Dear Team DPS,
This week, I want to take a moment to recognize and appreciate the tremendous spirit of togetherness, understanding, and perseverance of Team DPS and our entire community that has helped us and strengthened us throughout every day of the past year.
In the days and months since school -- and life -- as we know it suddenly changed, our educators, students, and families have had to adapt and push through, time and time again. It has been upfliting to see how everyone has come together through one of the most difficult times in all of our lives. And it’s a testament to how much our community values education and our children.
Last month, we asked all members of Team DPS to share their voice and provide critical feedback about DPS through our annual CollaboRATE engagement survey. We heard from 66% of team members -- about two-thirds of Team DPS! And your responses further showcased the resilience of this amazing team.
I’m excited to share that our overall engagement -- which measures how much people enjoy their work and believe they’re making a difference -- was just about the highest it’s ever been since we began this survey, at 75%. This is a one-percentage-point increase from last year. More team members than ever before -- an inspiring 89% -- shared they believe their job has a positive impact on DPS, and 86% of participants said they enjoy their work at DPS. While feeling valued continues to be the lowest engagement point, with 61% saying they feel valued as an employee of DPS, this number increased by three percentage points over last year.
In a year like this, navigating through a pandemic and so much more, this speaks volumes to the values and commitment of Team DPS. Thank you.
And we know we have more work to do. We will continue to share updates about the areas of growth the survey results highlighted. Please review the full results here, and keep an eye out for the second portion of this year’s CollaboRATE survey launching April 5, when all team members will have the opportunity to share feedback on their leaders, with celebrations and lessons learned from this past year.
Looking ahead, we remain optimistic about the possibility of bringing back more middle and high school students for in-person learning in the weeks following spring break. And we’re growing more and more optimistic for next school year, when we hope that we’ll be able to return to a normal school experience for our students, with health precautions always front-of-mind. I look forward to continuing those conversations with you next month.
For now, I hope you have a wonderful spring break next week. We appreciate all that you are doing, and I am thankful for the opportunity to work alongside such a mission-driven team of educators.
Sincerely,
Dwight Jones
Interim Superintendent
