
NEW HANOVER COUNTY — New Hanover County Schools has released the results of staff and family surveys, revealing sentiments surrounding reopening with Covid-19 in the community.
The surveys were distributed prior to Governor Roy Cooper’s decision Tuesday, which declared all public schools in the state would reopen under a mixed schedule with both in-person and remote-learning instruction.
Related: NHCS will alternate with one week in-person, two weeks remote schedule
The staff survey was sent only to NHCS staff members. With about 3,500 employees, the survey had about a 41% response rate, according to information provided by an NHCS spokesperson.
A separate family and student survey wrapped up Monday afternoon. It collected 12,454 responses and 176 responses from Spanish-speaking families. Another community input survey will remain open through the summer, according to NHCS.
The staff survey showed that a majority (52%) of respondents would prefer to work remotely only. About 8% reported they would either quit or use as much leave time as possible if remote-only work was not made available.
Results from the family and student survey (slides one through seven on the presentation) showed a majority of respondents were extremely comfortable (38%) or moderately comfortable (34%) with staff and students returning to in-person instruction, with about 27% reporting they would be uncomfortable with returning. The proportion of Spanish-speaking respondents uncomfortable with returning was higher, at 39%. Covid-19 is disproportionately impacting Hispanic residents locally, statewide, and nationally.
A majority of respondents to the family and student survey (74%) reported they would send their students to school if alternating in-person and remote-learning weeks were enacted. The remaining 26% reported they would not send their students to school for face-to-face instruction if given this option. Again, Spanish-speaking respondents were more likely to report they would not send their students to school with this option, at 47%.
View the survey results here. Note: Slides one through seven reference the results of the family and students survey and eight through ten include staff survey responses.