By Staff
NILES - The Niles Community Schools are announcing a community phone survey concerning the recently completed facilities study.
The phone survey will be done by Marketing Partners of St. Joseph, this Thursday, June 2 through Saturday, June 4.
School officials are asking residents to be cooperative if they are called to participate in the survey.
The survey will take approximately 10 minutes and is designed to help the Facilities Steering Committee determine public opinion related to improving the school facilities.
Survey participants will be selected at random from the phone book. Calls will be made during the day and evening.
The survey results will help the Facilities Steering Committee develop a recommendation to bring to the Board of Education.
Included in the survey will be questions concerning closing buildings and the possible construction of either a new high school or a new elementary school.
The survey will also ask some questions related to the priorities of the school district in addition to standard demographic questions.
Last winter, the Board of Education hired the architectural firm of Tower Pinkster Titus Associates to evaluate the condition of the buildings in the district.
Results of the survey were discussed during three community forums that were held in February, March, and April.
The study concluded that the district was doing a good job of maintaining facilities, but that the facilities were becoming very old and needed major renovation.
The oldest building in the district is Eastside School built in 1939, and the youngest buildings, Ring Lardner and Ballard, were built in the 1960s. Niles High School will be 50 years old next year.
Results of the survey will be shared with the Steering Committee in July. A formal recommendation to the Board of Education is not expected until sometime this fall.