Community Needs Assessment

Created By: Shara Coffelt

Objective of Community Needs Assessment
The objective of the needs assessment is to
have a better understanding on how Decatur
Public Schools can better serve our students
and community through the eyes of our
families, support staff, teachers, and
administrators (key stakeholders).
The Process
Stakeholders Collect Data
1 Identify stakeholders within
Decatur Public Schools.
2 Collect data on demographics of
Decatur Public Schools, as well
as survey stakeholders.

Identify Needs Address Needs

3 Based on data collected
identify needs of Decatur
4 Address identified needs of
Decatur Public Schools.
Public Schools.
Identifying Key Stakeholders
I identified key stakeholders within the community of Decatur
Public Schools as:
★ Parents (Families)
★ Teachers
★ Admin
★ Support Staff
I chose these as the stakeholders for this assessment because,
these are the people that have interest in the well being of our
students at Decatur Public Schools.
In a more detailed assessment I would like to include input from community leaders such as:
mayor, business owners, and business managers.
Collecting Data
To collect data for the community needs assessment I sent this
survey to all teachers, staff, and administrators within Decatur
Public Schools, as well as all parents of students that are
enrolled in my classes, and posted to the Decatur Bulldogs
Athletics Facebook Page. I chose the survey format because it
was the easiest way to get the feedback from more than just
the people inside of my building. Which I thought was valuable
in creating a non biased assessment.
In a more detailed assessment I would like to send this out in
spanish as well.
The survey
The survey that was sent out consisted of five questions. Two
multiple choice, and three open ended questions. The survey
asked participants to identify themselves as a parent, teacher,
admin or other (support staff). This was a required question
within the survey, because I felt like it was important to know
what category the stakeholder was when reading through
responses.
The names/email address of participants were not collected to
keep survey responses anonymous.
The survey
The second required question within the survey
asked participants to place a check mark for the
areas they felt that Decatur Public Schools
could improve on to better serve students.
The areas included were:
★ Mental Health Services for Students
★ Health Care for Students/Families
★ Internet Access for Families
★ Technology Access for Families
★ Education of English Language Learning
Students
★ Education Opportunities for English
Language Learning Families
★ Social Justice Education of Staff (as an
attempt to remove bias from Education)
★ Resources for struggling families
(groceries, monetary assistance, ect)
★ Parent Involvement
The survey
The remaining three questions of the
survey were the opened ended
questions. These questions were not
required by participants to be
completed.
These questions were:
★ Based on what areas you identified
above, do you have any ideas on
how we can better serve our
students in that way?
★ Strengths within our school district
include, but are not limited to:
★ Areas of improvement within our
school district include, but are not
limited to:
Findings
 Demographics
Decatur Public Schools serves students Pre-Kindergarten
through Twelfth Grade across three campuses(elementary,
middle, and high school).

Decatur Public Schools serves 600 students and has a student

to teacher ratio of 10:1.

https://www.publicschoolreview.com/arkansas/decatur-school-district/504980-school-district
 Demographics

https://www.publicschoolreview.com/arkansas/decatur-school-district/504980-school-district
 Survey Results
20 Participants completed the
survey.

★ 9 responders identified as
teachers.
★ 8 responders identified as
parents.
★ 2 responders identified as
other. They could be support
staff within our school or
community members.
★ 1 responder identified as an
administrator.
In a more detailed survey I would
like to have more participants and
more input from administrators.
Identifying Needs
The Rankings
1. Internet Access for Families
2. Education Opportunities for EL
families and Parent
Involvement
3. Technology Access for Families
and Mental Health Services for
Students
4. Resources for Struggling
families
5. Education of English Language
Learners
6. Health Care for
Students/Families
7. Social Justice Education of Staff
 Identifying Needs
While looking at the survey results I set out to identify the top three areas of needed growth by
the stakeholders (parents, teachers, administrators, others). I found that the most identified area
of growth is internet access for families, with 65% of participants identifying this as an area we
could improve in as a school district. Education opportunities for English language learning
families, and parent involvement tied for being the second highest rated area we could improve
in with 45% of participants identifying these two areas as ways we could improve. Technology
access for families and mental health services for students were also tied for the third area we
could improve in with 40% of participants identifying these two areas as ways we could
improve. As a result of these findings I have identified these five needs as our top areas of
needed improvement and will be focusing on these areas for my needs assessment.

