Beaufort County School District South Carolina 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

I filed an application with Chesapeake Public School systems, so that I could become a part of an organization that values teamwork, dedication, and academic success. Chesapeake Public Schools exhibits a positive, collaborative, and cooperative learning environment not only for the students but for their employees as well. Being committed to the academic development and success with the help and support of students, parents, teachers, and other staff members is a plus to any working environment. These are great attributes for any organization to possess, which is why I chose to become a part of the Chesapeake Public School.

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.

Everyone present at the September 11th meeting of the Metcalfe County Board of Education shared in a moment of silence in honor of Harold Chambers, who passed away on September 8th. He was a beloved member of the Metcalfe County School System for many years and will be missed.

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.

Bureau Valley’s school board is comprised of seven members. Each member represents a section of the district. These board members are very prominent figures in our communities; they have much of the communities support. Although popularity, may not be what is best for the students. Looking at the Bureau Valley school board mandates, they are ultimately only required to do 4 hours of training and attend a few meetings when elected (Bureau Valley 2013, 120). Unfortunately, it is 2016 and the board member with the most recent training of any sort happened in March of 2014, almost two years ago. David E. Lee and Daniel W. Eadens, authors of “The Problem: Low-Achieving Districts and Low-Performance Boards,” find that school boards like Bureau Valley’s are not uncommon. Lee and Eadens find that most school board members only receive about “six hours of training per year,” compared to Bureau Valley’s four per election, our board is severely undereducated (Lee and Eadens 2014, 3).

In 1995 the Supreme Court stated that schools could randomly drug test their athletic students. By 2008, 16 percent of school districts had started to take on some kind of drug testing program (John 2). Even though the Supreme Court has a certain amount of ruling on who is tested at the schools, some schools have expanded their range of students, a few going all the way to the whole student body (John 2/3). One of the main reasons the supreme court ruled towards testing the student athletes is because they are supposed to be seen as the role models and influencers of the school, and outside the school. Seeing athletes doing drugs might increase the drug use of the school. (John 3). Student

In response to the issues, the school district made an effort to quell the issue by inviting speakers, and several different presentations to limit the drug use of students help the comprehend it’s dangers and negative impacts. However, this did not stop the problem. To solve this issue, a policy of drug testing had been adopted. One student in particular, James Acton-- had refused to participate in these random testing. Upon his refusal, he was then denied participation in his school’s American Football Program. After this case was taken to the Supreme Court, an argument for James Acton was that the random drug testing policy violated the clauses in the 4th amendment that protected for unreasonable searching. The Supreme Court decided that the search was in fact reasonable due to the schools attempt to quell the issue of drug use and keep students safe. The majority opinion stated that the search was reasonable. There was hard evidence that there was definitely a drug problem in the school. To quote an excerpt from acclaimed author Johnson Scott F “Fourth Amendment rights, no less than First and Fourteenth Amendment rights, are different in public schools than elsewhere; the "reasonableness" inquiry cannot disregard the schools ' custodial and tutelary responsibility for children. For their own good and that of their classmates, public school children are routinely required to submit to various physical examinations and to be vaccinated

Parkway School District should stop using Pearson Envision 2.0, because students get confused by the wording of problems, the online games are not engaging, and there are not enough examples of how to do problems in the book.

The Washoe County School District recognizes the importance of sustainability and how sustainability will allow for our stakeholders to have a successful future. As a district we believe in implementing sustainable values in each person that we come into contact with by leading lives that are reflective of creating a sustainable future. The WCSD defines sustainability as: creating an environment that promotes learning, civic engagement, and collaboration in ways that create mindful citizens that are aware of how the choices we make today impact our current conditions and have ripple effects that carry into our future.

In January of 1996, six months after the United States Supreme Court ruled that it was appropriate for Oregon’s school district 47J in Vernonia, to require student athletes in middle school and high school to participate in random, suspicionless drug tests, one percent out of the 16,000 schools in the country had brought the random drug testing into their facilities. (Taylor, Robert) Even though the Supreme Court ruled this way, they did not feel that this testing was a good idea. There had to of been some reason for this. (Bailey, William) If only one out 16,000 schools pick up on drug testing as a good idea, then there is more than likely something that the schools don’t think is right with it or they are unable to do it for some reason. Research shows that drug testing of public school athletes is not a good idea because it singles out athletes from all of the students in the school and suspects them of using drugs it is also a waste of time and money, and consists of low accuracy tests that so not always give the correct results.

A high school education is very important to everyone young or old. In the state of South Carolina there are approximately 495 high schools, 330 are public schools and the other 165 are private schools. A students high school experience must have a positive effect on their future’s outcome. Furthermore graduating from a high school can give students a wide range of opportunities in the job world. South Carolina high school education gives both a variety of pros and cons.

     The procedure of testing student for drugs, alcohol and tobacco before every school day should be allowed. The fact that the subject of drug testing has even been brought up is a sign that illegal substances have become troublesome in high school environments. Therefore, school officials should be allowed to use any means necessary to discourage the use of these illegal substances, even if it means that the school officials could become dangerously close to violating the students’ constitutional rights. A student under the influence of drugs or alcohol could endanger his or her fellow students or faculty and that student should not be allowed to attend that school. School

High schools and middle schools that offer competitive extracurricular, such as sports, clubs, or teams, required certain criteria before they let their students partake in said activity. While most schools request either a physical, average academic standings, or both, some school districts are implementing a third criteria, a drug test. Though not mandated by the government or even the state, some school districts believe it to be a crucial factor when determining the eligibility of a student. One instance, in which a school district incorporated a mandated drug test, resulted in a court case called The Board of Education of Independent School District No. 92 of Pottawatomie County v. Earls. In 1998, a school district in Tecumseh, Oklahoma adopted the Student Activities Drug Testing Policy (Policy) which “required all middle- and high-school students…to submit urine for drug testing” (Linder). The school district created a drug testing protocol that involved the student collecting a urine sample under the supervision of a teacher. The teacher, who would be standing outside of the stall, would be present to ensure that the student could not tamper with their sample.

High school athletics are not only important to the students and teachers but to the communities as well. Getting together and tailgating at a Friday night football game is an event that can bring towns together. However, lives of high school athletes could be getting torn apart by drug and alcohol abuse. States have to deter students away from drug use somehow, and drug testing is the best way to get the job done ("Texas Set to Drug-Screen”). That is why many states have decided to start drug testing their students involved in extracurricular activities. This leads numerous people to wonder if the testing is actually effective in deterring students from drug and alcohol use, what the punishment would be for those who test positive, and if the testing invades students privacy.