School Climate Information Night
Location: Flex
Space
Slides from the presentation will be available on the HCS
web page
Presentation by Jeff O’Hara (co-principal), Suzan Locke (co-
principal), Jen Roth (4th grade teacher), Jen Bradford (special
educator), Cindy Cole (lead psychologist for CSSU – coach for PBIS), Kate Myhre
(interventionist), Jim Kelliher (interventionist), Michelle Lass (1st
grade teacher)
What people hope to hear about/learn this evening
- Transitions
- What’s the thread throughout the school
- Restorative justice
- What are the kids being taught about climate at the school? – especially for parents who might not get as much direct communication from teachers
- Parent shared that PBIS has made a huge difference in school culture
- Questions from parents about “Creepy Clown” scare and how that was dealt with
o
Nationally a scare that clowns were going to
target schools and do harm; teens dressed up in Williston and caused a scare,
so was also in the news a lot locally
o
HCS administration made the judgment call not to
send home a notice, but worked with police and talked with students
individually
o
From a teacher’s perspective, some kids didn’t
even know about it, and it was good not to frighten them unnecessarily
o
Parents should always feel free to call school
with questions and concerns
Student Supports
- Mentoring
o
HCS has a great program – always in need of more
mentors if parents want to volunteer
o
More information about mentoring at HCS can be
found here: http://www.hcsvt.org/domain/308
- Student Assistance Program (SAP)
o
For students who may need both school and home
support; more information about the SAP program can be found on the school
website here: http://www.hcsvt.org/domain/309
Be A STAR (Belonging, Sharing, Trust, Accepting
Responsibility, Respect)
·
Program used at HCS to guide student behavior
o
The system was based on core values of the
school to start with
o
The framework is even used to guide staff
interactions at school
·
Before the Be a STAR program kids could maybe
name a few school rules, and those would have differed from kid to kid
o
Administration and staff feel that now that the
Be a STAR program has been in place for a while the kids all know what’s
expected and it’s easier to learn
·
Looking at data allows the school to tailor the
program
o
This year a lot of referrals coming in at recess
time, so interventionists adjusted their schedules to be outside
o
Tuesdays and Fridays were noticed to be peak
days for office referrals, so the school came up with “Pay it Froward Friday,”
involving the kids in recognizing STAR behavior in each other by having a
couple of kids “spying” STAR behavior in peers and reporting it to the class
o
Academic data also taken into consideration when
judging success
·
PBIS = Positive Behavior Interventions and
Support
o
based on
public health model
o
Instead of putting all the effort on a small
segment of kids who are struggling you create a climate that fosters positive
behavior in all of the kids
o
Research says 6-8 positives to every negative
helps people to change behavior
§
Feels bad when you’re only being told what
you’re doing wrong
o
HCS was the first school in the supervisory
union to implement PBIS, and we’re winning awards and have been asked to
present to other schools
·
Parent voiced that the inside peek is helpful
o
lots of parents probably don’t know how
intentional the program is (e.g., Kate Myhre meeting the busses each morning to
check in with the kids before the day starts)
·
Pyramid graphic from the presentation explained:
0-1 referrals in green, 2-6 in the yellow, more than 6 in the red (may also be
getting outside services at that point)
o
HCS offers individual support to students when
staff see they’re “in the yellow” – behavior regulation, working with parents
o
At HCS a lot of students are in the green; very
few have more than one referral – meaning more kids are in the classroom
o
Much less classroom disruption since
implementing PBIS and teachers can focus more on instruction
·
Interventionists working toward supporting
students so they don’t have to be out of the classroom
o
Proactively going around to classrooms to check
in with teachers/kids (as unobtrusively as possible)
o
Always someone on call to go to the classroom so
kid doesn’t have to go to office
o
Kids taught to own what they’ve done and that it’s
ok to make mistakes
·
Jim, Kate and Jeff meet every Friday to talk
about the past week and who was struggling and about the coming week
·
What about teachers trying to handle situations
and struggling?
o
Teacher’s goal to keep kids in the classroom to
learn
o
Kate’s job to anticipate problems and check in
Building Relationships
- At HCS the goal is to build positive relationships with/between students and among colleagues
- Restorative Justice
o
Staff are working on part of this, and it’s
optional for teachers to implement at this point
o
Part of the staff training on Tuesdays to begin
to explore the topic and how it can work at HCS
o
Standard Discipline = broken rules that lead to
punishment
o
Restorative Justice = restoring and repairing
relationships that have been harmed
§
Encourages responsibility/ active accountability
§
Righting harm with a just response – students
realizing how they have wronged somebody/how that affected them and working to
make it right (may mean talking with both students about what happened and
finding a solution)
o
Building trust helps with restorative justice –
one way this happens in the classroom is through circles
§
person holding the “talking piece” speaks and
others listen
§
used to build trust and share among each other,
starting small (e.g., favorites) and moving to more complicated topics (e.g.,
what are you afraid of)
§
students can always pass
§
Important to build listening as a skill
§
Optional for teachers to try circles this year
§
Hope is that this culture is tied to the
curriculum – sharing and structure of trust enables academic sharing, talking
about difficult things
§
Students building empathy for each other through
sharing
§
Helps with making contact with kids who may be
struggling but not having behavioral problems
§
Parent brought up the point that Google has researched
what makes the best teams in business: people being able to share equity in the
group, understand each other, have empathy, communication
o
Parent question: does the “spies” idea erode
what’s happening in restorative justice – take away from the trust that’s
built?
§
Teachers feel it’s positive and students seem to
enjoy it
§
Trust is built before this is implemented – not
right away in September
§
May be more helpful to think of those students
as observers; “spies” is what the kids came up with, but teachers felt fine
with changing that if it makes any students feel uncomfortable
Bullying and Harassment Hazing and Retaliation
- Repeated behavior by the same person toward the same target
- These cases would be the exception to using Restorative Justice
o
Never bring the two parties together in these
cases – as regulated by the state
Announcements
Help Needed for Family Dance!
- We’re looking for people to help with committees for the Family Dance – everything from food to raffle to decorations! Please contact Elisabeth Garvey at Elisabeth_garvey@gmavt.net or Jenny Wilkinson at jennywilkinsondvm06@gmail.com
Upcoming Events &
Important Dates
November 20:
Wiggle Room Thanksgiving Craft Workshop for K-3, 3-4:00 pm
December 17: PiE
Planning Meeting, 6:30 pm in the Flex Space
January 19: PiE
Learning Event “Proficiency Based Learning – Part 2”
February 2017: Spring Teacher Grants Due (2/6)
PiE Planning Meeting (2/16)
PiE Planning Meeting (2/16)
March 10: Family
Dance
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