Approximately 47 percent of Virginia Beach City Public schools (VBCPS) staff took part in the 2014 Employee Survey, which was opened earlier this year. And, administration is taking in the vast feedback they received from it.

“Leadership will continue to review, analyze and address information shared by employees,” Chief Human Resources Officer John Mirra told the School Board during the presentation of these results earlier this year. “Involvement of our stakeholders in continuous improvement is paramount to the success of our school division.”

In years past, this survey has led to a host of changes for the division, including allowing donation of sick leave, adding school improvement specialists to secondary schools, increasing mileage reimbursement rate for employees, developing the Employee Self Service program and creating the annual “Meet and Greet” event for principals and interested employees to meet. You can see the complete list below:

Staff is meeting to address the major themes of concerns brought up by the survey, including compensation, health care costs and standards based grading.

Already this year, the School Board passed revised calendar committee recommendations to the school calendar, specifically that Saturdays will no longer be used as makeup days.

The survey, which was overseen by the Departments of Human Resources and Planning, Innovation & Accountability, was made available to all VBCPS employees as part of the Employee Input Process to give staff members a way to offer their opinions on division issues that directly affect them. It covered a wide variety of issues, including professional development opportunities, salary and compensation as well as employees’ perceived role in supporting Compass to 2015.

From here, administration is moving forward with addressing the issues brought up in the survey.

“We remain committed to continuous improvement and ensuring that employee feedback is gathered and considered,” Mirra said.