School District Survey May Exclude Objectors

Today is the deadline to participate in the online survey regarding the Wall School District’s proposal to bump music instruction from the regular school day next year, but new information may call into question the validity of the results.

The survey, which has been available on the school district’s website for more than a week, appears to force participants into choosing a before-school or after-school music performance session.

It appears that it does not give an option for people to suggest the school district re-think its proposal and incorporate all music instruction into the regular school day, according to a screen-shot of the survey obtained by Wall Patch.

That would appear to contradict the district’s position that no decision has been made on the Intermediate School schedule while feedback from the community is solicited and other options are explored.

"We're still in the process of exploring other middle school schedules in other districts," Interim Superintendent Stephanie Bilenker said Tuesday.

Calls to Bilenker requesting comment were not returned Thursday.

In the sample obtained by Wall Patch, an error message appears when a user tries to skip Question 2, which asks if the user would prefer a music instruction period before or after school. The error message says one of the two options – before or after school – must be selected before the form can be accepted.

Has anyone else also experienced this error message?