July 29, 2019 BCSD Board of Directors Work Session
Board members attending: Bross, Kendell, Brueck, Vickstrom, Courtney, Hatteberg
Robberts arrived at 4:30.
Others: Principals, vps, Greg Reynolds, Lacy Johnson, Cory Johnson, Pat Coen, Reggie Shipp
Coen started with thank you cards for the booster clubs that helped with RAGBRAI. Board members were instructed to sign them.
Courtney asked whether the booster clubs made as much money as they thought the would. He heard that they had a lot of leftover food. Coen said that 4000 were served.
Nina Zaiser said that the crowd didn’t meet expectations. But food wasn’t wasted, was sent back.
The meet was officially called to order at 4:04 PM.
Cory Johnson reviewed what happened June 10 (last work session).
Bross appreciated the ACES (Adverse Childhood Experiences) information. He wanted to hear more about what are we doing this year. How are we going to work on? He likes positive interventions for discipline issues.
Kendell agrees about ACES. This could be why different buildings have different problems.
Shipp said something about the discipline expulsion rate and the services provided for said students. Bross thanked Shipp for the YouTube video on how to enter discipline referrals in Infinite Campus (IC)
CJ then reviewed district wide efforts to support student learning.
Attendance teams are working on developing a plan for home visits in June and July.
Coen then inserted that if students aren’t there, good curriculum doesn’t matter.
Behavior is taught and expectations taught at school. We need to work on attendance.
CF referenced a handout that they in their folder. CASTLE - defines social/emotional competencies. It's a framework adopted by the state of Iowa. It’s relevantly new. Early in the year we looked deeper in social/emotional stuff. We need to try to be more consistent in this. There was a committee that recommended the purchase of Positive Action curriculum K-8. Looking at a soft implementation because we don’t want to throw something else on teachers. Counselors and social workers know about it and can help if teachers need help. Implementation not this year but the next. There are six units in the curriculum. Aligns with CASTLE.
CJ refernced a handout in the packet from DOE about suicide prevention and mitagting toxi stress responses. We have to do new annual training on this. We are doing an online program for suicide. The mitigation program is called building stronger brains. AEA supports it. Its free to us. Its face to face. Occurs during the PD before school starts. All teachers have to take it annually per Iowa code.
CJ referenced a handout on professional development for creating a culture of mutual respect and learning. It summarizes all the training that staff will have access to this year and some of the training that we have done in the past (Jenson).
Coen then said that attendance for staff is important. TQ was attended by 243 or about 75% of our staff. Then he called Bolander the old guy and asked him how many usually attend and Bolander said less than 50%. Then Coen said that is the problem. Bross wanted to know if we measure if it is implemented. L. Johnson is working on an audit of different programs in place and how they are working. More info to come about this. It will be done each trimester.
CJ then said something about coaching and feedback to teachers. Then he reference the drop in discipline referrals for the after school program. Eduplanet learning modules another learning for staff. TQ wanted to offer a menu this spring 101 signed up, 88 finished. About ⅓ of staff did this.
There were learning opportunities for teacher summer 2019. There was something in Ottumwa (3 staff) did it. Five teachers attended a behavioral summitt. The third thing that came out in an email today (No Such Thing as a Bad Kid). PLC institute training is being done. Admin is providing a lot of support for staff and a lot of learning. It is focussed on trauma informed mindset.
Joanie James did a Conscious Discipline presentation. I’m not sure what her job is with the district but she has worked with after school program. Its an evidence based trauma informed self-informed program. It fosters self regulation.
A big piece relies on creating a healthy school family. She showed a pyramid of how it works.
She gave some examples of things done during the day.
PIECES chose this approach because of a survey they did and found a need for improvement for student behavior. It was first used in Club M and then in PIECES. All PIECES staff were trained. She explained the timeline on this. More training occurred this summer and more to come. This is done through a certified instructor. Year one was focused on structure and rituals. In year 2 feelings will be focussed on. Year 3 will involve “I Love You Rituals”. Many positive results have come from this program she feels. Staff is more willing to calm and self reflect and work on a solution. She feels that their students are more accountable for their behavior because of this program. There was a 89.5% reduction in after school program DRs.
CJ referenced a handout that had pictures of the different parts of the program.
Courtney asked if they leave the classroom and get help. James said the goal is to keep them in the classroom in calming zones.
CJ then said adults can relate to getting away from aggravation.
James then sometimes it involves taking a walk or running.
Courtney - who teaches the kids when this goes on?
James - there are always two staff members in the classroom. Or office people handle it or she comes.
Courtney asked if it was done last year.
Bross clarified that it was only in the PIECES program. CJ said a few teachers were using it.
She referenced Diana Reed ( music teacher) as a teacher that uses it. Two kindergarten teachers did the training. (PIECES is an after school program.)
CJ then referenced the PD for this school year. (This is going to be in our PD?)
There is training on this during the first week back and free to staff.
TQ day will be about this stuff - Donna Porter and someone named D.J. This is specific for secondary. James was describing an elementary program.
