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Running head: Jackson School Library Community Narrative Andrew Jackson Elementary School Library Running head: Jackson School Library Community Narrative Andrew Jackson Elementary School is a public school in the Kingsport City Schools system. This paper provides an analysis of the city of Kingsport, Tennessee, the community where Andrew Jackson Elementary School is located. This narrative will consider Kingsport as a whole, as specific data on the school zone community is not available. Data has been gathered from population, education and labor force statistics. This information will guide planning for the school library collection, program and services. Running head: Jackson School Library Community Narrative Andrew Jackson Elementary School (Jackson) is a Kindergarten through fifth grade public school located in Kingsport, Tennessee. Jackson is one of eleven schools in the Kingsport City Schools (KCS) system. Jackson serves approximately 506 students (National Center for Education Statistics, 2009). The ethnicity of Jackson student’s is 78.7% white, 12.8% black, 7.5% Hispanic, 0.4% Asian/Pacific Islander, and 0.6% American Indian/ Alaska Native (National Center for Education Statistics, 2009). Jackson is a Title I school with 61% of students receiving free lunch and 7% receiving reduced-price lunch (National Center for All eleven of the schools that make up the Kingsport City Schools system have a library available to students and staff. The Kingsport City Schools system is made up of one high school, two middle schools and eight elementary schools. Each library has a certified school library media specialist and at least one part-time library assistant (Kingsport City Schools, 2011). The high school has two certified library media specialist and one full-time library assistant. Kingsport also has one public library, the Kingsport Public Library and Archives (KPL) that serves the greater Kingsport area. The city of Kingsport has a current population of approximately 44, 758 people (United States Census Bureau, 2009). Of the people living in Kingsport, 5.7% are less than five years old, 11.2% are between the ages of five and fourteen, 5.2% are between the ages of fifteen and nineteen, 6.0% are between the ages of twenty and twenty-four, 51.4% are between the ages of twenty-five and sixty-four, and 20.5% are age sixty-five and older (United States Census Bureau, 2009). There are approximately 9,073 children under the age of eighteen living in the city of Kingsport (United States Census Bureau, 2009). There are 567 households with no wife present Running head: Jackson School Library Community Narrative and 2,814 households with no husband present (United States Census Bureau, 2009). There are 5,610 married-couple households in Kingsport (United States Census Bureau, 2009). The language spoken in the majority of homes in Kingsport is English. Approximately 40,297 people or 90% of people speak English in Kingsport (United States Census Bureau, 2009). The second most spoken language in Kingsport homes is Spanish with 1,035 people or 2% of the population (United States Census Bureau, 2009). The ethnic makeup of Kingsport is 93.3% white, 4.2% black, 0.8% Asian, and 0.2% American Indian (United State Census Bureau, The largest employer in Kingsport is Eastman Chemical Company (Eastman). Eastman employs approximately 10,000 people, which also makes it the largest employer in the state of Tennessee (State of Tennessee, 2010). Eastman is a leading manufacturer of plastics materials and resins, industrial organic chemicals, and cellulosic man-made fiber precuts. The second largest employer in Kingsport is Wellmont Health System (State of Tennessee, 2010). Wellmont Health System is a general hospital and employs 1,800 people. The third largest employer in Kingsport is A & L Industrial Construction. According to the State of Tennesse (2010), A & L Industrial Construction is an industrial building construction company that employs around a Kingsport has an unemployment rate of 7.8% (United States Census Bureau, 2009). This puts Kingsport’s unemployment rate below the national unemployment rate of 9.1% and the state of Tennessee’s unemployment rate of 9.6% (United States Department of Labor, 2011). The median family income for Kingsport is $49,725 (United States Census Bureau, 2009). The median family income for Kingsport is less than the median family income for the United States which is $62,363 (United States Census Bureau, 2009). Running head: Jackson School Library Community Narrative Kingsport has approximately 82.5% of the population over the age of eighteen who have a high school diploma or an equivalent (United States Census Bureau, 2009). Approximately 18.4% of people over the age of eighteen have at least some college and 24.3% of those over eighteen have at least a college degree or higher (United States Census Bureau, 2009). Kingsport has two general hospitals and four long-term, rehabilitation facilities (CenturyLink, 2011). Social service providers include six nursing homes, approximately twenty five day care centers, and three youth and recreation centers (CenturyLink, 2011). Service groups in Kingsport include the Downtown Kingsport Association, Kiwanis Club of Kingsport, Kingsport Evening Civitan Club, Optimist Club of Downtown Kingsport, and the Kingsport Rotary Club (City of Kingsport, 2011). State offices in the city of Kingsport include a state Attorney General’s office, Circuit Court, Children and Family Services, Department of Employment Security and Public Assistance (CenturyLink, 2011). All of these offices provide service to the public. There are at least two county level government offices in Kingsport, a branch of the Sullivan County Health Department and Juvenile Court. The city of Kingsport has created a five-year Community Investment Program (CIP) (City of Kingsport, 2011). This CIP is for 2010 through 2014. Included are issues facing the city. Listed in the CIP are projects to be completed that focus on being multi-generational in usage. Water and sewer projects are a big part of this plan as the city has undertaken an aggressive annexation plan. All projects have been planned while aiming to keep tax rates at the current level without additional increases. Kingsport strives to provide citizens with good access to technology. In the downtown area, free wi-fi is available through the area. Several area businesses and restaurants also Running head: Jackson School Library Community Narrative provide free wi-fi to patrons. Cable Internet access is available through Charter Communications. Numerous banks provide ubiquitous access to Automatic Teller Machines (ATMS). Kingsport is a small town with ambitious plans to grow and provide a high quality of Planning for the school library at Jackson requires a look at the needs of the overall community. As a Title I school, many students come from impoverished homes that lack access to books, computers and other learning materials. Data shows a large number of the children in Kingsport live in single-parent homes. While the median family income is not far below the national level, 14.8% of the population of Kingsport lives below the poverty level (United States Census Bureau, 2009). The school library at Jackson must strive to meet the needs of the children it serves, as well as reach out to help the families. Running head: Jackson School Library Community Narrative CenturyLink Yellow Pages. (2011). Tri-Cities/Kingsport. Dex One Corporation. City of Kingsport. (2011). Retrieved from http://kingsporttn.gov/ Kingsport City Schools. (2011). Retrieved from http://www.k12k.com/ National Center for Educational Statistics. (2009). Jackson Elementary School [Data file]. Retrieved from http://nces.ed.gov/globallocator/ State of Tennessee. (2010). 50 Largest Employers in Tennessee. Department of Economic and Community Development, Division of Research and Strategic Planning. Retrieved from United States Census Bureau. (2009). American Fact Finder. Retrieved from http://factfinder.census.gov/home/saff/main.html?_lang=en United States Department of Labor. (2011). Bureau of Labor Statistics. Retrieved from http://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/empsit.pdf

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