Lauren Wood
Reaction Paper 1
October 14, 2015
Community Plan Analysis
Living in Williamsburg for almost all of my childhood I was able to see first hand some of the strengths and weaknesses that the Williamsburg James City County school board had to offer for my communities education. Growing up around this situation I could always hear parents complaining about things along the lines of school districting and some of the stuff that teachers taught us in the classroom, for example, sex ed. After doing some more research on the Williamsburg James City County (WJCC) school system I was able to point out some strengths and weaknesses on my own.
The strategic plan for WJCC schools includes core values like collaboration, individuality, and accountability. WJCC’s mission is to insure that each and every student is provided with knowledge, skills to be a lifelong learner, communicate, think critically, work productively, and contribute positively to the lives of others. WJCC is committed to providing many different programs to fit the different range of student’s interests and needs as they grow academically, emotionally and socially. WJCC also has listed five school wide priorities, which are High Student Achievement for 21st century, safe, secure, and welcoming environment for students, rewarding experience for professionals, trust and authentic partnerships with families and the broader community, and accountable and trusted leadership.
WJCC’s strategic plan for the children of Williamsburg has multiple strengths such as making sure all students get the same amount of attention from the teachers. WJCC has a motto that is “No Child Is Left Behind” and with first hand experience I can say that this is very true for the school system. Another strength that this strategic plan has to offer is that teachers develop flexible programs to make sure they fit the needs of the wide range of different learners throughout the classroom. Another strength that Williamsburg James City County Plan shows is the goal of getting involved with student’s parents and even more importantly, the rest of the community. I have a strong belief in getting involved with the community because children are able to learn life long skills that they will be able to take with them for the rest of their lives. The school board does a good job with creating reachable goals for the rest of the school system.
Along with strengths always come a few weaknesses. One of the weaknesses I have identified in the Williamsburg James City County school plan is the way they district the schools. This has been a big concern for the past few years for a couple of different reasons. The first problem being that many of the schools around the district are pretty new, so of course parents get frustrated when their own child is stuck at one of the older schools with older technology and other equipment. Another reason this is a weakness is because the wealthier neighborhoods around the area are usually districted to the same school, which means the less fortunate kids are put into a different school. WJCC needs to do a better job at districting the schools so that there is a more balanced population of children. Another weakness I found in this plan is the lack of bus drivers for transportation. In the recent news, there have been complaints on the subject of not enough bus drivers to get the children to school. How are these students supposed to get to school if their parents have to go to work early in the morning and aren’t able to drop them off? Something needs to be done about this issue because this could start really affecting a child’s attendance to school.
Williamsburg James City County strategic plan is well written one. Although it has some weaknesses, it has many strengths that out way the negatives. WJCC has a good mission and many achievable goals for the future.
Source
http://wjccschools.org