Community Analysis
of the
James Buchanan
Elementary School Community
School District of Lancaster
October 2008
Dawn M. Landes
School and Community Relations
Millersville University
Dr. Desmond
Community Setting
The School District of Lancaster (SDoL) serves the children in both Lancaster City and surrounding
Lancaster Township. Lancaster Township was established in 1729 at which time a two-mile square
section was cut out to serve as the borough and county seat for Lancaster. Sitting just outside the
borough line on the western side of the city, James Buchanan Elementary School, once was the school
for Lancaster Township. About 30 years ago the township schools and city schools combined as the
School District of Lancaster. Buchanan Elementary now serves students from both the township and
the western side of the city.
James Buchanan is nestled right in the middle of two very distinct communities with very different
developmental pasts. To the West is Lancaster Township, striking with its beautiful landscapes and
variety of well-kept residential housing. In addition to scattered, large, colonial time-period mansions
and farm houses, as well as some sections of town homes, this suburban area features lots of quiet
streets with single family homes, back yards and several safe and well-used parks. The Clock Towers
Apartments, just two blocks north of the school was once the location of the Hamilton Watch Factory.
The owner initiated the development of a large portion of the township in the Hamilton Park area in the
early to mid 1900’s as factory-worker housing. While a few of the, now retired, factory home owners
still live in the community, most current residents are white, older adults or working families in the
upper-lower class to middle class income range.
Across West End Avenue, to the East of James Buchanan Elementary School, is a different picture.
Streets immediately change to crowded row-homes with scattered small businesses, civic clubs or
community organizations on the corners. The neighborhoods, referred to as the Cabbage Hill area, are
made up of mostly low-income, Hispanic or African-American families. Some of these households
include more than one family unit as they support extended family members who cannot afford to live
on their own. In the evenings the community is lively, with music playing from windows or cars, and
family members and friends hanging out on their front porches or on the sidewalks. Children are seen
playing all along the streets. Most home values are anywhere from $80,000 to $100,000 less than those
on the township side of West End Avenue and some streets include section 8 project housing as well as
a few eviction notices here and there. Unfortunately, some gang activity dots the neighborhoods and
their markers have been left at the local parks and even on Buchanan’s Elementary playground. There
are some quieter and more developed city streets further north of the Cabbage Hill area that surround
the Susquehanna Regional Medical Center are also included in the Buchanan school community.
Stereotypes and the Changing Reality
The history and community picture of the township side of Buchanan Elementary has clearly shaped the
assumptions, stereotypes, and way James Buchanan is viewed within the district. The administration
and teachers who live in the community have heard it referred to as the “country club” in the district,
alluding to its dominant white, higher-class culture and student population. Yet what is not obvious are
the ways the changes in the city side of Buchanan’s school community have dramatically affected the
school’s demographics and educational needs. Just since 2006, the population of different ethnic
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groups in the community and school has made some major jumps. The number of white students
dropped from 52%, over half of the student population, to 44%. The Hispanic numbers increased from
30% to nearly 40%. The level of economically disadvantaged students increased from 53% to almost
85%, a level nearly 10% over the district average. This indicates that the ethnically diverse
neighborhoods of the city are not the only ones struggling economically, but also some of the white
working families that have been assumed to be more middle class.
Ironically, one contributing factor may be the local partners who support the community. The churches
in the Buchanan Elementary community have responded admirably to this change in demographics by
providing more relevant services to the families in the community. Some of them advertise through the
school weekly folders, programs such as pre-school, family counseling, job counseling, career planning,
English classes, food and uniform banks, after-school programs, evening clubs, and Big Brother and Big
Sister programs. Two of the churches even serve as evacuation shelters for the school in times of
disaster or emergency. So the families in the community get to know the churches well as community
resources.
Moreover, many churches in the city sponsor immigrant families. In the last few years there have been
influxes of Russian or Slavic families and most recently, the Middle East, namely Iraqis, Lebanese and
Pakistanis. These families are generally low-income and are usually placed in the school’s support
program for English language learners. The number of support services in the community make the
Buchanan area a great place to locate families with these types of needs, but, the increase of children
from these families end up creating new sub-groups which are monitored by No Child Left Behind. It is
the needs of the sub-groups that have put greater demands on the school as it struggles to make AYP,
particularly in Reading.
