Environmental Scan

     Whether as a librarian, teacher, administrator or other staff member serving on a school campus, it is crucial to know our community and how we can best serve them. If we are out of touch with the reality that makes up each of our students' lives, we have less of a chance of truly connecting and engaging with them. The purpose of an environmental scan is to familiarize ourselves with these realities. Some of the items that directly relate to our community (and that we shoudl be aware of) that will be disussed include: how most people make their living in this community, the physical environment, and the availability,access, and use of technology both at home and in the classroom. 

    The first aspect of this environmental scan that we as librarians must be aware of is the work force status of our community; how do people provide for their families? Many in our community in Southeast Texas are a part of the plant workforce from the surrounding areas in Beaumont and Port Arthur. We also have several that make up a labor force for hard labor jobs such as pouring concrete, construction, electricians, livestock ranchers,and AC technicians, as well as many who make a living waiting tables. There are some families that run their own business like hot shot trucking services, small vendors for food industry or boutique and antique shopping opportunities. Because our town is so small and is not incorporated into the local city limits, many parents must drive a distance to get to their job, rather than having it right around the corner. We do have a high population of our students that fall into the economically disadvantaged status, even with a parent or parents who work. The community is very much made up of families where some of the students will be the first person in their immediate family to graduate high school, because there are often drop outs to go and help work to make ends meet. Many family members that I've spoken with over the years have the mindset that as long as their student is passing and being respectful in class, they are fine with that level of achievement. It may not be as competitive as some other areas, except for students who already want to be designated in the top percent of their class because they have a desire to leave this area of Southeast Texas and go somewhere else to make a living. 

    Our physical environment here is mostly shaped by hurricane season. While we may have a two year break on good years, we as a community have suffered tremendously from flooding, as well as damage from wind, rain and hail during the months of August to October. There are drainage issues in our community that make it hard for water run-off to go anywhere except the bayou that cuts through our town, and when it is full water begins holding everywhere. So in an instance such as Harvey or Imelda with a heavy, steady downpour of rain, water had no where to go but up and into homes. Hurricane season even shapes our school year and the creation of our calendar; our district builds in extra days in the anticipation of bad weather days coming during these months that we might have to account for, but don't want to have to make up minutes for at the end of the school year. This last summer hit our community hard because it was the worst drought we had seen since 2012. We had to deal with fires that broke out along wooded farmland that was only a few miles from our school. Due to all of these factors, we have seen a decrease in our student population over the last few years, where an average grade level size might have been just over one hundred students, and now hovers between numbers ranging in the high eighties to low nineties. 

    There is one charter school offered in our area that is about forty-five minutes away (when traffic is good), and a few small private schools that are run out of churches in our area that give students an alternative to a public education. There are some families who utilize these because they feel that their child isn't being given enough of a challenge or enough personalized attention at public school in their respective grade level, or sometimes simply because they wish to avoid the stress of their child having to take the STAAR test at the end of the year. 

    Our technology status for our district has picked up extensively since COVID, because technology became a way for students to be able to access information even when they were forced to be out of school for an extended period of time. We are currently in the process of moving to a one-to-one campus, but currently AT LEAST one (and more often two) teachers in each subject pod have a cart with working computers, as well as two computer labs. Our ELA and Math departments have a cart for almost every classroom since these subjects are put on a high importance. Most of our student population has a phone with internet access, and this is how we rely heavily on communication with them. We utilize Microsoft Teams and have recently implemented Parent Square for regular reminders, as well as posting resources and class work so that students have easy access to materials. There are some teachers who use these regularly, and others who are still not convinced. Last year we implemented a echnology class that is required for our 7th and 8th graders to include all of the basics of typing and using the Microsoft Office programs. Most staff members in our district do not assign homework unless classwork was not finished within several given opportunities during the class day for multiple reasons. They often are the ones who help out with younger siblings, or pitch in if there is a family run business with work that needs to be done, or because they are involved with a ton of extracurricular activities like band, sports, and U.I.L. that take up their time after school. Because of this, while most students can access Teams or Parent Square to send a teacher a message asking a question, they often to not have to try to do work on their phones or on a computer at home. We are a remote area that does not offer a lot of options for having internet at home. Many people will utilize a hotspot device from a phone or carrier like Verizon or AT&T. For those that do have internet with fiber optic cables, they are limited to being along one of the three main roads that run through town. There are some alternatives, but this presents its challenges too, because anything with copper wiring to protect the wires for the internet is likely to be stolen, which would then mean the student and their family would have to wait for this to be replaced (making it unreliable). 

    In short, while our community has come a long way in the form of technology, there are still many struggles in our environment that we are battling to overcome to make sure that our students have a quality education.