Survey shows most pleased with schools

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NAUGATUCK — Most teachers, families and students have a favorable opinion of Naugatuck Public Schools.

However, there is room for improvement, especially at Naugatuck High School.

That is according to Naugatuck Public Schools’ Superintendent Sharon Locke, who released results this month of an end-of-the-year survey given to those affiliated with the district.

“What we’re seeing is the majority of people feel good about what we’re doing,” she said. “We also see that we got more participation this year from parents. That said, we want to improve at the high school, and we’re talking to union leaders and folks at the school to find out what specifically people have concerns about and ways to address them.”

The survey, taken by parents, teachers and students from grades kindergarten through 12, show all groups are pleased with the grades K to 6 levels, where between 82 percent and 95 percent of the teachers, parents and students gave overall favorable ratings. The numbers start to drop the older students get.

At City Hill Middle School, where Principal Eileen Mezzo took over for Brian Hendrickson, who left for another district, the school saw a 10 percent jump year over year in teachers saying they were pleased — from 81 percent to 91 percent. Overall family satisfaction jumped from 87 percent to 90 percent and overall student satisfaction went from 73 percent to 79 percent.

At Naugatuck High School, 67 percent of teachers said they were pleased, a 1 percent drop from last year. Overall families were more pleased, giving the school an 88 percent satisfaction rating, compared to 83 percent last year. Among the student population, 73 percent said they were pleased, compared to 68 percent last year.

Locke said she does not want to speculate on why the high school scores were lower than the other schools until she had an opportunity to hear more from the staff and students.

“Naugatuck High School was one of our focus areas this year,” Locke said. “Last year, we kind of could have blamed the high school construction project because that was happening throughout the year. But this year, we couldn’t. So we really need to figure out how we can give the best possible experience for our teachers, parents and students.”