Gwinnett County Public Schools Case Study

There are approximately 300 children enrolled in California Elementary School under the age of eight. These 300 would have to find some alternative to school on Fridays if the Moniteau County R-1 School District’s schedule changed from a five day week to a four day week. Additionally student involvement and safety would suffer. Changing the Moniteau County R-1 School district’s schedule to a four-day week would be detrimental to students’ safety and involvement in activities.

Payette School District is located in Payette, Idaho and was founded in 1885. Payette is a small town in Idaho right next to the Oregon border with about 7,430 residents. The school district is employing 77 teachers and has a total staff of 81. With around 1,617 students, the schools, in total, currently have a 21:1 student to teacher ratio.

Seminole county schools is a top ranked school district, located in Central Florida. “Seminole County schools is ranked in the top 100 school districts in the nation in terms of offering high quality education in a moderately priced community. The school district has been recognized every year since 1992 for being in the top 10% of the nation's 15,600 school districts as meeting the needs of families choosing schools. Seminole County had 94% of their schools rated A or B schools with 80% earning an A.” ("Education", 2016)

Clay Country Schools are located in the southwest corner of North Carolina. The school district is currently the only that serves the county providing all grade levels, Pre-K through 12th Grade located on one campus. The campus consists of Hayesville Elementary School, Hayesville Middle School, and Hayesville High School. Historically Clay County Schools has not always been the only public school system to serve the county. Below is a case study of the history of the schools in Clay County and the demographic and fiscal characteristics of the current school system along with statewide comparisons and a recent North Carolina school lawsuit.

Gwinnett County residents will soon see lots of improvements around town this upcoming year. This is all thanks to the Sugarloaf Community Improvement District, or CID. Alyssa Davis, Executive Director, had some very exciting news about the future of Gwinnett when she spoke to the Peachtree Corner’s Rotary Club on Monday, October 23.

With the Southern Poly-Tech-Kennesaw State University merger, there has been a new influx of thousands of students. However, there hasn't been any push to expand on the already limited parking that is provided to Kennesaw students. If Kennesaw State built more parking spaces, the students could greatly benefit from it. With all the new money coming in from the new students bringing in millions of dollars of tuition we should be able to bear the cost, even if it’s not a big lot. Kennesaw State should be spending money to help the students, and this could affect thousands of students every day.

This allows the discipline to remain at a local level, where there is someone with a better understanding of the situation and allows for a better synopsis. This also helps to alleviate the issue of the case being pushed over the heads of the school administration to the school board or special committee with no knowledge of the situation, and allows them to focus more on the tasks that they have. Once all parties have been notified and made fully aware of the charges or cause for discipline, then the actual discipline or consequence can be issued. Students are entitled to an informal hearing, at a minimum, before being suspended or expelled (Due Process).

The mission of the North Carolina State Board of Education is that every public school student will graduate from high school globally competitive for work and postsecondary education and prepared for life in the 21st century. The Partnership for 21st Century Skills developed a vision for 21st century student success in the new global economy. Mastery of core subjects and 21st century themes is essential for students in the 21st century. Core subjects include English, reading or language arts, world languages, arts, mathematics, economics, science, geography, history, government and civics. Students must be proficient in 21st century themes process life and career skills, learning and innovation skills, and information, media and technology skills.

According to Federal Public Law (PL 108.265 Section 204), all schools had to create a wellness policy in June 2006. New legislation requires an updated wellness policy by June 30, 2017.

Teachers must not be allowed to continue to bully their students. Teachers have the upper-hand against their students, so many instances of bullying can be brushed off as disciplinary actions. Announcing a

In the southeast corner of Pennsylvania, lies the town of Kennett Square. While it is a part of two school districts, the downtown area is located in the Kennett Consolidated School District. Like with all districts, there are intricacies that make Kennett special. The students are the essence of any school and those that attend affect the climate and culture. Another group of important people in the building is the teachers and administrators that help the school function every day. There are many moving parts in an educational system, and the way they come together tells the story of a school.

They are given complete discretion on how they want to implement rules in their district. School safety is one of the main reasons for adopting a zero tolerance of violence policy and educational leaders are focused on handling these types of situations with safety in mind. Moreover, this was the basis for which the nine students were punished. Regardless of the reasons students become involved in negative situations, they may be held responsible and face the consequences of their actions. That is, students may still be disciplined in spite of their motives. In this regard, the zero tolerance of violence policy does not preclude making decisions about student intent and motivation of individual students. Conversely, students are allowed their due process rights, where they are able to dispute any accusations or problems they have with the decisions made against

Administrators have responded to criticism by saying that they must treat all infractions the same way. This is not indicative of fairness, especially if a student who was caught with a pair of nail clippers was treated the same as a student who came to school with a firearm in their backpack. This is not to take away from the importance of taking a firm stand against violence. “To get a true picture of school violence, you must look at reported incidents, unreported incidents, and underreported

As stories like Moniques and other people demonstrates, there are policies out there that just simply do not work.. One is called zero-tolerance policies, and while these succeed at sending the message that bullying is not tolerated, there are several problems with them. Nora M. Findlay believes, “ One of the most serious problems inherent in zero tolerance is that it treats dissimilar problems in a similar way” (6). Secondly, “Students and teachers may be less likely to report and address bullying if suspension or expulsion is the consequence” (United States Department of Health and Human Services). Two other policies that are used but never works is called peer-mediation, and conflict resolution. The United States Department of Health and Human Services stresses, “Conflict involves antagonism among two or more people. Whereas any two people can have a conflict (or a disagreement or a fight) bullying only occurs when there is a power imbalance-where one child has a hard time defending himself or herself” (“Myths about Bullying” sect. 1). This difference is very important to be aware of because these strategies can make the people being bullied feel even worse. Not only that, but it sends the message that all children share equal blame, which is definitely not an appropriate message. The message to the person being bullied should be,

There is a fine line between dangerous threats that need to be addressed, and simple immaturity. Many of the incidents that children are enacting in school seem to be misunderstood by faculty and administrators as seriously dangerous issues when in fact they are nothing but immaturity and stubbornness transpired by children being children. Dr. Lawrence T. Kajs states “There is a need for educational reform of zero tolerance policies in school disciplinary management procedures” (Kajs). Kids get angry and jealous, and therefore start fights for unnecessary reasons. That is just part of growing up and the hormones that conjure up in their bodies is not something that is easy to control. Although, that doesn’t mean that they should be expelled from school for minor offenses, especially if no one is hurt in an incident. “Zero tolerance discipline policies, harsh sentencing laws, and the gentrification of color have devastating effects for the