COMPONENT I

Introduction:

York Elementary School is located in the city limits of Jamestown Tennessee on the Cumberland Plateau in rural Fentress County. It is situated approximately 95 miles northwest of Knoxville, 100 miles north of Chattanooga and 120 miles northeast of Nashville. Fentress County is located in the northeast corner of Middle Tennessee. Jamestown is approximately 20 miles south of the Kentucky border. York Elementary campus is located on State Hwy.127 N just 2 blocks south of the center of Jamestown.

Jamestown is located in a beautiful area. Fentress County encompasses about 498 square miles with many farms, parks, recreation, and agricultural areas. Tourism is a growing area of industry in Fentress County. We are about 30 miles from Dale Hallow Lake, 10 miles from Pickett State Park, and 15 miles from Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area, all of whom provide a benefit to our community and school system

The city of Jamestown has a population of about 3000. It has a racial make-up of 99% white with 1% being Hispanic or bi-racial. Jamestown is the county seat of rural Fentress County located about 40 miles north of Interstate 40 in Crossville, Tennessee and about 20 miles south of the Kentucky border.

The per capita income of Jamestown is about $13,000.00, which is much lower than the state average. Educational statistics show the percentage of persons aged 25+ who are high school graduates as 57.3%; Bachelor degree or higher as 8.3%. Most of York Elementary School’s students come from lower income families. Of our families, 50% are blue-collared, 10% white-collared, and 40% state and federally assisted. More than 50% of the families in Fentress County are enrolled in TennCare.

Occupational opportunities in the community are limited. Opportunities for employment include store clerks, waitresses, clerical workers, health-related jobs, construction, maintenance, cashiers, and other unskilled or semi-skilled work with local businesses and industries. There is little opportunity for employment of persons with advanced skills and education. Due to this, many of those with advanced education and skills travel out of town to work every day. The health care system, the school system, and Wal-Mart are the largest employers in Fentress County.

At York Elementary we make every effort to meet the varied and numerous needs of each child. We look at the characteristics of our student body to determine the needs of the school. We also conduct surveys of the students, parents, faculty/staff, and community to help us determine the direction our school programs should take.

SCHOOL CHARACTERISTICS:

Historical Data:

York Elementary School is named in honor of Sgt. Alvin C. York, native of Fentress County who is a renowned hero of World War I. Sgt. York had a vision of founding a school so that all children in Fentress County would have the opportunity to receive a high school diploma. He was the founder of York Institute, our local high school. The original York Elementary was founded in 1928 on the present sight.

Facilities:

York Elementary School is a 26-year old, rural Pre-K 8th grade school. The present facility was completed in November 1979 and the first classes were held in it in January 1980. The school was built handicapped accessible with 38 classrooms, a separate science lab, library, music room and gym. A second gym (built in 1962), salvaged from the old school, has been renovated and utilized for P.E. classes for Pre-K through 5th grade.

Environmental and Safety Conditions:

York Elementary School is located in the 1st Civil District of Fentress County within the city limits of Jamestown. The fire hall, ambulance service, public health department, and the city police station are all located about 2-3 tenths of a mile from the school. We have a fairly large campus encompassing 8-10 acres. Many improvements to our play areas, ball fields, and open spaces have been made in the past year. We are continuing to work on these areas.

The school has a security alarm system, as well as the prescribed fire alarm system, fire extinguishers, signal codes, emergency call buttons in each room, etc. The local city police patrol the area after school hours.

After hours, York Elementary School houses the Boys and Girls Club of the Greater Tennessee Valley, which offers child care, tutoring, and sports to many children.

We utilize a full time guidance counselor, along with various local agencies, to help teach safety issues, including personal safety and gun safety, to our students.

Grade Distribution:

York Elementary School serves Pre-K through 8th grade students including a developmental program for 3-year-old children and a state funded 4-year-old program. Our school also hosts the Comprehension Development Classrooms for all of Fentress County. Students are bused to our school if their needs cannot be served effectively at their home school.