School-Community Partnerships
But along with the demands of a diverse community, Buchanan is uniquely situated among very
supportive community partners. The Dean of Students at Buchanan works closely with T.W. Ponessa, an
agency that helps to facilitate in-school friendship groups to encourage positive student relationships,
extended counseling for students dealing with culture shock and other adjustment issues, and practical
resources for immigrant families struggling to adapt to life in America. Lancaster Recreation Center
provides a before and after-school program and summer camps to help with child care for working
parents. Safe and Healthy Kids Network and Lancaster General Hospital provide medical services and
health education to students and their parents. All students get to know Officer Ted of the Lancaster
Police Department, a partner agency that comes in regularly to talk to staff, children and parents about
safety issues that affect them and the Buchanan community as a whole. The Big Brother/Big Sister
program provides mentors for students, and there are local volunteers, neighbors and former teachers
who come in to help tutor students who are struggling. Franklin and Marshall College and Lancaster
Bible College send interns and volunteers to work with Buchanan teachers and students in areas such as
science or tutoring.
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With so many needs among the parents and resources available to the school, it’s no wonder the Dean
of Students has a vision to see Buchanan become a one-stop-shop school where parents can receive all
their educational and family support services at the school. This can be viewed as essentially a needsbased model of school-community service delivery. Yet, when pushed on her idea, the Dean articulates
a broader vision of Buchanan being a community school where everyone finds a place to both
contribute and benefit from the community and the resources available in it.
Intrinsically, Buchanan, as a school with all the structures and supports of a major institution, has many
assets that can aid the community. Thus, it functions as a parallel institution for some community-based
support agencies as well as a feeder to others. Milagro House shelter feeds directly into Buchanan. The
school is one of several major supports to the families and children who live there. Buchanan students
are also encouraged to join the local Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts as well as Lancaster’s community-based
sports leagues and summer book clubs at the Lancaster Library. There are also special after-school
programs like the Boys and Girls Clubs and summer programs that advertise through the school. A
special connection, which is clearly valued by neighbors, is between students in younger grades and the
residents at Hamilton Arms Nursing Home, where the children visit each year around the holidays. In
the last two years, local churches, families, businesses and school agencies were pleased to join efforts
in a community project that provided a new playground for Buchanan students. Their names have been
placed on placards around the playground area and are a testimony to the community’s interest in
working together and seeing a safe and happy school community.
Other important partnerships exist that maintain ties to the local community and its history. The most
obvious is with the Lancaster Historical Society located near President James Buchanan’s home of
Wheatland. School students walk to Wheatland each year and participate in other Historical Society
exhibitions throughout the year. Parents are encouraged to participate in historical community walks
sponsored each Fall and Spring by the Historical Society. Buchanan Elementary schedules regular picnics
at the nearby Hamilton and Buchanan Parks. And students visit the North Museum every year as well as
on special weekends scheduled for families. Many local businesses and franchises, such as Rita’s, Turkey
Hill, Starbucks, local groceries, and J.B Hostetter & Sons regularly support Buchanan events by donating
items or gift certificates for raffle prizes. And Lancaster Township’s Fire Department always provides
rides for families in the bucket of their ladder truck at the Back-to-School Community Fair sponsored by
Buchanan’s PTO at Hamilton Park each Fall.
School-Community Links
Community links exist at many levels in the school. The school has established relationships with many
partners from years of cooperation. New links and relationships are built, most of the time, through
parent connections. Buchanan’s PTO and parent volunteers organize and sponsor most extra-curricular
or co-curricular activities, thus, parents make many of the needed connections. Several teachers also
live in the Buchanan community and so have existing connections with community services, businesses
and organizations. Other local connections to support agencies happen through administratively
approved contacts and requests.
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Language and culture play intricate roles in the school community, yet it appears at times that there is
very little intentional attention given to it by teachers or the PTO, both of whom do most of the planning
for school and community events. Parents are the first links. The Dean of Students is aware of the
language needs and cultural barriers in most families and makes sure that translation services are
provided when the school needs to communicate with parents. When students do not comply with
expectations or when parent-teacher conferences are scheduled, teachers request translation. But this
leaves lots of day-to-day positive feedback go unspoken for lack of translation. This is a loss in
community-building. Weekly bulletins and many pieces of school information or community
advertisements are translated into Spanish. But the Dean reports that at least 14 other languages exist
among families who must request translation. Otherwise, most information is sent home in writing,
always in English and sometimes Spanish, and it’s as if teachers, administration or PTO members just
assume that somehow the messages will get through.
