments or feedback you may have on Parent Organizer & other Wilder electronic communications.
1. I don't have the time to click on all the links in the Parent Organizer. I want to go to the website and scroll through all the pages of the "packet", just like I did when it was paper. I miss the information that was consistently in the packet (ie, the date that morning enrichment class sessions end). With just a glance at the Thursday packet front page calendar, I could be reminded of what's coming up and plan for it. I want to do the same in Parent Organizer. When I open PO up, I want to see as much detail as possible immediately--I'll choose whether or not I read it. Because I can't take the computer with me wherever I go and glance through the packet whenever I have a free minute, I need to glean as much as possible from the precious few moments I have at the computer--not click on every link etc.
2. Hi! I enjoy getting the Parent Organizer on a daily basis. Sometimes I feel that upcoming events are easily missed if I'm not on top of reading all the details online or if I find that I am experiencing computer issues. It would be nice to have a combination of paper and electronic information. Maybe a Thursday packet once a month? Thanks so much for being interested in our feedback. I really appreciate it.
3. I think you are providing a very helpful tool. It is much easier to look at email than to look through pages and pages of information on thursdays. I am happy you have provided a way for me to get notification of school closures and emergencies. Thank you.
4. The only reason that I disagreed with most of the statements in question #1 is that I haven't trained myself to really look at PO daily. I am very involved at school and before PO I read my Thursday packet religiously and noted any events of importance to me in my planner, as well as I felt informed about everything. I find that with PO, if I'm in a hurry, I sometimes don't even look at it, and for example, I completely missed the Third Grade Play because I don't have a third grader and didn't specifically read about it. This is no one's fault but my own - I just need to train myself to use PO. I think it's a great thing and love the fact that we are saving trees. Keep up the good work, and I promise to do my part and learn to use it so it works for me.
5. Parent Organizer has allowed me to feel much more informed in a faster, easier format. There was constantly different papers sitting around on table tops that I couldn't keep track of. They would eventually get lost and I would have to search for the information again in some other way. Thanks to the entire team for pulling this off. It is TERRIFIC!!!!
6. It seems like half the time I try to get the online calander, it takes forever or I've had to try another time. I'd rather have it emailed to me so I can quick reference it when I want to and not rely on whether I can access the site or not.
7. Would love to have much more robust features similar to "Skyward Student" features that would allow us to interact regarding academics and other school activities, such as same-day attendance info, food services meals ordered by child, current grades in each class, missing assingments, etc. Would also like kids to be able to submit homework electronically as much as possible.
8. I was fine with the weekly packet and never had an info problem when we used it. Therefore, I had to disagree that parentorganizer provided better info. the info is about the same. but I do support using less paper and therefore I support parentorganizer. since I only get it weekly, however, I wonder if I am getting all the info.
9. - Even though I customized my activity lists for each family member, my daily emails contain many notices of activities that do not apply to me (for example, after school art classes and poetry club). Rarely do they contain the information that I really need (debate class, Spanish class, Classic Book discussions). - I think more options should be added for activities and interests (e.g. foreign language, Classic Books, Debate) - The website functionality could be improved. When I access the website from my email and navigate from there to a different page, the "Back" or "Return" buttons don't work. - I would like to be able to customize my calendar so that repeating events could just be scheduled once and set to repeat on a regular basis until a specified end date (e.g. Spanish is every Monday and Wednesday from 8am-9am until December 12th).
10. I personally liked getting paper. I could put it on my wall and refer to it instead of having to go searching through a website--it was all right there on paper. thanks!
11. I use many online services and love them, but I don't find Parent Organizer all that helpful. It's too easy to let something slip by. I'd like a short summary with each clickable headline and some sort of reminder service where I can pick enrollment items that I am interested in and get reminded as the deadline comes up.
12. I think enrollment in outside organizations must be suffering without the "paper"!
13. It is easier to have a week at a time to see everything, then be able to fill it in on the family calender. Emails are too easily missed or only read by one family memeber or not seen at all if you don't use the computer on a daily basis.
14. Thanks for setting this up! I prefer this very much over getting a bunch of papers in folders every week.
15. With time and experience things will be great. Keep up the good work!!!!
16. This has been a miserable experience for me. I am frusterated that we've been thrown into this system, with virtually NO information about what it is capable of doing, or how to use it. Yesterday I managed to find a calendar, somewhere, in the site....that was a miracle. I have not been able to find it again.... I am not informed about WHAT Parent Organizer does or HOW to find information in it, and I don't have time to try to figure it out on my own.
17. I would like to see more of the forms, such as sign ups for certain events and such on Parent Organizer. It might be beneficial to all if at the beginning of the year, there was some sort of education for the parents demonstrating the use of parent organizer so that they do not feel intimidated and more comfortable using and understanding the capabilities of this great system.
18. - Overall, Parent Organizer has improved communications considerably .. now, if I could only get my childs personal communication to me to improve. . can it help that? ;)
19. I liked the written packets, and I find clicking through weblinks to get info I need cumbersome. But if this saves money, I'm all for it.
20. Its a wonderful application thank you to the team that made it possible.
21. I love the listings (links) at the bottom of the emails headlining past and present items. This way if I missed something in a previous email, I can catch up with things I find of use to me. From my perspective, the electronic information has become much more useful this school year and I am receiving everything I need without the Thursday packet! I think this has a lot to do with the committee responding to what we are asking for in regards to clarity and content. Thank you!
22. I want to be able to be notified about my childs volunteer activities i.e. student council meetings, safety patrol meetings, etc... Perhaps I have not done our profiles correctly. Also, everything I can sign up for at curriculum night I would like a check box in the profile for - classic books, book swap, food drive, etc...
23. Please encourage more people, including staff, to use P.O. in a timely manner. For instance, we didn't know that gift wrap and report cards were coming home on the 17th until that morning's Calendar of Events. Families could have made plans to pick up their kids that day if they had known in advance.
24. I like the electronic communications. Unlike Thursday packets, which get misplaced or recycled, I can always go online and check the PO.
25. I really rely upon the what's happening tomorrow section of the email, but have recently found this to be very dangerous. Twice now I have nearly missed early dismissals. I strongly feel that items such as early dismissals and Innisbrook/Cookie order arrivals or any items that impact my schedule should be PROMINENTLY displayed on the opening page. Amazingly even today's notice read that there was nothing unusual going on tomorrow-like early dismissal.
26. From my logon, profile, provide easy to find links to LWSD, Wilder and Wilder PTSA websites.
27. This is not a complaint, simply an observation: I submitted an event listing for Parent Ed (Nov 15) and didn't know that I had to request to send reminder notices - I thought that would have been automatic. Now I know I should have requested that more reminder notices be sent the week prior to the event. I know the event was on the calendar, but as a user, I myself rarely check the calendar and rely mainly on the email updates. I wonder if a few email updates in the week prior to the event may have helped raise attendance.
28. It has improved greatly since it started. I believe that you have to actively want to seek out the info. It is great for the people who do that, but for the parents who hardly read the Thursday Packet, this is harder. Perhaps they are training themselves. Great job to the Parent Organizer team though!!!!
29. Good job, it's a wonderful tool.
30. What a superb job the team has done in smoothly implementing this transition!