Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout2017 Open Ended Comments    …helping organizations make better decisions since 1982  Submitted to the Town of Westlake, Texas  ETC Institute  725 W. Frontier Lane,  Olathe, Kansas   66061  May 2017  Town of Westlake  Resident Survey   Open Ended Comments  Appendix B  Contents  Open Ended Comments................................................................ 1  Q10c. If any of your children previously attended Westlake Academy, why did they stop? Classes, especially math and science, were not challenging enough. I felt my children deserved a more advanced academic curriculum. Mathematics, we felt they should improve. My children did not like Westlake. No 504 assistance. Poor athletic programs. Sports not competitive enough. Liberal views of teachers continually expressed. Quality of teachers. Teacher turnover, bullying, head of school has poor communication, rules not enforced all the time. Too much teacher turnover. We chose to live in Westlake for the Academy, and we were deeply disappointed in the school. The academics are sorely lacking, the teachers are poorly trained in the IB curriculum, and the behavior of the students is appalling. During our one year at WA, our children lost ground in all academic areas. There is no defined curriculum, and the teachers do not understand the fundamentals of the IB grading system. In our opinion, Westlake Academy is simply a poorly executed, underfunded public school with a nice façade. We were not being accommodated. If you have any other comments or a question you would like to see asked in a future survey, please enter the information in the space provided below. 1. Water rates are too high, especially sewer rates. 2.I am disappointed that the zoning of open space to the north of Glenwyck Farms has not been returned to its pre-Granada development. 1. I feel our parks should see continued improvement. 2. With all jobs, manage traffic/speed better (police). 3. Bought a lot in Quail Hollow, we love Westlake. A question for the future: how satisfied residents are with water/sewer rates. I feel the town in trying to recoup other costs by combining water/sewer rates and making those charges overpriced. Am very concerned with concessions being made to developers. I believe this is negatively affecting quality of life in Glenwyck Farms. Communication efforts, wondering if there are any changes to master plan for schedules on road/development activity. Don’t spend money on stupid stuff like the landscaping in the median on Dove Street, West of Davis. It is all dead in less than a year. Dove Road needs a bike lane as well as being repaved due to getting beat up by a lot of construction. Dove Road needs improvement. Get Davis Boulevard traffic lights in. Worried about Entrada, maintain high quality standards. More diversity in high quality housing is ok. Emailed the Mayor with no response. Moved to Westlake for the small town feel only to find massive development, building on every open space, installation of CVS is horrible eyesore, lower income homes, stoplights. Very deceptive and disappointing. Enforcement of non-polluting lights is very important. For future survey, would like to see if Town residents would approve a non-smoking environment especially for bars/restaurants. Town of Westlake Resident Survey - Open-Ended Comments Page 1  Have not seen published results of the previous survey.  I appreciate all of the community members who work so hard to make this such a great place to live.  I feel like for the amount of money we pay monthly, that trash pickup services should be better. Possibly more frequent, as it is once weekly currently, and more willing to occasionally pick up hazardous materials. I don’t feel that we get the amount of service for how much we pay.  I feel that trash pick-up is needed twice a week instead of once a week.  I love living in Westlake. It has so much to offer, a small town feel close to shopping, restaurants, and FW. People are friendly, neighborhoods are lovely. What does bother me is pylons left on the streets and sidewalks for weeks, even months with no construction being done or just being left after a job is complete. Also, the sprinkler flags are left for weeks, even months. For example, the flags on Davis between Dove and the Vaquero entrance. They have been there since last fall.  I wish the Town Council and P&Z meetings were video recorded and streamed so that people could follow online or go back and review.  I would like the Planning and Zoning Committee to consider a grocery store in Westlake. I think a Market Street in Entrada would be perfect.  Internet service is terrible, I cannot hear the weather sirens at my house, code red alerts are useless, and communications from the town and school are nothing more than propaganda. I simply want transparency and accountability; transparency in communications. Tell us the bad as well as the good, tell us about crime in the community; about the lawsuit with Glenwyck Farms, about the shortcomings of government; then, in turn, tell us what you are doing to address these issues. I have little or no faith in government, not because I expect perfection, but rather because the message is all about getting re- elected and holding your jobs, not about actually communicating, and make the town better.  Keep up the good work.  Keller Police are ticket happy.  Litter/garbage become an issue on trail system, trash cans are over flowing. Recycling bins would be good to have since much of the litter is beer cans and bottles, water bottles, etc. I have heard concerns that the quality of Westlake Academy has declined. This is a concern for me, given that my children attend.  Missing seniors should have silver alerts issued by local authorities.  My wife and I had always wanted to live here and now that we do, we know we were right. It’s just a near Utopian type of place to be.  Need light on Davis and Caquero Club Drive.  New subdivisions are killing resale for existing property owners. Please ensure that Quail Hollow is not marketed as part of Vaquero.  On question 9-I feel that neighborhood meetings should be held quarterly.  Our new house is for sale. We are moving out of Westlake for one reason only, our experience at Westlake Academy. It was a terrible school. We have since transferred to a private school in Dallas.  Please be careful of overdevelopment and density. That is one of the reasons that we left Southlake.  Please close Steve Court during ice days. Trucks hit mailboxes and people.  Roads need maintenance and also need to be remarked. Yellow center line is faded in most areas.  Safety is important, but the traffic police are over exuberant.  Something has to be done about the water consumption cost. It’s horrible.  