GRADE	NUMBER OF STUDENTS
2 Pre-K Developmental 3 year old programs	43
Pre-K- 4 year old program	20
Kindergarten	61
1st	48
2nd	50
3rd	51
4th	48
5th	56
6th	57
7th	41
8th	62
2 CDC classes	28

Length of School Day and Year:

Our school is in session for 180 days each year from 8:00a.m. to 3:00p.m. Teachers are also required to have 5 days of staff development and 5 days of administrative time each year. We operate on a 9-week grading system.

Operating Budget:

York Elementary School receives funds from several sources including, title I monies for over 30 years. The Title I funds were allocated for only at-risk students before changing of a school-wide program in 1996. Funds are now distributed for school-wide improvements. The allocation of Title I funds is based on the low socioeconomic levels within our community (75% free and reduced priced lunches). Our school receives funds from Title II, Title IX, Title IV (Safe and Drug Free Schools), Title VI, Special Education, Breakfast/Lunch Program, PTO, and other local businesses and organizations.

We also receive monies from Federal, state, and local governments as well as small grants. Our pupil-teacher ratio has been relatively low especially in the lower grades of K-3. This lower ratio is the result of funds, which were made available to our school through the Basic Education Program, the CRCD Program and No Child Left Behind.

Per-Pupil Expenditures:

Fentress County’s average per-pupil expenditures are slightly below the state’s average and about $2,000.00 below the national average. Based on our ADA (Average Daily Attendance), we spend about $6,944.00 per student. Local monies make up 20.4% of this amount with federal monies making up 16.8% and state monies providing the bulk amount of 62.9%.

Administration, Faculty and Staff Demographics:

York Elementary School has 2 administrators, 38 faculty and 26 staff including cooks, assistants and janitors. Our make-up is mostly Caucasian with one Korean American. The faculty is predominately female with 6 male faculty and staff members.

Years of Experience of Faculty and Staff:

There is a wide diversity among the teaching staff in regards to age, experience, degree attainment and specialization. The years of experience range from 1 year to 40 years. Eighty-four percent of the faculty has at least 8 years of experience, with a large percentage of the faculty having taught 20 or more years. Forty-five percent of the faculty has a B.S. degree, 29% have a Master’s degree and 26% have an Educational Specialist or a Master’s plus 45 hours. The majority of the teachers are on Career Level I with one teacher on Career Level II and one on Career Level III status.

None of our faculty teaches outside their area of certification, meeting NCLB criteria.

Enrollment Data:

York Elementary has a total enrollment of 576 students, including all Pre-K and CDC students.

Curriculum Offerings:

York Elementary offers the basic curriculum of Reading and Language Arts (Spelling, Writing and Language), Math, Science, Social Studies, P.E., Music and Library with additional instruction in Math and Language Arts in a computer lab. We also offer Saxon phonics and a language lab for grades K - 2. A certified teacher works with a limited number of gifted students. All students are ability grouped in Reading and Math, and our school has a counselor who does weekly lessons in each classroom on such topics as: Character development, alcohol and drug prevention and abuse, and violence and bullying prevention.

Unique Programs:

At York Elementary we have several unique programs. Fundation phonics is utilized with struggling kindergarten children and the Wilson reading program is available for a limited number of struggling readers. Our school has “Family Night Reading” each Tuesday night and “Bingo for Books” twice monthly to promote family literacy. The Boys and Girls Club of Fentress County is also housed in the facility. This is a unique program for latchkey children that offers homework help and tutoring. We also offer 4-H club activities for grades 4-8 through the University of Tennessee extension service. We use the STAR Reading, Literacy Tests and the Dibels testing program for grades K - 2. The Accelerated Reading program is used as a supplement to our basic reading curriculum.

Honors Classes:

Honors classes are offered by way of the gifted-enrichment program.

