Novato Unified School District

NUSD is partnering with ThoughtExchange to gather input from our stakeholders. It is a community engagement platform that allows community members to share their thoughts and ideas on a specific topic. It is a unique two-way process where a participant shares an idea or thought to an open-ended question (confidentially) and then allows them to Star other thoughts.

You’re asked to answer one open-ended question with as many responses as you like and then move on to the next step which is Star. In Star, you’ll see your thoughts and the thoughts of others and assign stars to each thought (from 1-5) depending on how strongly you agree or disagree with the idea.

ThoughtExchange keeps confidential who shared each thought and who assigned what ratings. You can rate as many thoughts as you’d like before moving on to Discover where you can see all the thoughts sorted by the average star rating.

You can also navigate by using the bar across the top to go back and share more ideas or star some more thoughts at any time.

Here is a video showing how ThoughtExchange works: ThoughtExchange.

< data-fontsize="16" data-lineheight="24px">Below are the results of the Exchanges NUSD has held and links to related Virtual Town Halls:

2023-2024 School Year

• DISTRICT GOALS: Reflecting on the district goals that were recently shared, what areas could be enhance or refined? Click here to explore Employee input. Click here to explore Parent/Guardian input. Open September 22, 2023 – October 6, 2023.

2022-2023 School Year

• NHS PRINCIPAL INPUT: What do you believe are the most important qualities, characteristics and skill sets for the next Principal at Novato High School? Click here to explore Student input. Click here to explore Staff input. Click here to explore Parent/Guardian input. Open April 7 – May 3, 2023
• SAFETY: What do you believe to safety issues in NUSD schools and issues of increased youth violence in the community? Student Input. Click here to explore report. Open December 2, 2022 – January 13, 2023.
• SAFETY: What do you believe to be safety issues in NUSD schools and issues of increased youth violence in the community? Parent and Community Input. Click here to explore report. Open December 2-16, 2022.
• SAFETY: What do you believe to be safety issues in NUSD schools and issues of increased youth violence in the community? Staff Input. Click here to explore report. Open December 2-16, 2022.
• PARENTSQUARE: With the rollout of ParentSquare as NUSD’s primary communication platform, are there areas where you need help? Do you have specific questions? How can we best support you? Click here to explore report. Open November 9-18, 2022.
• NEXT SUPERINTENDENT: What do you believe are the two most important qualities or characteristics for the next Superintendent of Novato Unified? Stakeholder Input. Click here to explore report. Open September 27 – October 15, 2022.
• NEXT SUPERINTENDENT: What do you believe are the two most important qualities or characteristics for the next Superintendent of Novato Unified? District Leadership Team Input. Click here to explore report. Open September 1-5, 2022.

2021-2022 School Year

• SUPPORT/TRAINING: Reflecting on the past year and looking forward to the next school year, in what areas do you need additional support or training? Click here to explore report. Open June 2-10, 2022.
• PARCEL TAX BLUE RIBBON COMMITTEE: What are your thoughts about NUSD’s Parcel Tax Blue Ribbon Committee, your experience, your suggestions, etc.? Click here to explore report. Open May 10-16, 2022
• DRESS CODE: What are your thoughts about the dress code? Click here to explore report. Open February 9- May 16, 2022.
• PROFICIENCY BASED EDUCATION: What are you most interested in learning about Proficiency Based Education? Click here to explore report. Open January 7-14, 2022

• WINTER BREAK: What is on your hearts and minds as we prepare for winter break? Open December 9-14, 2021
  • Slide Overview
  • Summary of all responses
  • Summary of responses from staff
  • Summary of responses from the community
• SUICIDE PREVENTION: What are your thoughts and questions on suicide prevention for our youth? Click here to explore the report. Open September 16, 2021 – October 1, 2021.

2020-2021 School Year

• VIRTUAL LEARNING: What are your thoughts and suggestions on improving virtual learning? What worked and what didn’t. Click here to explore the report. Open May 24-June 2, 2021.
• IMPROVE COMMUNICATION: What are some ideas to improve communications with our school community? Click here to explore the report. Open April 19-April 28, 2021.
• April 15, 2021 Rancho Community Circle ThoughtExchange
• April 14, 2021 Lynwood Community Circle ThoughtExchange
• April 13, 2021 Lu Sutton Community Circle ThoughtExchange
• HYBRID LEARNING: What are your thoughts and questions about returning to school in a hybrid learning model? Click here to explore the report. Open October 16-October 23, 2020 Link to Virtual Town Hall held on October 26, 2020
• RETURN TO SCHOOL PLAN: What thoughts and questions do you have about our Return to School plan? Click here to explore the report. Open June 30-July 17, 2020 Link to Virtual Town Hall held on July 15, 2020

2019-2020 School Year

• BUDGET: What are your thoughts and questions about the proposed budget changes? Click here to explore the report. Open June 17-22, 2020 Link to Virtual Town Hall held on June 24, 2020
• RE-OPENING SCHOOLS: What are some of the most important considerations NUSD needs to think about as we prepare to re-open schools in August? Click here to explore the report Open June 4-16, 2020
• RACIAL INJUSTICE: NUSD is here to listen. Tell us your thoughts, experiences and/or observations of prejudice, racial injustice, and/or discrimination within NUSD. Click here to explore the report Open June 4-10, 2020