Dallas Center‑Grimes superintendent reviews strategic plan progress and reports dip in staff engagement survey

Dr. Scott Bloom, superintendent of the Dallas Center‑Grimes Community School District, told the board at a special meeting that the district has advanced implementation of its strategic plan and begun bond-funded construction work while acknowledging declines in staff engagement scores this year.

Bloom said the district met substantial milestones on his first annual goal—rolling out an instructional framework, improving elementary report card implementation, expanding MTSS behavior supports, and completing a compensation study—and credited staff and program leads, including curriculum facilitator Alex Glade and members of the teacher quality committee, for the progress. He said the district is moving from planning into implementation on multiple bond projects and that OPN (architect) and DCI (construction management) are working with district staff; schematic design for the high school is narrowing toward a bid package targeted for late fall or early winter with a construction‑start window around summer 2027.

The superintendent also presented results from an employee engagement survey administered through Qualtrics that drew roughly 330 responses, about half of district staff. Bloom reported year‑over‑year declines on six superintendent‑focused questions: for example, combined “agree”/“strongly agree” that Bloom is “a great partner in the work happening in my building or department” fell from about 93% to 82.9%; other items such as confidence in Bloom representing the district locally and statewide and perceptions of whether Bloom has staff members' best interests in mind also showed smaller declines. Bloom said the qualitative open‑ended feedback most often cited compensation concerns, requests for more transparency about decisions and hiring, and a desire for more authentic staff voice and building‑level accountability.

Bloom said he used an AI synthesis tool to condense open‑ended comments into themes and action recommendations and described steps he and the leadership team will take: publishing clearer project timelines and progress updates on the district and bond websites and ParentSquare, producing a total‑compensation statement for staff in the fall, implementing leader‑rounding (face‑to‑face check‑ins every four to six weeks with a stoplight report protocol), and rotating department‑specific questions in annual engagement cycles to improve trend analysis.

During board discussion members asked about survey timing (the survey opened May 18 and was available for about two weeks), whether presentations to buildings before or after the survey influenced responses, and where district compensation sits among area peers. Bloom provided a metro comparison: he said the district's compensation percentage for the year was 3.48%, which he described as second highest among comparable metro districts this year; he also said the district will provide a full, benefits‑inclusive compensation statement in the fall so staff can see total compensation figures.

Bloom emphasized that while aggregate agreement remains positive overall, the declines are real and will shape his work and recommendations for improvement leading into the June 22 evaluation discussion. He closed by reiterating his intent to use the survey input to increase transparency and follow through on specific actions raised by staff.

The board did not take a formal action on the survey at the meeting; Bloom said more district‑level engagement results will be presented at the June 22 board meeting.