XYZ School District: Case Study

Communication within the Westside School District No. 5 between the school district and the communities and families that it serves is a very dynamic process. I talked with district administrators, community members, researched pertinent information in the Arkansas State University library, and various governmental online sources and found very helpful information to include in this sociological inventory. Westside Consolidated School District No. 5 is a consolidation of primarily three school districts Bono, Cash and Egypt located in Craighead County, Arkansas in 1966 (Westside, 2017). The district also includes parts of Walnut Ridge and Alicia in Lawrence County and parts of Jonesboro in Craighead County. The district has three school buildings housing students from pre-Kindergarten through twelfth grade. The elementary school is the school for

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.

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.

In 1995, there was a dispute between the Santa Fe Independent School District, and the families of the students who went there. Two different religious families filed a lawsuit against the Santa Fe Independent school district because religious prayers were being said over the public address system by the student council chaplain. The Santa Fe’s Independent School District violated the Lemon test law by allowing student-led prayers to be recited on the public address system, which was not furthering the student's education, they were not acting neutrally toward religion, which is a distinct part of the Lemon Test rule, and they violated the rule against government and religion being mixed.

The first clause of the first amendment to the United States Constitution reads, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof” (“First Amendment” 1). In Santa Fe, Texas, a student “chaplain” was elected by his or her classmates to give pre-game prayers at high school home football games over the school’s public address system. Several students sued, arguing that such solemnizing statements or prayers constituted an endorsement of religion, violating the Establishment Clause of the first amendment. The district countered that the pre-game invocations were a long-standing tradition in Texas communities, and because the prayer came from

The first clause of the first amendment to the United States Constitution reads, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof” (“First Amendment” 1). In Santa Fe, Texas, a student “chaplain” was elected by his or her classmates to give pre-game prayers at high school home football games over the school’s public address system. Several students sued, arguing that such solemnizing statements or prayers constituted an endorsement of religion, violating the Establishment Clause of the first amendment. The district countered that the pre-game invocations were a long-standing tradition in Texas communities, and because the prayer came from

The two district I chose to compare to the Youngstown City School District are Canton School and Mansfield School Districts. As I was going through the report cards I was not surprised at the similarities between Canton Schools and Youngstown, due to the fact that they are both city school districts. However, I was surprised with the scores from the Mansfield’s report card, and I am not sure why?

Prosper, Texas is one of the last additions to Collin County and has a current population of over 12,000 residents (Minor, 2010). Prosper’s establishment came about from the merging of two farming settlements in 1902, however the city’s name was not incorporated until 1914 (“History”, n.d.; Minor, 2010). According to the city’s webpage, Prosper is committed to being family-oriented and providing every resident an opportunity to experience quality living while maintaining small town ideals (“About Prosper”, n.d.). The Prosper Independent School District’s (PISD) vision to “reach everyone, everyday” (“REACH Philosophy / REACH”, 2002) mirrors the town’s belief in including everyone. Despite the exceptional growth within the city over the past few years, the school district is determined to meet the needs of its student population. One way in which PISD plans to ensure all of its students receive an equitable education, is through its adoption and implementation of the Response to Intervention (RtI) program.

Luis M. v. Hayward Unified School District case can be applied to this situation when a student was attacked and thusly injured in his school’s hallway in between class changes. There were no teachers supervising the hallway. Luis M. was a 15-year-old sophomore. Luis M. said a gang member attacked him in the lunchroom on his first day at Hayward High. Luis M. said the school was negligent in supervising the students and allowing the nonstudents to enter campus. Applying this case to the walkway here, the school could easily be considered negligent if a student were to become injured while traveling along this area because of a lack of supervision. The school is breaching its duty of care to the students’ safety. Lack of supervision could

Tucson Unified School District (TUSD) is the largest school district in Southern Arizona and the second largest in the state. It spans across the city of Tucson and is comprised of 56 elementary schools, 14 K-8 schools, 10 middle schools, 1 K-12 school, 11 High Schools and 3 alternative schools. TUSD prides itself on being able to deliver a variety of educational experiences at different sites for the 49,000 students it serves. Families are encouraged to choose schools that offer the learning opportunities to meet the needs of their children. The families that reside in TUSD are from varied socio-economic, cultural and ethnic backgrounds. 15% of the student population is enrolled in exceptional educational services. Two years ago a new

Saginaw Public School District, located in Saginaw Michigan is the urban school district of Saginaw, Michigan. The district has approximately 7,500 students and operates 15 schools which include, 10 elementary schools, 1 middle school and 3 high schools. Over the past 10 years there has been a drastic decrease in student enrollment. The main cause of the decrease in enrollment include Michigan’s failing economy. The closing of automobile factories has resulted in a huge decrease in the city of Saginaw’s populations. During the past 10 years there has also been closing of many schools in the Saginaw Public School District. The district is also operating in a deficit and has been required by the state of Michigan to decide a plan to eliminate

and populations of greater Tucson. This school started as a small community school and as word spread

I teach in the Westside Consolidated Number Five School District in Jonesboro, Arkansas. The school district is a consolidation of three small rural town school districts Bono, Egypt, and Cash, Arkansas in 1968. I met with my mentor Mr. Scott Gaunt the school district superintendent on January 18, 2017 between meetings with district leaders and countywide superintendents. We met and discussed the community relations plan and identified the two most important issues for our district as identified in the poll by the Phi Delta Kappan and the Gallop poll. The issues were the lack of financial support for the school district to provide an adequate education for students and the testing and regulations imposed on school districts that lower educational time for students while in school.

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)

As the contemporaneous society becomes a less safe place due to events such as natural calamities or man made disasters (e.g. shootings), the schools must adapt and become better able to manage crises situations. And recognizing this need, the state regulators provide their financial and counseling support for the implementation of more adequate emergency management plans.