Survey: Public doesn't have clear picture of school district's academy plan

As the Jefferson City Board of Education moves forward with its plan to build a new high school, recent polling suggests its challenge to communicate ideas about the academies will continue to be an "uphill battle."

Polling by Patron Insight, a Kansas-based research firm, suggests "while the district has been talking exhaustively for months about the academy concept, only two of eight key facts about that concept are known by at least half of the survey respondents."

In late August, the firm conducted a 10-minute telephone survey with 400 randomly selected registered voters - heads of households - from across the district. The poll has a margin of error of plus or minus 5 percent.

Two concepts the board has hoped to relay to residents include ....