Other areas such as resources for struggling families, education of English language learners,
healthcare for students and families, and social justice education of staff were not highly ranked
on results, so we can assume that these are ways that Decatur Public School is effective at
meeting the needs of students. These areas also were reported as strengths multiple times in
the open ended question asking participants to identify strengths.
Internet Access for Families
Five parents, five teachers, one administrator and two others for a total of thirteen participants
(60%). identified internet access for families as an area of needed growth for Decatur Public
Schools.

One way Decatur Public Schools has tried to address this need is by placing school buses with
wifi around town for students to have access to wifi any time of day. However, the students still
had to drive or walk to the wifi bus.

The district does have a limited amount of wifi hotspots that have been passed out to students,
that were identified as being in the “most need”. I would like to work for a plan for all students
who do not have access to internet at home to be given a hot spot during the school year so they
are able to complete any virtual assignments outside of school if needed.
Education Opportunities for English Language Learning Families
Three parents, five teachers, and one administrator for a total of nine participants (45%)
identified Education opportunities for English Language Learning Families as an area of growth
for Decatur Public Schools.

Decatur Public Schools has offered English classes to families in the past. These classes were
inconsistent, and not publicized well. Leading to a lack of participation. I think a great way to
have more involvement in these opportunities is to work with neighboring districts (Gentry, and
Gravett) as well as the local chicken plant (Simmons) and offer classes to those who work
within Simmons as well. A partnership would minimize the cost for each district, as well as
Simmons, and reach more people within our area.
Parent Involvement
Two parents, five teachers, one other and one administrator for a total of nine participants (45%)
identified Parent Involvement as an area of growth for Decatur Public Schools.

Parent Involvement is a “hot topic” among the staff at Decatur Public Schools. The lack of parent
involvement is brought up at summer professional development session, and numerous times
throughout the year. I believe that we as a school district need to be more intentional with our
parent involvement. Meaning we create a welcoming environment for each of our families. Even
the families of our English Language Learners. We can do this by having everything that is sent
home translated into the home language of our students (Spanish), and being sure to have
translators present every time the school door is open.

We can involve all of our parents more by communicating with them weekly with what is going
on within our school. Also, communicating with positives about their student, and not just
negatives, or when we need something. We need to work on building meaningful relationships
with our parents/families.
Technology Access for Families
Five parents, one teacher, and two others (40%) identified Technology Access for Families as an
area of growth for Decatur Public Schools.

Within the High School campus students are each given a chromebook that is theirs to take
home and used throughout the school year. The chromebook is given to the student at the
completion of their senior year free of charge. Elementary, and Middle School students that are
enrolled in virtual learning are given a chromebook to use while they are a virtual learner. This
excludes students that are quarantined.

One way we can be more prepared to pivot to virtual learning, and provide technology to
families to to loan a chromebook to each student for the school year. The chromebook would
need to be brought to and from school daily. This way if a student is quarantined, or we have an
unexpected virtual day all students are prepared. Families can also have access to these devices
to use if needed.
 Mental Health Services for Students
Five parents, one administrator, and two others (40%) identified Mental Health Services for
Students as an area of growth for Decatur Public Schools.

Decatur Public School does have a school based social worker that is a licenced therapist. This is
a great resource for students, but with the many responsibilities of this job it is often hard to
locate her for a student need. We also have a partnership with Ozark Guidance Counseling
(OGC) and students with medicare, or insurance can be referred to an (OGC) counselor by our
school counselor. This does exclude students that do not any insurance.

Students can often go unnoticed for OGC services, because teachers may not have insight to
what is going on in their personal life.

I would like to further our partnership with OGC and allow students who do not have insurance
to be able to be seen by OGC, even if that means that Decatur Public Schools will have to take
care of the expense. I also would like a way for students to “check in” and request services if
they feel like they would benefit from it on their own without having to be referred.