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Steamboat Springs — The results of the Harris Interactive school survey are in, but an error in the survey's administration has left some local school officials disappointed.

Steamboat Springs High School Principal Kevin Taulman did not get as much from the survey as he would have hoped, he said. The results of the survey, administered at the end of the past school year, lack many of the answers school officials were hoping for because of a programming error that gave the wrong survey to students at Steamboat Springs middle and high schools.

The survey also was conducted in 2006. District officials intended to use the same wording on both surveys to measure district growth during the two-year time period.

The results of the district-wide survey will be presented at the Oct. 6 Steamboat Springs School Board meeting by a representative of the New York-based Harris Interactive.

The survey drew a total of 1,922 respondents, including parents, school staff and students. All students, teachers and staff completed the survey on the Web, while parents were mailed paper questionnaires.

"I didn't get much out of it; it's pretty disappointing," Taulman said. "I was actually looking forward to seeing it, to seeing where things are going and giving me some areas we could focus on as a school. But knowing that we don't have great current data, I want to make sure we're working on the overall climate of the whole school."

Of the usable data, the issue that was listed as the biggest concern for high school students was the temperature of the classrooms.

Junior Conner Herbison said the temperature does prove volatile during some parts of the year.

"It's one of the extremes; it's either hot or cold," he said. "(During the winter) they usually have the heat pretty good. It just takes a couple weeks."

Junior Sean Geisler agreed, but said the temperature was understandable given the variations in local weather.

"I think it's fine because some of the days here, outside it's really, really hot," he said.

The survey also showed satisfaction at the high school has slightly increased since the first survey in 2006, with 85 percent of the students rating the school either A or B.

"I think it really shows we have a caring staff," Taulman said. "I think the biggest thing that can influence things like that, in my opinion, is relationships with staff and students knowing they really care about them."

The high school's score jumped from 2006 to 2008, with the average score moving from 6.9 to 7.5 on a scale of 10.

Almost all major scores slightly increased in the two-year period, including overall teacher, staff, parent and student satisfaction.

The scores that decreased included elementary school parent and student satisfaction, and parent and teacher reviews of the Steamboat Springs School Board.

The School Board received an average review of 4.8 from teachers and staff and 5.9 from parents. That was the lowest score from each respondent group and a decrease from the 2006 scores in both cases.

In the elementary schools, 33 percent of parents said budget restrictions affected their child's education.

Elementary students' satisfaction decreased, as well. The largest complaint of this group, listed by 18 percent of the students, was that their teacher did not make the classroom fun.

Despite those issues, 88 percent of elementary parents and 83 percent of elementary students gave their school a grade of either A or B.

Steamboat Springs Middle School also fared well in the survey, despite a lack of usable data because of the programming error. Student and parent satisfaction made increases, with parents rating the school 7.9, up from 7.0 in 2006. Students gave the school a score of 7.5, up from 7.1.

- To reach Zach Fridell, call 871-4208

or e-mail zfridell@steamboatpilot.com