Courtney asked if there are some students that this doesn’t work on. James said that she does it differently than the staff members and not all were trained and so it wasn’t implemented well. James said her mindset is different than the teachers mindset. She said she really listens to the child and gives them the time to calm. Courtney asked if everybody got the training, would it work? James - yes. She is having a problem hiring staff and getting them trained in time for school year. James has 7 more people to interview to fill vacancies is the PIECES program. Courtney hopes it works since he is the biggest complainer about discipline. She uses this policy at home. Bross thanked her for sharing a personal story. Bross asked if there was an opportunity for parental training. James said there is a parent book and seminar.
PBIS
Christina Larken and Nina Zaiser asked admin to do a presentation about something they learned when they took to classes this summer. They then did a Powerpoint presentation that addressed the following question: How can we make a positive impact on behavior program? Larkin said there were discipline problems in the District but that Sunnyside didn’t have a problem. She asked if everyone could think about a time that a teacher made them feel negative about something? And changed the question to positive. Then they instructed everyone to turn and talk with someone about the positive experience.
They said that empathy and relationships are what happens in the positive experience. They said it is about being proactive and not reactive. It is about consciousness not consequences. It’s all about building relationships.
A House is Not A Home was the course they took. Larkin then described some stuff in the course. They learned that more kids are hungry than in the past. They met with Coen to talk about this issue and he is working on it. Reynolds is going looking at everyone in our district eating free because our district is so poor. Zaiser talked about a sharing table for left over packaged food. Larkin and Zaiser are working on writing a plan to do this. Chris Roberts said that someone else in the district is working on it. Robberts asked about how big a program they were thinking of and whether they would form a nonprofit. They weren’t sure.
They learned that relationships are important.
Zaiser then read a slide titled Breaking the Cycle: School to Prison Pipeline (This was the second class they took). It stressed the importance of relationships and knowing what is going on with the child. Courtney said that some teachers will say I’m not a social worker. They just want to teach. Conversation then broke out about whether those teachers should be in the classroom.
Larkin talked about the zero tolerance policy and that SROs should only be used for police stuff and not piddly stuff.
Shipp said the SRO at the high school tried to build relationships with students. Referenced John Stern as an example of a good SRO. Larkin was excited to know we are using SROs correctly in our district.
Then they went to a presentation on PBIS. Stressed the importance of talking to students. Larkin modeled how to talk to a student. Zaiser modeled a negative teacher. Larkin then said even what she did was not correct and she could modify it to make it better.
Larkin then talked about restorative practices and conscious discipline. She suggested morning meetings, talking circles, and dialogue circles with students.
Then they had everyone watch a video called Talking Circles with Edwina Smith. This was in Oakland California. They ended with a slide on positive intention - it was a quote from a principal Washington D.C. Zaiser invited them to visit the kindergarten classrooms. Larkin concurred.
Bross called them superstars for doing this.
CJ then pointed out a handout about health services. A full time counselor was added to the district. He went through the list of people who help with stuff like this. He referenced TLC positions that help with this. Coen then complimented Monica Mundt on what she does.
The PBIS Handbook was presented by Tim Bolander. The bottom line was inconsistency in using this. Teams were trained separately and so different building developed different plans. In 2016 a district team was created and discrepancy were found in all levels. He referenced a handout. The most critical part is instruction. He said that some people thought there were no consequences but that is incorrect. There were also lesson plans attached in the handout. This is for elementary. Bross asked why the classroom was not listed on the sheet. Bolander said it may not have printed on the handout. He referenced the posters that are used. Teacher turn in a checklist after they teach the lessons on PBIS. Different building plans resulted in different forms to be used such as minors and majors. The list he referenced was very specific to Sunnyside. When the program went forward as a district, the problem solving matrix was introduced. He then referenced a story where a Sunnyside student hugely misbehaved as told by Tom Courtney at the last work session. It really made him mad. But he wanted to let the board know that they used this matrix on that student. Then he held up what was used by Mark Taylor at Corse. Bross asked if the matrix will be explained to the teachers. Bolander said yes. He also said that they were inconsistent on what goes into IC. Only majors will go into IC. He said the ODR form is all consistent but Chris Richards has a full sheet instead of a half sheet. Both versions are three-ply so that teacher, office, and parent get a copy. These are used for majors only. Minors are managed by the teacher and not the office. He then talked about recognition for good behavior being a part of PBIS. He gave examples of prizes. He talked about how this works with bus drivers. Shipp said that transportation does a good job of letting the high school know about issues on the bus.
Hatteberg asked him about training students and teachers on this so its consistent. Bolander and Richards then gave examples of what they do. Mark Taylor explained how he did it.
Coen asked Lacy to check teacher attendance against the audit. He thought that maybe teachers missed the training. Hatteberg asked about new students. Richards said he used a video for new students but it needs to be updated to work for all elementary buildings. Bolander said they use data to determine if parts of PBIS need to be retaught based on the behaviors. Bolander talked about bus behavior. He said the key is teaching correct behavior. Bolander explain the pyramid of MTSS and how it is used. Bolander said there is a need of a district team. I left at 6:00 PM and the meeting was still going on.
