The vision of Dublin City Schools is to be a world-class charter school system that produces globally competitive students.

Dublin City Schools Strategic Planning Report

Appendix II: Community Engagement Report

Community Forum – April 2, 2015

Online Survey – April 3-17, 2015

To assist the Strategic Planning Team with their work, the Dublin City Schools engaged its community in a process to assess the thoughts, feelings and perceptions that stakeholders hold regarding the district – before the plan was developed. The engagement initiative, designed and implemented by the Georgia School Boards Association, included a community focus group and an online survey. A genuine effort was made to make the process as inclusive and transparent as possible.

Participants of the community focus group and the online survey responded to the following questions: ? 

• To be the best it can be, what should the Dublin City Schools preserve/keep? ?
• To be the best it can be, what should the Dublin City Schools change/do differently? ?
• What do you think are the top challenges faced by the Dublin City Schools? ?
• What do you think are the top challenges faced by the students in the Dublin City Schools? ?
• As a community, what do we want our public schools to provide for students?

The intention of this report is to provide a collection of the best thinking of school and community members regarding the five questions presented. The information gathered is qualitative and seeks to focus attention on those areas that generated the most energy. Members of the strategic planning team will use the input of the community to assist them in developing a plan to move the district forward.

The Response

About 40 community members, teachers, students and staff participated in the community focus group exercise. They were divided into five groups and each group was given one of the five questions to consider. Each group got a different question. Once each group developed a list of responses, they prioritized by choosing the top three statements. There were 26 responses to the online survey. Ten of the participants identified themselves as a parent. Seven of them identified themselves as a teacher. This is a low response rate, which makes it difficult to draw real conclusions. The data may well be what is called the “vocal minority” and not representative of the opinions of the majority of the Dublin City Schools’ community. In fact, many of the comments on the survey relate to one personnel issue.

Because the focus groups involved groups of diverse stakeholders deliberating and coming to consensus on the critical issue at hand, their choices should be weighted more heavily.
Reasons to be Proud and Assets to Build Upon

When asked, “To be the best it can be, what should the Dublin City Schools preserve/keep?” the following represents the areas of greatest agreement among community focus group participants: ?

• Current focus on student achievement ?
• Charter school flexibility ?
• IB program ?
• Positive teacher culture ?
• Current class sizes ?
• Focus on providing students and staff a safe learning environment

Possibilities for Change and Growth
When asked, “To be the best it can be, what should the Dublin City Schools change or do differently?” the following represents the areas of greatest agreement among stakeholders: ?

• Vertical alignment across all content areas in all schools ?
•  Improve after school tutorial programs and mentoring programs ?
• Current policies to recruit and retain highly qualified teachers ?
• Address issues with the dress code

Top Challenges Faced by the School District

The following are issues that surfaced most often at the community focus group: ?

• Ability to recruit and retain highly qualified teachers – especially math, science and minority teachers ?
• Recruitment of students ?
• Ability to engage parents and raise level of involvement ?
• Equal treatment for all ?
• Expansion of IB K-8

Top Challenges Faced by the Students

The following are issues that surfaced most often: ?

• Vocabulary in early grades ?
• Rigor of IB program ?
• Low level of parental involvement ?
• Critical thinking skills ?
• Core Content Area Vocabulary for all grades

What the Community Wants the District to Provide Students

Several themes emerged from the respondents of the online survey and the participants in the community focus group: ?

• High quality facilities and resources – operational and instructional ?
• Highly qualified teachers ?
• College and career readiness

Areas to Study

The following themes emerged in multiple ways through the community focus group and the online survey as ones to take note of: ?

• Highly qualified teachers – the community wants its students to have the benefit of learning from highly qualified teachers, but sees challenges in retaining and recruiting them ?
• Engaging parents – stakeholders recognize the importance of parental involvement in student success and support finding ways to better engage them in the learning process  ?
• Class sizes – participants would like to see class sizes stay the same or decrease ?
• Safety – a safe learning environment is important