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Hitting the streets with a census taker
Sandra Dunseith is 61, but she easily zooms up three flights of stairs, leaving a 25-year-old reporter struggling to keep up.
Dunseith is used to this.
For the past two months, she's been walking a lot, collecting information for the Loudoun County Public Schools census.
She walks sidewalks, driveways and flights of stairs, all with her clipboard, forms, reading glasses, pencils and pink notices in hand.
"I've got 40 [houses] to go and I've finished about 1,300," she said on a recent evening as I tagged along while she worked. "It's a tremendous number."
Dunseith, a bus driver, is working as an enumerator -- a census taker -- for the Loudoun School Census, which takes place every three years.
This year, 43 enumerators were sent out to canvass neighborhoods documenting children in each household that did not reply to the original census mailing sent out in March.
The census is how the county gets state funding for public education. For each school-age child, Loudoun County receives $2,400 from Virginia.
Otherwise, the money will come out of taxpayers' pockets, so it's important to try to reach everyone, Dunseith said.
That can be a challenge.
"A lot of people don't want to be identified," she said. "In one house, I saw a child waving from a second-floor window, but there was no answer at the door."
If someone isn't home, Dunseith leaves a census form and a notice urging them to mail it in.
The school system needs only the most basic information, including the child's first name, gender, month and year of birth, and the length of time the child has lived in the home. Even for babies or toddlers, it helps to have the information for planning purposes, Dunseith said.
Last time the census was taken in 2005, 96 percent of households responded.
This year, the school system expects a 90 percent return rate by the July 15 deadline.
"It's sad," Dunseith said. "That's quite a drop. People need to understand how important this is."
On our trek across South Riding, Dunseith and I knocked and rang doorbells to find varying responses.
Some people were kind and answered her questions politely or simply said they didn't have any children younger than 20.
Other times, we encountered rudeness.
"I'm in the middle of dinner," one man yelled as he opened the door.
Another woman signaled from a window for us to leave. She would not come down.
With her sweet British accent, Dunseith doesn't seem intimidating, but she said it's amazing how many people refuse to come to the door.
"I hear 'rustle, rustle' and I hear someone come and then ... no," she said.
Dunseith often uses neighbors or children playing outside to help her identify where children live. She must verify their answers, but any bit of information helps.
Overall, Dunseith likes the work and said being an enumerator can be fun.
After completing her final rounds on the last 40 homes, she said she would love to do it all over again in the next census.
"I'll be back," she said, "as long as I don't have any injuries."
Contact the reporter at ecoe@timespapers.com
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