After three failed attempts to persuade voters to back the costs of a new elementary school, the Carver school district paid a consultant about $15,000 to develop a strategy to build community consensus on the need for new elementary school space.

With the consultant’s help, the schools conducted an online survey of residents’ attitudes toward the issue, analyzed and posted the results, and then held two focus groups with participants representing different groups, including seniors, families with preschool children, and opponents of the previous building proposal.