'Millionaire' voting system to help School Board

The Pinellas district says the system, to be used at a hearing, will help board members gather information.

ST. PETERSBURG - Pinellas School Board members spent most of Tuesday afternoon discussing the best way to get public opinion about the qualities needed in a new school superintendent.

Mailing letters to various civic groups, city governments, neighborhood associations, PTAs and other educational organizations didn't work. Of the 100-plus letters mailed out, only 13 responded, School Board members said.

Now they're looking at newer technology to attract a wider range of people. The system is similar to that used to collect audience opinion on Who Wants to Be A Millionaire, or the call-in system used to vote on American Idol. "The more input we get the better off we are," said board member Carol Cook.

The system the School Board will use was created in 1994 by the Strategic Listening Institute in Everett, Wash. The School Board has purchased 100 key pads which can tally up to 200 responses.

Audience members can use electronic response pads to answer multiple-choice questions anonymously. Once a choice is made, the answer is tabulated through software connected to a main computer that can be instantly displayed with a graph.

"What the technology and methodology allows you to do is very rapidly find out what is mass opinion," said Charles Blick, director of Strategic Listening Institute. "It's your job to make decisions," Blick told the board. "The better informed you are on the front end of making those decisions . . . the more your decisions will make sense to the people out there in the community."

The School Board plans to use the response pads during a public hearing May 13.

School districts in Broward, Lee and Palm Beach counties have used the strategic listening technology on issues such as redistricting, budget and choice, Blick said.

A committee of board members will meet next week to form questions for a telephone program that will allow the public to phone in their opinions on the superintendent search. The telephone poll is hooked to a rotating 24-line system that allows people to call one telephone number simultaneously, Blick said.

The system will go into effect after May 27, Blick said.

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