TROY — The Troy City School District is planning to seek public input through a community survey that will be conducted sometime in the spring of 2023.

“We’re getting a pretty early jump on this,” Troy City Schools Superintendent Chris Piper said. “Our intention is to send out a district survey hopefully this spring,”

Piper discussed plans for the survey during the Troy City Schools Board of Education work session on Monday, Nov. 7. Board members took no action during the meeting.

“There are lots of things to consider,” Piper said. “We’re just trying to collect feedback for now.”

The survey would be targeted towards students, parents, staff and community members. “For students, we’d probably target grades six and up,” Piper said.

Links to the survey would be made available through the district’s website and social media pages, and students could take the survey on their Chromebooks at school during class time. The cost of the survey to the district should be minimal, Piper said.

“We will be conducting the survey ourselves, not contracting a third party,” he said.

“Just for transparency purposes, I think there’s merit to making it available through social media and our website,” Board President Sue Borchers said.

“I think now, more than ever, it’s important that we get community feedback,” Board member Michael Ham said. “It’s important we get a picture of how the community perceives the schools.”

In other business, board members also held preliminary discussions regarding a bond issue that could be brought to voters sometime in the next few years.

“At this point we do not know when a bond issue will be presented to voters,” Piper said. “We are waiting for notification from the Ohio Facilities Construction Commission (OFCC ) that funding is available.”

“We don’t currently have an estimate for what the cost of a bond would be,” Piper said, “but we will try to develop the best plan we can, while keeping costs down for taxpayers.”

Aging school buildings are one factor in the consideration of a future bond issue. “The main issue is the age of our buildings,” Piper said. “Additionally, we can become more efficient with fewer school buildings, which would save taxpayers money.”

Board members next regularly scheduled meeting will be held at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 17. The meeting will be held at the Board of Education Office located at 500 N. Market St.