The survey was conducted in two sections: the paper ballot found within TheReckoner and the in-person interviews conducted by myself and two fellow Editorial members: Andrew L. and Nicole P. Both portions of the survey lasted for a week within the month of March. In total, 5% of the school was surveyed with 34 paper ballots submitted and a total of 58 in-person interviews conducted. The results of the survey are as follows:

Paper ballot results for “What if your favourite thing about Garneau?”

Paper ballot results for “If you could change one thing about Garneau, what would it be?”

In-person results for “What if your favourite thing about Garneau?”

In-person results for “If you could change one thing about Garneau, what would it be?”

Students found that a Utopia Garneau would consist of cleaner washrooms (35%), better school events (33%), and a less crowded cafeteria (14%). All three options were widely discussed during the conversations we had when we conducted in-person interviews. Students also discussed the need for cleaner washrooms and readily available toilet paper as well as better school events. Lastly, the request of a less overcrowded cafeteria, to my surprise, was generally from students sitting outside the cafeteria. I originally thought that students who ate lunch in the cafeteria would complain about how it was filled to the top, but instead, it was the people who crave to sit in the cafeteria. This is likely due to these students’ desires to eat lunch in the cafeteria but find it too overcrowded to do so.

Sadly, Garneau student’s favourite things about our school are repetitive, routine events, such as Friday Early Dismissal or Spare Periods. When asked what their favourite thing about Garneau was, 33% of students chose Friday Early Dismissal, 23% chose Spare Periods, 15% chose Friends and Classmates, 11% chose clubs and extra-curricular activities. In total, only 5% of students chose Spirit Events as their favourite thing about Garneau.

Surprisingly, the results of the paper submissions were a lot more distributed than the in-person surveys. There is little explanation for this other than the fact that active readers of The Reckoner have a more diverse interest in activities within the school.

This survey was comprehensive and elaborate on sensing the preferences of students. Some improvements to future The Reckoner surveys would be to ask gender, learning stream (Academic, Applied, TOPS, SHSM, etc.), involvement within the school, and more so we can analyze the differences of opinions between diverse groups.