Staunton City Public Schools submitted an RFA (Request for Assistance) to Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) to address concerns at Shelburne Middle School related to teacher satisfaction, student discipline, and student achievement. Document and data analysis, a site visit, and partner interviews surfaced issues of organizational fragmentation; the capstone team identified the need for a collaboratively constructed and implemented vision to better cohere the school. Through document analysis and stakeholder surveys, our mixed methods study aimed to understand stakeholder views on three aspects to support the work of the leadership team at SMS. First, the capstone team identified the needs in the current state that stakeholders of staff, students, and parents felt were barriers towards deeper change. Next, our study sought to elucidate the top academic values and priorities stakeholders wanted to include in a vision statement. Finally, our survey results identified the future hopes or aspirations stakeholders desire once the vision is fully actualized. Findings from our research showed areas of alignment among stakeholders in both the current and future states. Recommendations focused on addressing current needs, along with providing a framework and timeline for school leadership to re-engage stakeholders in next steps for the development of a shared, collaborative vision