Specifics for us to comment on “dissatisfied” answers.  Stop speed traps. Trails are filthy. Hard to get a hold of town staff.  The new shopping center with CVS is an ugly eyesore. Town of Westlake Resident Survey - Open-Ended Comments Page 2  The only thing I have thought I’d like to ask about is the total absence of lighting on Davis Boulevard. It seems so dark on that road at night and I wonder how spooky that would be if someone had car trouble or something and it was so very dark. It seems that such a main street would have some lights on it.  The real estate tax rates are too high and should come down. Water costs are excessive.  The town is doing a wonderful job of trying to meet the needs of both the citizens and Westlake Academy. Thank you for the staff continuing to make Westlake a great place to live.  The water is ridiculous. Our streets are so dark. I’m concerned the police will not be able to find our house in case of emergency, need sufficient lighting.  To be able to sell our property, Vaquero should be in Carroll School District, not Keller.  Town needs help with parks, school, and water utilities. Currently these services are not providing appropriate value and do not match the expectation of those living here.  Unresolved issues and concerns. Speeding on Roanoke Road is a major problem. An accident waiting to happen either exiting or entering the property, getting the post for the mail box, and of course kids going to each other’s houses. Not police presence and cars doing 50-60 MPH. Another issue is that we are building all these trails and parks but not on the other side of the town. There is no way for the Stage Coach/Roanoke Road residents to have any access to the trails and parks unless we have to drive, which is kind of silly, can we not create a trail from Roanoke Road to Westlake Academy? How can that be resolved?  Utilities, water very costly. Dove Road needs maintenance.  Very concerned about where Westlake Academy is headed. It was what attracted us to Westlake in the first place, but have only had about 50% success rate with good teachers so far with two of our children attending WA. Sometimes seems that grading is unclear and vague and little progress is made, but being told not to be concerned and everything is fine. Sure do hope so for my children’s sake. I’d like more action-oriented approach to helping kids reach full potential and possibly more structure in some cases. Also, math seems to be less strong at WA than in other schools. We are in PYP, but I’ve heard same type of feedback with higher levels as well. Considering if we should move to an ISD instead, as so many others have done. I’d really hate to leave the WA community, but I do think improvements are needed. Still love the IB learner profile that is developed and hope that we can get some other glitches out of the system to make WA really spectacular and not feel like parents need to do due diligence elsewhere. Also, very frustrated with the amount of trash that accumulates on the public trails and park/green spaces in the area. There are trash bins, but often overflowing. Beer cans/bottles are frequently dumped all over the trails and on the grass. Sometimes even entire empty beer cases. Fast food trash as well. Very sad to see so much litter in such a beautiful community. Would like to see more recycling training at Westlake Academy. At field day, there were no recycling bins available and all of the plastic bottles used by the entire PYP went into regular trash. Several teachers didn’t know where to find recycling bins and said to just throw away. This is the wrong attitude to have when training our future generations to be responsible caring citizens of the world. Would love to see this attitude change. And have recycling bins along the public trails too.  Water utilities are ridiculously expensive. I do not think we should have a lottery anymore for non- residents to attend Westlake. We need to keep the school for our children.  We are new to the community.  We are unhappy with our internet provider, One Source. We often have slow speeds and are often down. We need more than one option for internet.  We don’t have lights in the road, also need to repaint the signs. Town of Westlake Resident Survey - Open-Ended Comments Page 3  We have only lived here a few months and so far, the biggest drawback is the lack of shopping. I dislike going out of my way to go to the grocery store. I miss living in close proximity to Bed, Bath & Beyond, Home Depot, Home Goods, Ulta, and other retailers that were close to my last house. I love living here, but I miss the convenient location of my last home.  We love living here. Our children attend Southlake schools, mainly because of more advanced classes, gifted and talented programs.  We love this community. There is an access to people who are not only good neighbors but very influential in helping each other out.  We need a better way to communicate to the town as a whole. Most people do not read entire newsletter. Should have had signage up on corner where new firehouse will go prior to accepting land. No issue with need for it, just feel homeowners needed to voice thoughts in advance of final decision. Benchmark south lake process with robot calls and signage, then everyone is notified prior to major events, zoning changes. We are making progress but as Westlake grows, we need processes to grow as well. Everyone is glad to contribute, provide multiple opportunities to give input. Thanks.  We need cheaper water. We need other cable TV and internet choices.  We need traffic lights at Davis and Dove and at Solana and Davis. These intersections are dangerous, especially for teenage drivers.  Westlake Academy student parking and pick-up and drop off procedures block through traffic on Dove Road.  When will the traffic light go up on Davis Boulevard?  Wonderful community. Wish town enforced codes to take care of vacant properties. (Next to 5920 Mahtea.)  Would like consistent clear expectations per home builders, would like to see communities under construction better managed for trash and ordinances, more police to reduce theft while under construction.  Would like more water pressure.  Would like to see trash pick-up along Dove and Davis. Why do the flags remain for months and months?  You need to ask questions about satisfaction with the school and not just “do you value the school?” As the school is a primary function of the town leadership and lack of satisfaction with the communication, organization, leadership and hiring decisions affect satisfaction with the town, these questions should be asked of families with students. Town of Westlake Resident Survey - Open-Ended Comments Page 4