Calgary Catholic School District - in Alberta - Thoughtexchange
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Calgary Catholic School District in Alberta
Publicly funded Calgary Catholic
School District pulls off possibly
one of the largest stakeholder
engagements ever.
How do you decide whose child gets to attend a school in his or her neighbourhood,
and whose child has to get on a bus to get to class? With budget constraints
ultimately dictating how this balance can be struck, the reality is that no matter
what decision is made, a portion of stakeholders will not be happy. And since the
budgeting process is not a democratic process, the task of making the “best
decision for the best number of people” becomes all the more challenging.
Stakeholder input is critical but surprisingly difficult to do well. The more
stakeholders providing input in a meaningful way, the better informed budgets can
become. The less money spent on meaningful engagement, the more schools can
allocate to opportunities for students – something that every educator yearns for.
15,000 participants 370,00030,000
stars
thoughts
0,000 stars
30,000 thoughts370,000
participants 370,000 stars 15,000 participan
2
30,000 thoughts
370,000 starsPast efforts reveal the best road forward
Leading the effort on behalf of the Calgary Catholic School District (CSSD) and its board of
directors, CFO and Secretary Treasurer John Deausy has a longstanding history engaging
stakeholders. Applying the International Association for Public Participation (IAP2) model to
their Help Plan our Future initiative, the District was able to see firsthand the effectiveness of
World Café meetings, facilitators, surveys, open houses, workshops, and advisory committees.
While successful in several respects, these techniques were “very time consuming and taxing”
and predominantly represented the “poles of an issue” says Deausy. The CSSD realized they
were not hearing from stakeholders at “the middle” of the issue. Choosing the right questions
to ask participants also proved challenging; while presenting stakeholders with a list of
priorities to choose from was too narrow in scope – and open-end too broad. It became
apparent that their process needed to evolve. What they sought was a tool that could capture
“the middle”, gather input, and allow stakeholders to evaluate that feedback in terms of their
own priorities. “Thoughtexchange was able to cover off these [concerns]”, says Deausy.
“CSSD is well in line with its priorities and the information
we learned from the Thoughtexchange process can help us
confidently shape our messages to stakeholders.”
JOHN DEAUSY, CFO AND SECRETARY TREASURER, CALGARY CATHOLIC SCHOOL DISTRICT
Record participation means record involvement from the community
“There’s no way to get 15,000 people out to meetings”, says Deausy of the response the
CSSD achieved using Thoughtexchange. This substantial group of individuals responded with
30,000 thoughts and ideas, and 370,000 ‘stars’ representing the group’s highest priorities for
the upcoming school year’s budget. In the past, each of its four stakeholder groups presented
unique challenges; while parents and students wanted to provide input, school and student
advisory councils just didn’t capture enough people. Compounding this problem, 20-25% of
students are English language learners, with even higher numbers among parents. And when
3it came to engaging staff, as hard as the District tried, they found that difficult questions
surrounding lower funding priorities and potential program cuts negatively impacted
staff cooperation. The final and largest single segment – representing 70% of the CSSD’s
stakeholders – are Catholic rate (tax) payers without children in school, whose engagement
had traditionally been the hardest to obtain.
Using systems that people
are already comfortable with
pays off
Using an electronic solution proved to
be the only way to bring such a diverse
group together. Overall 106 online en-
gagements were created (one for every
school in the district). This brought
input forward on a district level, but The Calgary Catholic School District
once disaggregated, could also show (CSSD) educates and empowers its
input at the school and even issue level. students from kindergarten to Grade 12,
In total, 62,000 emails were sent out.
through its mission of Living and
Student information systems were used
to email parents, and the District’s in- Learning in the Catholic Faith. CSSD
ternal network was used to email staff. is the largest Catholic school district in
Thoughtexchange was presented to Alberta, serving more than 51,000
students through computer labs in CTS
students in 105 schools located in
classes which effectively maximized
student participation. Connecting with Calgary, Airdrie, Cochrane, Chestermere
their Catholic rate payers however was and the Municipal District of Rocky View.
still a challenge and is “something we cssd.ab.ca
will try to crack next year” says Deausy.
Overall, using the new tool proved very
successful, and with the exceptional
response received, the District was able
to create its current budget and inform
future school planning.
4Reassuring responses lead to better planning and peace of mind
The results were consistent with what the District had been hearing through previous en-
gagements and the priorities identified fell within their expectations. “CSSD is well in line with
its priorities and the information we learned from the Thoughtexchange process can help us
confidently shape our messages to stakeholders,” said Deausy. The Process allowed the CSSD
to feel confident in the information received, knowing they heard from the largest group of
stakeholders in their history, and whose participation helped establish the priorities set. The
ability to see how respondents were segmented also helped the District feel more confident
in the process. Of the 15,000 participants, 10,000 were parents, 4,000 were staff, and 1,000
were students.
Despite initial reservations about opening themselves up so extensively to their stakeholders,
the CSSD felt very reassured to see that the values they hold “near and dear are what people
appreciate about [them]”, says Deausy. Most importantly, by identifying an engagement tool
that was able to deliver possibly one of the largest stakeholder engagements ever, the
District was able to use both the collaborative and financial benefits of this process to
provide the brightest possible future for their students.
CSSD’s single process
got 15,000 participants, to share 30,000 thoughts, with 370,000 stars.
Or they could have held a town hall for 21 days straight!
15,000 participants each taking 21minutes
minute would take 21 days
21
24 h
a football field of people for each participant to running
packed like sardines provide their input 24 hours a day straight
thoughtexchange.com
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