Parental Support:

We try very hard to involve parents in their children’s education. We have a Parent Volunteer Program, in which parents work in their child’s classroom doing different activities, Family Reading Night and “Bingo for Books“. We have grade level meetings for parents once yearly, with Parent Teacher Conferences twice yearly. We also inform parents of student progress with mid-term progress reports and grade cards each nine weeks grading period. We have tapes, books, and pamphlets to help parents learn how to help their children. We also utilize our Title I Committee and our Advisory Board to include parents in the decision-making process at York Elementary.

Drug, Alcohol, and Tobacco incidents or arrests:

There has been no incident or arrest for drugs, alcohol or tobacco in the past year.

School-Business Partnerships:

We have several businesses in Jamestown that are very supportive of our school. Many businesses also help us with fund raising throughout the year, especially during our Fall Festival. Local banks provide magazines for our library, Pizza Hut sponsors our Book-It program, and Castle Cinema offers discounted prices for school trips. Dairy Queen, McDonald’s and video rental stores offer free food and movie rentals as a reward for an “A” on the students’ grade card. Dairy Queen also supplies covers for our grade cards each year.

STUDENT POPULATION DATA:

York Elementary has a student population of 575, including Pre-K and CDC students. The majority of our student population is Caucasian, with less than 1% of our population identified as being of non-Caucasian heritage. We do not have any English as a Second Language classes or interpreters, because all of our students are English proficient.

We live in an economically deprived area, with many of our students receiving assistance from state and federal programs. Our school has a 75% free and reduced lunch rate, qualifying us to be a school-wide Title I school. All of our teachers are certified with none receiving waivers.

York Elementary’s attendance rate has steadily improved over the last few years, from 92% in 2003, to 94% in 2004 and to 95% in 2005.

An average of 4 students (about 10% of our student population) is referred to the principal for discipline daily.

York Elementary’s retention rate has remained about the same over the last three years. In 2003 the rate was 98%, in 2004 it was 96% and in 2005 the rate was 97%. We have no dropouts due to the mandatory attendance laws.

York Elementary has a high mobility rate among its student population. Of our 66 eighth grade students only 26 of them have spent their whole educational experience at York Elementary. Most of these have moved between York and other county schools, but a significant number have transferred from other counties and states. This mobility factor is apparent in all our other grades, also. Part of the reason for our high transfer rate is our location and the high number of foster children in our school. We are situated in the middle of Jamestown, surrounded by low-income housing projects and apartment complexes. This population is not very stable.

All of our students matriculate to the high school level at the end of eighth grade.

PARENT OR GUARDIAN DEMOGRAPHICS:

York Elementary lies in the city of Jamestown, the county seat of Fentress County. Jamestown has a population of about 3000. The vast majority of the population is Caucasian, with a small percentage being Hispanic. Children at York Elementary who live with both their natural parents are in the minority. Most of our children are from single parent homes or one parent and a stepparent. York Elementary families are 50% blue-collar families, 10% white-collar and 40% state and federally assisted families. More than 50% of our families are enrolled in TennCare.

COMMUNITY CHARACTERISTICS:

Fentress County is located in northeast middle Tennessee, a part of the Appalachian foothills. The 2000 census indicates that Fentress County had a population of 16,625 with an average of 33.3 persons per square mile. Of these, 16,625, there are 4,543 individuals, 5+ years of age, with disabilities. Over 31% of the adults, ages 21 to 64 have a disability. While Fentress County encompasses 498 square miles, it is a rural area essentially isolated from the industrial and technical development of urban growth.

York Elementary is located in an area of economic depression with an unemployment rate of 14%. This is about double the state average. The average per capita income is about $6000.00 lower than the state’s per capita income. The major employers of the area are the health care system and the school system. Until a few years ago, we had a thriving garment industry. Many of those jobs moved to other countries, which greatly affected our economic situation.

There are two private, church affiliated schools in the county, and here are at least 510 school-age children in the York Elementary School District. Community involvement includes incentives from local businesses for good grades and attendance, donations, and classroom presentations.