Incoming superintendent Thomas Oestreich released a district-wide community survey last December to collect community feedback. According to Oestreich, the district administration will consider the results of the survey while drafting the 2025-2028 Strategic Plan, a summary of the district’s goals for coming years. Oestreich said he plans to present the findings of the survey at the next board meeting on Jan. 27.
This survey is one of the first instances of its kind for the district administration. Oestreich said, “I wanted to reach as many community stakeholders as possible to provide feedback because I believe, and also our school board believes, that it’s important to hear from our community on how we’re doing and if there are areas that our community feels we need to improve on. Essentially, I want to make sure we are giving them a voice.”
The survey included a variety of questions regarding areas the district could strengthen, such as student safety, educational opportunities and mental health, as well as many other considerations.
Ami Riggins, Black Student Alliance (BSA) member, survey participant and junior, said she voiced her concerns about this school and what she believes administrators should prioritize. Riggins said she recalled attending an Equity and Inclusion seminar hosted by Oestreich and the school board.
She said, “(BSA) basically got to sit down with the superintendent and just talk to him about issues going around the school. One big change that I’d like to see is teachers cracking down on racism. There are a lot of incidents where something will be said in class and instead of the teacher actually confronting or punishing the student, they’ll say, ‘Be quiet, the lesson is happening right now.’ It just leaves you feeling like you’re in an environment where you don’t feel very supported by the school administration.”
Junior Natalie Bricken, who also participated in the survey, said there are areas she believed the school could improve on. For example, she said this school needs to concentrate on teaching students skills they will use to work in the real world.
“I think the most helpful question on the survey was asking what CHS can do more of in their classes and if they should facilitate more job experience that students can use in the real world,” Bricken said.
Oestreich said he worked alongside the district’s executive team, consisting of the superintendent, assistant superintendent and directors. In addition, administrators consulted with Qlarity Access, a company that facilitates data collection studies for various organizations, including school districts, to ensure the validity and reliability of the survey.
“I sat down with the president of (Qlarity Access), and we collaborated and brainstormed on how we want to receive feedback and what that feedback should be about, and then how that will help us move forward on our strategic plan,” Oestreich said.
However, Bricker said there is still work to be done beyond the survey, and said the questions of the feedback were far too general to be conducive to realistic change.
“It’s hard for the entire student population to give feedback about the entire school when people’s experiences are so different across classes because obviously teachers and so many other factors vary,” she said. “I feel like it’s not so much that the survey is the issue, but it’s too broad for it to give them really good feedback. So I feel like what students can do is continue communicating with their teachers and vice versa.”

Ultimately, Riggins said she hopes the survey results will help improve students’ experiences in the future. Riggins said, “I have a younger brother who just started high school. I’m hoping that he gets access to lots of opportunities because I know that CHS offers so many amazing things to do. But it’s extremely important to let him know about them earlier.”
Bricker echoed a similar sentiment, saying, “Students don’t understand what opportunities are available to them. The community needs to do a better job at telling students about what they can be doing because I feel many students aren’t informed about so many great opportunities offered to them.”
Riggins said students are not provided with enough opportunities to voice their feedback and concerns. “Attending the Equity and Inclusion seminar and speaking with the superintendent was like so meaningful because a lot of us were just ecstatic about being able to actually talk about this stuff and not just complain or joke about it to our friends. Overall, I feel like a lot of students need more opportunities to speak out about issues at the school beyond just reporting incidents,” Riggins said.
Oestreich emphasized how community members are able to provide continuous feedback beyond just the survey. He said there are many ways anyone can contact administrators and teachers to have a meaningful dialogue. But most importantly, as part of this process, he said he intends to use this community survey as a baseline to gather future feedback. He said he plans to conduct a similar survey after another three years to see what the district has improved upon and what issues still need to be targeted.
Oestreich said, “I’m extremely excited to become the new superintendent on July 1. The voices of our community are so important because we all play a role in having great schools. I will continue to work with our community to gather feedback as we continue to do the best job we can educating our students here in Carmel.”