Running head: DISTRICT-COMMUNITY 1
District-Community Proposal
Rosa M Johnson
Liberty University
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Abstract
Newport News Public Schools (NNPS) division oversee all the public schools in Newport
News. When assessing the needs of its community the needs of the majority or the most urgent
needs are pushed to the forefront and a myth is created that the identified needs are reflected of
all communities. This myth is quickly dispelled when conducting a needs assessment in various
areas of the city. Community business and residents in the south area of the city are
overwhelmed with the high crime rate and increasing poverty. The Central and North area
needs assessments reflected a great concern that the revitalization of the South area of the city
would result in an increase in crime in their respective areas of the city. Despite these concerns,
a commonality emerged as a need for the communities and residents in all three areas. An
identified need of the parents who participated in a focus group presented the increased number
and frequency of out of school suspensions of students in the city’s elementary, middle and high
schools as a need that was common in all areas. This paper presents a proposal for the district to
provide funding for a supervised short-term suspension program.
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Community Needs Assessment
The Newport News Public Schools division (NNPS) has two types of out of school
suspensions and an expulsion program that may be implemented when a student violates a school
rule that warrants suspension. “A short-term suspension is a suspension of 10 school days or
less. A long-term suspension is a suspension of 11 school days but less than 364 calendar days.
An expulsion is an exclusion of 365 calendar days. A student who has been long-term suspended
or expelled may be permitted to attend an alternative education program provided by the school
division” (School & Expulsion Procedures, 2018). Students who are suspended short term are
provided with the contact information for 3 voluntarily out of school suspension programs
operated by churches. These programs require parents to provide transportation to and from the
site, provide lunch and sometimes multiple trips to the school to collect assignments that the
school is to complete while out of school. The community needs a funded program for students
suspended short term.
Needs Communicated by Community Services
During a focus group consisting of 6 parents of biological children, ranging in ages 4-12
and 27 treatment foster parents providing care for an average of 2 children during the school
year. Children in treatment foster care often have mental health, emotional or mental health
needs. Group members were consistent in reporting problems with assessing services through
the short-term supervision program because of the program design. Ray (2018), stated “children
placed in her home who are on probation are sometimes able to participate in a supervised out of
school program at juvenile detention” (personal communications). Twenty of the parents who
participated in the group are employed outside of the home and has the additional stressor of
deciding whether to stay home, hire a sitter - which is reported to be higher because of the needs
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of children with mental health and behavioral needs, or leave older children home unsupervised.
Collins (2018) shared that she left her 16-year-old foster child home alone to go to work her 4-
hour shift, upon return he was gone and so was her TV, computer and gaming system (personal
communications). Biological parents echoed similar problems with one parent reporting that she
had to quit her job due to her 8-year-old son’s frequent suspensions.
Proposal for a Funded School Suspension Program.
Program Name: Short Term Alternative Community Service Placement.
Plan: When students violate school rules they will receive sanctions that include placement in a
short term alternative community services placement. Suspensions remove the child from their
designated placement and permit them to be free from supervision. Participation in a sanctions
model funded in part by NNPS will require participants to engage in age appropriate community
services projects for a portion of the day, social skills groups, citizenship classes and completion
of assignments provided by their home school.
Needs: Funded transportation to and from the site
Behavioral aide to work with students
Volunteers to provide tutoring and social skills groups – recruited from the community.
Program coordinator recruited from the community
Partnership with Newport News Police Department to provide education
Partnership with Fort Eustis Military Installation for mentors to visit the site
Funded lunches for students who participate in the program
Partnership with community business to provide service learning opportunities
Relationships: Districts will develop effective, sustainable, long-range relationships with
community partners through frequent collaboration and open dialogue. The community program
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coordinator will prepare monthly reports detailing the program outcomes. Parents are expected
to be actively involved in decision making through the Full-Service Community Model
described by Stefanski, Valli, & Jacobson (2016) as the encouraging participation in decision
making in that “parents and family members, as well as community organization members, become
valued part ners rather than simply recipients of services and are encouraged to take part in greater
decision making” p. 149. Community partners and parents will attend monthly NNPS meetings to
engage
in decision-making.
How would such relationships be mutually beneficial?
•NNPS division will benefit from knowing that students are actively engaged in a
learning experience while out of school. Through the collaboration with the child’s
school, homework is provided. Tutors are available to assist youth will completing
assignment
and child does not fall behind in academics while out of school.
•Mentorship, citizenship, social skills groups and service learning opportunities will be
designed to teach the child to be accountability for behaviors and appropriate
interpersonal interactions.
•Participation in a sanction based supervision program reduced the opportunity for the
child to engage in criminal or risk-taking behaviors during the school day.
•Parents remain employed which reduces the unemployment rate and consequential
poverty rate.
•Youth are provided with positive role models and caring adults supervision.
References
Collins, J. (2018, March 7) personal communication.
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Ray, W. (2018, March 7) personal communication.
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School Suspension and Expulsion Procedures (n.d.). Retrieved March 9, 2018 from
http://sbo.nn.k12.va.us/
Stefanski, A., Valli, L., & Jacobson, R. (2016). Beyond involvement and engagement: The role of
the family in school-community partnerships. School Community Journal, 26(2), 135-
160.
