HPSD survey focuses district on website

Hattiesburg Public School District officials will put a renewed emphasis on keeping the district’s website fresh and updated after a recent survey revealed parents were using it as their primary source of school information.

District communications director Jas N Smith conducted the survey during mid- to late-June to find out how parents and community members were getting their district information and what news they felt they were missing.

He said he was surprised by the results.

“(I asked) what’s the best way to keep them informed,” Smith said. “I wasn’t expecting the response on that one.

“Because the thing that got the most responses was the website. I was expecting traditional print materials like letters in the backpack or phone calls.”

About 100 people responded to the survey. Twenty-seven percent said the district’s website was where they went to get information, while 20 percent said they would prefer a phone call. Only 10 percent said letters and 11 percent said flyers in their child’s backpack.

The district recently launched a new website which Smith said looks “10 times better than our old website.”

He said it would be easier with the new website to post the updates, student success stories and school calendars the parents said they wanted.

“(Now I know) it is one of the primary portals for our parents and the community to get information about the district,” he said. “I did not realize the level of importance our parents put on it.”

Smith said the survey results also yielded another surprising fact.

“I found out, too, the number of times our parents were going to the website,” he said. “Thirty-seven percent said daily and 30 percent said they went multiple times per day.”

Smith said those results will change the way he handles the website.

“I always kept it current, and I would try to post content every couple of days, but now I will try every day — even multiple times a day, if I can.”

Smith said the parents also asked if there was a way on the website to give feedback to individual schools and departments.

“We’ve always had ways to give feedback, but I’ll try to make it more user-friendly and easier to find,” he said.

Irene Williams-Jones, the district’s director of parental and community engagement, said the results of the survey would change the way she did some of her job.

“I’m going to have to be a lot more intentional now, because I send out a lot of printed things,” she said.

But Williams-Jones said the survey results solidified one idea she had been working on.

“I’m going to try to do a web meeting for parents where they can just dial in from home,” she said. “This is right in line with what the parents are saying.”

Williams-Jones said the results of the survey didn’t surprise her.

“It’s the times we’re living in,” she said. “Our parents are just like everyone else — they’re all about the social media and the websites.

“When you can’t get someone on the phone, you can always get information on the website.”

Smith said the survey results will help him do a better job of keeping parents up-to-date.

“I feel like it gave us a lot of information that we can use, and it showed us where can put our effort,” he said.