Tara Jarvie

LM 6200
Community Analysis and Needs Assessment
Washington County and the State of Utah
Washington County School district is located on the southwest corner of Utah. The county is
approximately 2,400 square miles and includes 15 cities. The population was estimated to be around
151,948 in 2014. 2014-2015 data reports provided by the State office of Education estimated enrollment
for Washington County Schools to be around 27,000 students K-12 which is about 4% of students
enrolled in the state of Utah. The State of Utah had a graduation rate in 2015 of 84%, and WCSD is
slightly higher at 59%.

Washington County Ethnicity Compostion

(Percent of Population)
Hispanic
Pacific Islander
Asian
Native America
African American
Cacausian
0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

I was interested to see that the median household income between 2009 and 2013 was around 49,000
dollars annually, yet 43% of the student population qualifies for free or reduced lunch. Perhaps median
isnt the most accurate measure of the middle income.
Factors that impact learner needs tend to be language barriers and socioeconomic barriers. With 43% of
students on reduced lunch, and approximately 3.5% of the student population homeless their needs
must be taken into consideration. English Language Learners make up 6% of the population.
Access to Public Services in Saint George, Utah:
The estimated earning per capita in 2013 was approximately $24,586 annually. The median rent was
reported at $889 per month, which would be $10,668 annually. One library is located in the city limits,
with public transportation to accommodate patrons without transportation. Wifi can be found at many
commercial buildings free of charge, and at all public schools and libraries. There are 39 city parks in the

area. We also have a local university, Dixie State University, with several outreach programs offered to
the community.
Tonaquint Intermediate School
Tonaquint is a school an Intermediate School serving 6th and 7th grade students. Our current enrollment
is at 672 students being served by 35 full and part time educators. Sixteen teachers in our school
currently have their Graduate Degree, but at least five of them will retire in the next five years.
We have a principal, vice principal, and two counselors as part of our administration. We have
approximately 93 special education students who are supported in mainstream classrooms, by two full
time Special Educator Teachers and one part time Special Education Teacher.

Tonaquint Intermediate Ethnicity Data

(Percent of Population)
Hispanic
Pacific Islander
Asian
Native America
African American
Cacausian
0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

Our Hispanic population is significantly larger than the district as a whole. We are more diverse than
other Intermediate Schools in our district, due to the fact that we draw our students from downtown St.
George. 53% or our student population qualifies for free or reduced lunch.
We are a bussed school, which means a very small portion of our students can walk to and from school.
This impacts our ability to offer afterschool or before school programs. We dont have a dropout rate
because most students switch to homeschool at this age, which leads to later dropping out. This high
school our students feed into has a dropout rate of 20%.

Student Proficiency on 2015 SAGE

Results
60
40
20
0
Englich
Language Arts

Math

Science

6th Grade

7th Grade

As we disaggregated our data we found that our Native American population struggles in Math, and our
Language Learners did less well in 7th Grade Language Arts than in 6th Grade Language Arts.
Tonaquint Intermediate Needs Assessment
After talking to our media coordinator and considering the text I have determined the following needs:

Computers for research in the library (all existing computers run OPAC only).
Additional Shelving, some books are located in locations not visible to students.
o For example books written in Spanish are on a bottom shelf away from the other novels.
Non-Fiction resources aligned to the needs of the Language Arts teachers.
More texts to represent the ethnicity of our population.
Up to date biographies. I noticed it is difficult for students to find biographies about people they
are interested in.
Collaboration with teachers. I am not sure everyone knows what an asset our Library team is to
student learning.

Our media coordinator does an incredible job encouraging students to read. She gets students very
excited about the Beehive Reading Books. She also gives valuable information on how to access
information in the library as well as on Pioneer Online. The climate in the library is very warm, and
the entire library staff is so kind and patient with the students