The Panorama Survey will be discontinued by a vote of the Hamilton Southeastern (HSE) School Board Wednesday night, but the school district may be on the hook for $152,000 already paid to the firm for the remainder of the contract. The vote was 4-3, with Ben Orr, Tiffany Pascoe, Juanita Albright and Suzanne Thomas casting votes to discontinue use of the survey. Board President Dawn Lang, Sarah Donsbach and Sarah Parks-Reese voted against the measure.
The motion offered by Suzanne Thomas calls for discontinuing the use of the Panorama Survey, asking for legal review of the payment situation as part of the termination process and requiring the HSE Schools staff to come up with a survey internally.
“You’re making a motion to discontinue use (of the Panorama Survey) and we paid over $150,000 for a two-and-a-half year agreement, where the termination clause in the agreement says the only way we can terminate it is through a breach, which Panorama has not done, so we are going to pay $152,000 for something that should only cost us $61,000 a year,” said Sarah Donsbach. Then, the district staff will need to spend more money and supply a new survey internally that will not be vetted, peer reviewed, researched and reliable, according to Donsbach.
Assistant Superintendent Matt Kegley said the board approved the Panorama contract in February of 2022 for two-and-a-half years. Kegley said he had contacted legal counsel and there is nothing in the contract allowing the school district to recoup funds, unless Panorama chose to do that, because HSE Schools would be breaking the contract and Panorama has their money from the district up-front.
The Panorama Survey is a national survey given in the past to HSE students measuring a number of issues, in line with Indiana state requirements. Any internally-created survey put together by HSE Schools staff would be required to conduct any survey meeting state guidelines. Parents were allowed to opt-out of the last survey cycle and less than 5% of HSE families chose the survey opt-out.