Context Matters

Setting
The school that I work at is a charter school that is located in the Grand Blanc
area and is mostly surrounded by a subdivision behind us and an apartment complex
across the street. Also, there is a party store, in front of the apartment complex, and a
Chase Bank. Although we are located in Grand Blanc, we are a charter school and
because of school of choice, our student population is primarily from Flint. Because of
the successful reputation that Grand Blanc Community Schools have, we rarely receive
students from their district. As stated before, we receive most students from the Flint
Community Schools and we have students from the Mt. Morris and Burton areas.
Depending on the year, we service between 400-450 students and we are the only
school in our district.
We service students in grades K-8. These students are bused in using buses
that we charter. Our school is shaped like a horseshoe with the playground in the
center of the horseshoe. We have a portable outside the school that houses two
classrooms. Our gym is multi-purpose and is used for Physical Education and for lunch
times. We have a library and a computer lab and multiple sections for most grades.
Students Served
Students come from homes that are economically disadvantaged and many
come from single parent households.
District & School
Demographics
Total Number of Students
Enrollment Breakdown
White (%)
Black (%)
Hispanic (%)
Asian/Pacific Islander (%)
American Indian (%)
Multi-Racial (%)
Male (%)
Female (%)
ELL (%)
Students with Disabilities (%)
Economically Disadvantaged
(%)
School Mobility Rate (%)

364
19.63
73.02
3.30
0.68
0.23
3.14
53.57
46.43
3.57
16.21
100
28

Staff Members and Characteristics

Staff Members
Total Number of Staff
White (%)
Black (%)
Hispanic (%)
Male (%)
Female (%)
Staff Roles
Administration (%)
Classroom/Resource Teachers
(%)
Intervention Teachers (%)
Classroom Aides (%)
Secretarial (%)
Lunchroom (%)
Staff Experience
0-3 years (%)
4-8 years (%)
9-15 years (%)
>15 years (%)
Teachers that are highly qualified
(%)

44
68.18
29.55
2.27
15.91
84.09
9.09
50
18.18
6.82
6.82
9.09
41.67
33.33
22.22
2.78
100

Curriculum, Programs, and Services

We do not have a set curriculum that was purchased and utilized. Teachers are
able to use whatever resources they need in order to teach the content that needs to be
taught. There are some general guidelines that are put out for the teachers though.
They need to teach ELA for 120 minutes, math for 90 minutes, science and social
studies for 45-60 minutes each. When the teachers are teaching, they ensure that this
time is more than just instruction from the teacher. It needs to be a mixture of teacher
led instruction, cooperative learning, small group instruction, and sometimes student led
instruction. Most teachers ensure that they teach to the common core standards and
that they do what is best for their students. Teachers use their DRA data to group their
students into guided reading groups and some teachers use the data to create centers
for students also. They use the data from our school-wide test, Ed Performance, to
inform their instruction when teaching grade level content. Students receive music a
couple times a week and also get a science lab time every week.

These are the current programs/services/partnerships that exist within our school:
Big Brothers/Big
Sisters

YMCA

Odyssey House

Pennies for Pasta

(Leukemia Society)

Consumers Energy

MDE (cyber bullying

presentation)

U of M-Flint nursing
students

PE-Nut

Ligon

Crim

Hill Road Hoops

Flint Institute of Arts

Carmen/Baker
College

Mott Middle College

Kroger

Backpack Program

School Culture
Our mission statement is Grand Blanc Academy is an innovative community that
supports and celebrates lifelong learning for the success of our students and families by
igniting growth, imagination, and dreams. I took this into four chunks and looked at
where the budget supports this mission statement. Firstly, the innovative community
is supported by the purchase of compass learning that individualizes lessons on the
computer for each child and gives them the learning at their level. The middle school is
giving career guidance in multiple ways and has many programs for the students in our
school, such as girls wellness and Big Brothers/Big Sisters. On our early release days,
our struggling learners are given the opportunity to stay for enrichment days. Also,
many teachers have implemented exercise balls and bikes in their classrooms to help
students to focus. Secondly, we celebrate lifelong learning by providing every child
with a Personalized Student Achievement Plan (PSAP) and the 8 th grade students
create an Education Development Plan (EDP) with the help of the school counselor.
There is a yearly career fair for grades 5-8 and the students in middle school are given
a career workshop to help them prepare for their future. Next, we focus on the
success of our students and families by having quarterly award assemblies for the
students. We are school-wide Title I and help all the struggling learners that need it.
The extra expenses are put into the budget so that this can happen. We provide parent
workshops throughout the year and always have an open door policy for our parents to
come talk to the principal or the teacher whenever they need to. Lastly, we ignite
growth, imagination, and dreams by doing all the things above among many other
things.
Resources
The average class size is about 22 students. There is an intervention teacher for
grades K-1, 2 intervention teachers in grades 2-5 (one for math and one for reading),
and 2 intervention teachers for grades 6-8 (one for math and one for reading). Almost
every room has a SMART Board that the teachers can use in their instruction. Most

classrooms have 2-3 desktop computers that students and teachers can use for
research or typing papers or center time. The school is equipped with a computer lab
with 25 laptop computers. The per pupil expenditure is $9,157.
Performance Outcomes or Measures
Academic
District and School Student
Results
a) School-wide Reading
Proficiency (%)
b) School-wide Math Proficiency
(%)
c) Reading & Math Proficiency by
Subgroups*
Asian (%)
Black (%)
Hispanic (%)
Native American (%)
White (%)
Economically Disadvantaged
(%)
Students with Disability (%)

School
Average
69.8
51
Reading

Math

<30
66.7
<30
0
74
70

<30
44.2
<30
0
58.9
49.1

46.8

34

Behavioral
School Behavioral Data
Students with 10+ absences (13-14)
(%)
Referrals (number of students)(Q1
2014)
In-School Suspensions (number of
students) (Q1 2014)
Out of school Suspensions(number of
students) (Q1 2014)
Expulsions (number of students) (Q1
2014)

47
28
5
13
0

Issues Currently Occupying the School and Administration

The main concern for the school and administration is the school budget for the
past few years. Because of declining enrollment, there have been cuts that have been
made. Gym has been cut from 5 days a week to 1 day a week. 6 th grade has been

combined into one classroom. Administration has to deal with these things while trying
to keep morale up and trying to help people feel valued because staff has not received
raises in a really long time. Lack of technology is becoming an issue with the upcoming
M-STEP test.
Schools Salient Characteristics
If I were the administrator, I would work really hard on getting enrollment up in
the school so that the school would be able to have the resources that the students and
teachers need to be successful. This would help reduce some class sizes and so that
we could reinstate gym, which I believe to be an important special to have in a school.
Also, I would make it a priority to get the staff raises so that they felt valued,
appreciated, and less stressed about their financial stability.
I would create a committee that would be in charge of writing a grant to improve
our technology in our school. If I delegate this to staff members, people who have an
invested interest in making this successful, then I believe that we will be more apt as a
school to receive the grant funds. When these funds were received, this would help to
alleviate some of the stress about the upcoming M-STEP test and the other school-wide
tests that we have to administer on the computers.