Bias in design is something the School Board needs to be aware of

We were watching the March 7 Park City School Board meeting video and the board was discussing how they would educate the public on various locations for a new 5/6 school. A board member said that they should consider providing the public with pros and cons of each location (Bear Hollow, Ecker hill, etc.). School Board member Petra Butler cautioned, “You don’t want a biased survey. That’s what you have to be very careful about. If we put what our pros and cons are we just need to be very careful. We don’t want a biased survey.”

Bias may be our number one complaint with the School District Process over the last few years. Whether it is the make-up of groups put together to chart a course forward or the composition of committees that do the same, there always seems to be a level of distrust with the inputs into the decision making process. Sometimes those inputs seem constructed to ensure that a desired outcome is achieved.

What we like about Ms. Butler’s comments is that it shows an acknowledgement of trying to ensure that bias is minimized in surveys.

We just hope that translates into decision making as well.