A study of site-based management as it relates to the local board of education, central office administration, building level administration, school instructional staff, support staff and community members, and the approval of school-based management decision making Monroe County, Tennessee, public school district

The Monroe County School District, located in East Tennessee approximately forty-five (45) miles south of Knoxville, Tennessee, has a student population, kindergarten through twelfth grade, of four thousand nine hundred (4,900). The county is predominantly rural with four (4) incorporated towns nestled near the Cherokee National Forest: Madisonville, Tellico, Sweetwater, and Vonore. Monroe County is the fifth largest land area in the state of Tennessee with its borders reaching North Carolina. Three comprehensive high schools were strategically placed to serve one thousand eight hundred seventy (1,870) students grades nine (9) through twelve (12): Sequoyah High School, Sweetwater High School and Tellico Plains High School. Scattered across the vast land area are eight (8) elementary schools serving kindergarten through eighth grade: Rural Vale Elementary School, Coker Creek Elementary School, Tellico Plains Elementary and Jr. High School, Madisonville Primary,Intermediate and Middle School and Vonore Elementary School. Normally, fifty percent (50%) of the Monroe County student population qualify for free or reduced lunch. Providing a quality education to the students of this Appalachian area is the main concern of the Monroe County School System. Advances were made recently through technology grants and a new building program to improve the overall educational program. However, studies were needed to determine if the current school management system could sufficiently lead Monroe County students successfully into the twenty-first century. The purpose of this study was to ask school decision makers in Monroe County if they prefer to continue the present type of school management operation or move to site-based management as a way of managing the operation of their local schools. The study also gathered information as to the knowledge of the groups on site based management. The study involved nine (9) local Board of Education members, ten (10) central office administrators, eleven (11) building level principals, two hundred twenty-eight (228) school instructional staff, one hundred twenty-six (126) support staff and sixty-four (64) community members belonging to local Parent-Teacher Organizations. Rate of completion for each of the following groups was as follows: Local board of education members one hundred percent (100%), central office administration one hundred percent (100%), building level principals one hundred percent (100%), school instructional staff seventy-eight percent (78%), support staff sixty- three percent (63%) and 63 community members volunteered to complete the survey. The data were analyzed by looking at the means of various groups as well as determining the standard deviation and analysis of variance, which was used to determine the statistical significance of the various responding groups. The level of significance was established at .05 to be statistically significant. The researcher also analyzed the frequencies as related to number of times certain responses occurred in the various groups. This study was very helpful to the citizens of Monroe County who desire to improve the quality of education in the Monroe County School District.