MCS - Blue Ribbon Plan

The Blue Ribbon committee initially assessed current programming in the district that supported students behaviorally or socially. We found that over 127 different programs or initiatives were concurrently being implemented with no accountability or alignment; 54 of those programs were directly related to violence prevention, drugs, and or student behavior. In order to gain greater efficiency and to become more strategic, we knew we would need to narrow our focus, reduce the number of programs, and create a K-12 alignment.

We conducted research on many programs and initiatives nationally. What we found was a trend moving toward developing discipline plans that focus on data, relationships, school connectedness, early intervention and monitoring. All these elements are found in Positive Behavior Intervention System (PBIS), a growing national approach to promoting positive behavior.

PBIS is a national model originally funded through an OSEP grant from the U.S. Department of Education in order to reduce referral to special education. It has been so popular that several states have adopted it as a statewide model for school discipline. Currently used by more than 2,800 schools nationwide, PBIS is a systemic approach to promoting positive behavior through the development of school-wide plans, classroom and non-classroom rules and procedures, and systems for teaching students these expectations as well as rewarding and acknowledging them.

The Blue Ribbon Plan, which focuses on outcomes, data, programs and practices and systems, has PBIS as its framework. The district plans to implement PBIS K-12 throughout its schools, and will provide district support to ensure accountability and results.

Efficiencies in programming and support have been built into the Blue Ribbon plan. We have realigned our Safe and Drug Free staff and have been very purposeful about how we are targeting our resources. We have realigned two positions to focus solely on emergency preparedness and school safety planning, implementation, monitoring and compliance. These two staff will work to train schools in crisis management and response, evacuation, and procedures for handling such natural disasters as tornadoes or earthquakes, or acts of terrorism. Furthermore, we have aligned five prevention specialists and have changed their work to support the monitoring and implementation of the school-wide discipline plans. These individuals will work directly with the Academic Directors and principals to ensure that the plans are followed and that schools are inputting their conduct data on a daily basis. Each will also be trained as a “PBIS Coach.” The coaches go out to school sites and conduct formalized assessments of school climate; these assessments include parent and staff surveys periodically, examining the facility for evidence of implementation and reviewing the conduct data with the school-wide discipline team.

Training, which began with the Blue Ribbon Summit and which will continue all summer at the TLA, is a large component of the Blue Ribbon plan. Ensuring that teachers, district support staff, parents, principals and other school support staff are trained in creating positive school environments is essential. This follows a strategy used in PBIS -- having all adults unified in the work and in effective techniques for their interactions with students. In addition, we have clustered schools by feeder patterns and communities to ensure a K-12 alignment of effort to help our highly mobile population. Teachers, principals and other staff have been given the tools necessary to begin the work and develop their school plans. ISS monitors will receive specialized training on behavior interventions and management. In addition, strategies to communicate the Blue Ribbon Plan to bus drivers, coaches, cafeteria workers, clerical and secretarial staff and engineers are being developed. It will take all of us to promote positive, safe, and welcoming school environments.

We had our first parent session on June 7th, and it was attended by more than 400 parents and community members. Each school is expected to share its plans with its parents and leadership team as well as to provide training at the school site. With the leadership of Ms. Lola Bolden, it is our intent to work with the P.T.A., the P.T.O., the Parent Assembly, and other parent groups to support student behavior and achievement throughout the year. The annual Parent Seminar, planned for September 21st, will include a focus on Blue Ribbon.

Schools staff have not only been trained but also are receiving two tools to help them frame the work, the Behavior Intervention Manual (BIM), by Samuel House, and Robert Marzano’s book, Classroom Management That Works. The BIM is a research-based manual typically used in special education to support ED students. It is filled with thousands of intervention strategies teachers, principals and parents can use to promote positive behavior. These strategies can be used as a prevention tools as well. The TLA has developed a systemic protocol for staff development every third Wednesday to focus on positive strategies and is using these two tools as on-going professional development.

As part of Blue Ribbon, we have identified 18 virtues, such as responsibility, courage, perseverance, honesty, trust among others. These virtues will support our existing health and wellness curriculum and also support our literacy initiative. We will highlight one virtue a week each semester as a district and will have events and suggested ways our parents and community can help us reinforce the message of positive and responsible behavior and good character. This initiative will not replace the current curriculum.

No program will work unless the children are involved and engaged. This is why we have realigned another Safe and Drug Free staff member to direct our student leadership efforts. We plan to have a full functioning student board and student assembly at the secondary level. Each middle and high school will send participants to the student assembly quarterly to discuss relevant issues facing our teens and schools. This larger assembly will elect officers and a nine-member board to serve as a liaison to the school board. The officers will be trained in leadership in collaboration with Team Trek and the BRIDGES.

Currently all policies regarding student behavior, rights and responsibilities and attendance are being rewritten. We are also developing a new Student Conduct Guide that will be distributed and taught to students the first week of school and at other strategic times throughout the year, i.e. upon their return from winter break. We will also be asking students and parents to sign a contract that they have received the guide and fully understand and will comply with all the contents of the guide.

We will be rewriting all our behavior referral forms and behavior intervention planning forms. We are currently reviewing the new Chancery Student Management System to see if we can support on-line STAR and behavior intervention planning and documentation. We are also working with Chancery on their conduct data pull-down menus to align with the BIM and high end reporting capabilities that show incident type, frequency of repeaters, and teacher referral data equated to lost instructional time. These reports will eventually be available to principals, teachers and teams to access daily, but with current capacity we will push it out to schools every 20 days. Having a sharp focus on data is key to the Blue Ribbon Plan. We will be constantly monitoring and adjusting school plans as information and data shows needs. The academic directors and behavior coaches will visit schools and meet with teams regularly to discuss implementation and review results.

We know that there are children who chronically misbehave. Therefore, we have developed a strong S-Team process to support early intervention and problem-solving strategies that are systemic K-12. We also know that even after our best attempts, students may need additional support services from community partners or outside agencies. It is through the S-Team process that students are recommended for additional support or special education, if appropriate. Finally, if a student commits a zero tolerance offense or chronically misbehaves, that student will be referred to Pupil Services and may be remanded to an alternative school placement.

The Blue Ribbon plan addresses the redesign and addition of more alternative sites in the elementary schools. We will also offer more focused, positive, and academically-focused alternative schools at the middle and high school levels. We will be redesigning these schools with a researched-based program to support promoting a social skills curriculum but also offering an academically challenging and relevant core curriculum to students who are assigned to an alternative school.

In conclusion, we know that any plan will need to be continually monitored and assessed for results. We have built into the Blue Ribbon an evaluation component that relies on several pieces of data at the school, community, and achievement levels. We will use surveys, on-site visits, conduct data, attendance data, repeat offender data, MPD and security data and other information to assess progress and to make any needed changes as necessary at the district level as well. We will model the way for our school and provide the needed accountability to ensure full implementation of the Blue Ribbon plan, knowing that it is intentionally designed as a “living document.”