While the intentions and aspirations for community are strong among teachers, staff, PTO and
administration at Buchanan, and while the students are taught to respect one another’s culture,
language or religious background, limited communication occurs between the school and Hispanic,
Asian, African-American and other immigrant families or their supporting agencies. A few teachers live
in the Buchanan community, so they connect with some students in ways that promote student and
family development. But their connections are mostly with the families of their cultural group. For the
most part, the classroom teachers and PTO represent the white population of the school. Less than 25%
of Buchanan faculty and staff represent ethnic groups other than those with white, European
backgrounds. Thus, demographically speaking, school-home connections happen primarily among
white families who live in the Lancaster Township neighborhoods. Families from the Hispanic families or
black families tend to make their own connections, but not so many with teachers. There are not
enough school-home connections with non-white ethnic groups to show that the school views the
contributions of all parents as essential to student development.
This lack of connection also includes those families in which both parents work or single-parent families
or some broken families where children move back and forth between parents. These families often
miss out on some of the community events or information if they can’t read English well, or have busy
work schedules that limit their abilities to keep up on all the written documents sent home, or to attend
day-time events, or even to volunteer in the classrooms.
There have been some efforts to transcend these challenges. A few teachers invite students to share
about their home cultures or places of origin, but the attempts to value culture or students’ heritage
within the classroom are primarily random in nature. Some teachers do a better or worse job at
communicating with or recruiting parent volunteers from various backgrounds to help in the classroom.
The school plans a Celebration of Cultures every other year which has successfully included families
from many ethnic backgrounds. The Dean of Students works hard to make sure the event is clearly
explained and communicated to all families. Buchanan PTO has tried to vary school community events
so that some happen at times when working parents can attend. And around the holidays or change in
seasons the PTO has been intentional to provide meals to struggling families and winter-wear to
children who come to school without coats or hats or mittens.
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Another example is the PTO’s development of a Parent Resource Center which offers lots of materials to
support the classroom curriculum as well as information to help parents in their parenting and
educating roles at home. Lots of printed materials are available in both Spanish and English. But this
initiative has struggled to gain the attention and priority it should. It is housed in a stuffy, damp room in
the farthest corner of the school basement where other staff people are forced to also work. While it
should be acknowledged that Buchanan space is extremely limited, the argument for giving it limited
space is because it is hardly used, except for the Uniform Bank, which is also housed in that room. The
obvious counter to that argument represents a view that parent support and involvement is affirmed
and a priority. Moving the Parent Resource Center to make it more accessible not only sends that
message, but increases the chances of its being better utilized. It needs people with imagination and
ideas for how it could be promoted. Thus, the PTO still struggles to transcend the cultural and economic
diversity that exists at the school, not only because its members lack the human connections, but also
because making those connections are not promoted by all those in power positions. This is evidence of
lack of equity in terms of communication and power-sharing.
Because most of the formal connections to and recognition of culture, language or religious diversity
within families happens at the administrative level or by the school’s outreach worker who does home
visits, it sends a message that those families are contacted primarily on a “needs” basis. When the
family has a need or when the school “needs” to communicate something with the family about policy
compliance, communication happens. This is a huge indicator of power in-balance. It defines those who
have power and those who are at the mercy of the power; it divides those viewed as stakeholders from
those who are merely beneficiaries. Allowing communication with families, who may be harder to
communicate with than others, to occur on an “as needed” basis, diminishes the families’ perceived
value as contributors to the community.
This portrays a view that ethnically diverse or economically challenged families are only beneficiaries of
the school system and its services. They don’t contribute enough to be viewed as stakeholders. In crass
terms, “they get what they get,” based on whatever the system or those in power can think up that they
might need or whatever the system is willing to spend to provide it for them. The challenge is, how can
the school see or how can it show that the parents of these families are equal stakeholders in the
decision-making and educational process of their children and the learning community as a whole.
