Ithaca Community Survey

Dear Parents and Community Members:

Bulldog Pride has fueled our community for generations. The community’s approval of our operating referendum in Fall of 2024 is a great example. These funds allowed us to maintain our high-quality programs and services, ensuring all students are learners today, leaders tomorrow. In recent years, our students and staff have excelled across domains — our classrooms and programs continue to thrive, with students earning Academic, FBLA, Youth Apprenticeship, Honor Roll and National Honor Society honors, and faculty receiving awards like the Solis Ithaca Teacher of the Year in recognition of outstanding teaching. Meanwhile our baseball team claimed the WIAA Division 4 state championship in 2023, forensics competitors have earned perfect scores at the state level, and students in wrestling, clay target, and across other sports have advanced to state competition.

While we are proud of our successes, we know that there will be challenges ahead, including renewing our operating referendum in the future to ensure we are able to maintain the quality of educational programs our students and families have come to expect. Our focus will always be to provide exceptional opportunities for our students and community members. Therefore, we also need to develop a plan to:

· Increase the safety and security of our school (secure entrance & student drop-off/pick-up)

· Ensure our educational spaces in the fields of Career and Technical Education (CTE) and agriculture meet the needs of our students today and into the future

· Improve the spaces for pupil/student services and special education programming

To accomplish this goal, the school board asked for community volunteers to lead this planning process. In the spring of 2024, a Facility Advisory Committee was formed, made up of community members and district staff. This group has been meeting for the last year and a half developing the options and ideas explored in this survey.

Ultimately, the District’s goal is to finalize a plan that reflects the priorities of our taxpayers and meets the needs of our students. This survey is an attempt to hear from all District residents to establish a community-wide perspective. Therefore, we are asking you to take 10 minutes to complete this survey.