天美网站传媒传媒

Gathering student and parent feedback for important education leader hires is rarely easy鈥攂ut Michael DeFrancesco, Director of Educational Services & Human Resources at Calistoga Joint Unified School District, thinks he鈥檚 found the secret. "天美网站传媒传媒 is honestly superior to any other type of feedback system we've ever used," he shares.

Situated in the north of California鈥檚 Napa Valley, Calistoga JUSD is a tight-knit community. It鈥檚 a small district, serving 860 students at two schools, an elementary and a junior/senior high school, and the district prides itself on its small class sizes, ample resources, and individualized instruction.

It鈥檚 important to the staff at Calistoga JUSD to be connected with the community to ensure their involvement in student success. 鈥淥ur school district is 85% Latino, with a high percentage of English learners,鈥� explains DeFrancesco.

DeFrancesco has been with Calistoga for five years and is in his 17th year in education. As Director of Educational Services & Human Resources for a small district, he wears many hats in his workday. So when it came to hiring a new Calistoga Junior/Senior High School Principal, he wanted to get the community involved in a meaningful way to ensure they picked the right candidate.

鈥淲e survey a lot,鈥� he explains. 鈥淚'm always on that line of 鈥榳e've done too many surveys.鈥欌�� Luckily for DeFrancesco, his new Superintendent, Audra Pittman, had recently introduced new engagement technology to the district. She had participated in an Exchange and was impressed with the depth of insights our platform could capture in a short period. So when she brought 天美网站传媒传媒 to the table at Calistoga, DeFrancesco and his team were on board right away.

鈥淚 immediately thought: we could use 天美网站传媒传媒 for our principal search,鈥� he tells us. 鈥淚f we鈥檙e going to survey, let's get the community鈥檚 real feelings and responses.鈥�

It鈥檚 not often that Calistoga finds itself looking for a new principal, so DeFrancesco wanted to ensure it was done right.

DeFrancesco wanted to know what the staff, students, and families wanted to see in a new principal, so he could ensure the interview process considered their needs when choosing a candidate. He sent the Exchange link out to the district鈥檚 staff, current and incoming students, and families, asking:

What are the most important skills, experiences, and characteristics that the ideal candidate should possess to be successful as the next Calistoga Junior/Senior High School Principal?

He was thrilled with the insights he received just over a week later. 鈥淭he responses were much deeper than with our traditional engagement methods,鈥� he says. 鈥淭he Exchange data gave us more clarity into what people were expressing鈥攙ersus just me looking at survey data and saying, okay, people rated this high and this low. 鈥�

As the community began to share their thoughts with each other and the leadership team, DeFrancesco got to experience what sets 天美网站传媒传媒 apart from other community engagement methods.

Our real-time AI analytics start to work as the first few thoughts come in, so DeFrancesco could watch how the conversation unfolded. 鈥淚t was fun to watch the results develop over time in the dashboard,鈥� he shares.

With our anonymous participation and randomized, anti-bias rating features, participants can share candidly and rate each other鈥檚 thoughts based on how well they resonate鈥攏ot on who shares them. 鈥淚 liked the Wordclouds,鈥� DeFrancesco explains, 鈥渁nd the ability to compare the quantity of keyword mentions with participant ratings to see the most important traits to the community.鈥�

This patented system of sharing and rating ensures that leaders can see whether the group shares an idea or issue or if it鈥檚 more of a niche concern. Instead of allowing the loudest voices or vocal special interests to dominate the discussion, with 天美网站传媒传媒, leaders can truly get to the heart of what their community supports鈥攅nsuring that the district鈥檚 decisions have the backing of their community.

We know that DeFrancesco is a survey guy, so how does 天美网站传媒传媒 compare to the standard surveys he鈥檚 used in the past? 鈥淏etter on all fronts,鈥� he tells us. 鈥淭he workload related to creating the survey was much faster, because instead of having to come up with the candidate traits yourself and then type out a survey鈥攜ou think of one open-ended question.鈥�

DeFrancesco didn鈥檛 ask for community feedback lightly. He asked the community to weigh in on the new Calistoga principal hire because he wanted to deeply understand and take action on their perspectives.

Our AI analytics work quickly, giving DeFrancesco the time he needs to read through his community鈥檚 feedback. 鈥淚 spent more time [than I would with a simple survey] looking at the results because of the depth of the responses,鈥� he explains. 鈥淚 wanted to give the community feedback the attention it deserves versus just looking at a graph of the highest or the lowest responses.鈥�

However, when it came to analyzing and summarizing the data, our platform took care of that instantly. 鈥淭he AI summaries were really nice to give verbiage and be able to read through, and I appreciate that the summaries were editable so that I could tinker with the wording a little bit,鈥� he shares.

Our secure integration with OpenAI, TE Advisor, draws from your Exchange data to execute your custom prompts鈥攍ike providing a concise summary of the community鈥檚 responses. DeFrancesco used our AI to summarize what each group was looking for in a principal鈥攕taff, students, and parents.