Power-sharing says that decisions regarding services provided are directly impacted by the voices of the
parents they serve. Good intentions are not enough. If mechanisms are not put in place to include the
voices of the socially and economically marginalized in decision-making, a power inequity exists and
community is not really happening. Connections and networks need to develop at all levels between all
cultures represented for true community to exist.
There are signs that this is being worked on. In addition to providing workshops for parents on how to
support education at home, Buchanan’s School Improvement Plan notes that one way to close the
achievement gap is to encourage parent involvement and encourage partnerships with parents. One
action is to have parents sign a parent involvement policy and Parent Compact. The compact seems like
a good idea to let parents know they will be included in communication that involves Title I services or
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academic information that relates to their child. But it maintains the traditionally held stance that the
teachers and school provide the education and information and the parents are receivers of that
information and service. The compact does mention that parents will be involved in the joint
development of any school-wide program plan, but it does not explain how this involvement will happen
or be communicated. It spells out expected parent and student responsibilities in helping students do
their homework or in sending in completed forms to the office in a timely manner. But it assumes the
school is communicating well. Good intentions do not automatically translate into good practice.
Ironically, these efforts are listed under the goal of “developing people” and refer to students in the subgroups. One would imagine, then, that the parents targeted would be parents of those same students in
the sub-groups. Putting these activities in a School Improvement plan is a good step in including
parents, however, it does not make the connections happen. The truth is that all of the ideas, such as
having the parent sign the compact primarily involve administrative contacts and require minimal
attention from teachers or other students or even the PTO. More needs to happen at the classroom and
family to family levels.
A Learning Community is more than just a School
If a school wants to call itself a learning community, then it needs to identify a commonly held goal that
all members commit to ongoing learning and support of learning to improve the education of both
adults and the children. If this common goal exists, then a common vision for how that will look can
emerge. But before a community can embark on such an exciting journey, members must first develop
relationships and trust so that every contribution is valued. A learning community needs to include
everyone and encourage member inquiry. If everyone is included, than a more comprehensive list of
organizational needs and individual visions is possible. Relationships are foundational to any form of
cooperation or interdependence. And cooperation and a sense of interdependence is foundational to
achieving common goals and creating a common vision.
All this to say that Buchanan’s limited formal links to diverse families, limits the school’s ability to set
common goals or build a learning community. Without parent-to-parent or teacher-to-parent or even
administration-to-parent relationships with diverse cultures, there tends to be little perceived need to
formally connect with civic organizations or support groups for those cultural groups at the school level.
This, then, is another area that is lacking in Buchanan’s desire for a learning community. The community
appears uncommitted to learning about itself. Rather it limits learning only the curricular expectations
in order to make AYP. The activities outlined in the school’s current improvement plan are primarily
focused on teachers: give teachers better resources; send them to workshops to improve methodology;
adapt a better curriculum; etc. There is a list of ways to involve parents, but it is more in the context of
getting work done, not seen as a direct factor in raising student achievement.
People are very nice to one another at Buchanan functions and at school. There is a happy tone when
teachers and parents are together. This makes Buchanan a pleasant place to be a part of. But there is
an elephant in the room that seems to go unnoticed or unacknowledged. In a school so uniquely
diverse, having so few cross-cultural connections, relationships and collaboration is unconceivable. Yet
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it remains. Even though there are now about as many whites as Hispanics represented in the student
body, there are still no Hispanics on the PTO and Hispanics represent only about 12% of the faculty and
staff. Somewhere there needs to birth commitment to sitting and talking to one another about lifeissues that affect the school’s ability to nurture the community and the educational process. The school
community needs to take to heart the research that shows that parental involvement in children’s
education raises achievement scores. And adults need to believe that modeling learning behavior at
home is just a great an influence as a teacher in the classroom.
If Buchanan wants to be a learning community, in other words, building community for the sake of
education, it needs to make time for the community to learn about itself first. As cross-cultural
relationships are started, support structures will begin to be built, and children will feel the difference in
the classroom. A learning community needs to start by taking time to talk about or reflect on how the
community’s learning can include education about itself and then how this can contribute to greater
levels of teamwork in supporting the students and parents in the educational process in the classroom.
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