Date - February 23, 2012
Attendance - Brian Flones; Jennifer Talbot
Mr. Flones and I met for a little over an hour.
We discussed Make Your Day feedback and history. We agreed that the community does not support returning to the way things were in the School District pre-Make Your Day. Staff and parents alike appreciate having a common behavior model and guidelines for classroom management. We agreed that Make Your Day despite training and re-training has methods that can become punitive or negative. We agreed that teachers and staff only observe the school-wide effects of Make Your Day while parents may experience other and long-term effects. We agreed that it is difficult to measure those effects. As Mr. Flones talked about the history of Make Your Day, I was interested to learn that Earl Brown was very involved when the program was initially implemented and that he cautioned that it might not be a good fit for all the schools in the District. I learned that Orchard Middle School and Lewis & Clark Elementary School were the first schools to adopt Make Your Day. Many of the other schools asked for the program because they had observed results at the two schools and were hungry for a behavior support system to help reduce discipline issues. I learned that one of the challenges over the years was continuing to support the program now that Earl Brown is no longer directly involved. Currently, the Make Your Day program training and facilitation is directed by Ron Brown, Director of Instructional Technology and Assessment.
I challenged that the goal of the school system and the community is to partner in school-wide behavior management. Because of the ongoing controversy over Make Your Day, parents and school staff are being divided. This creates an unhealthy climate for our community as we work to make positive changes in the six key areas developed through the Wenatchee Learns process (reference - INSIDE Wenatchee Schools, February 2012). As a school district, an option called Positive Behavior Intervention & Support (PBIS) was presented almost two years ago for behavior management that would satisfy our need for a positive support system as well as offer guidelines and intervention strategies for staff (reference - Wenatchee School Board Minutes, June 14, 2010).
We discussed PBIS. Mr. Flones stated that he had presented information at a principals meeting and a teacher association executive board meeting. He is impressed with the research and evidence surrounding PBIS. He appreciated learning that other schools in the state of Washington have transitioned away from or modified their original Make Your Day program.
Mr. Flones was presented with the following documents:
o Email correspondence with Edie Reclusado, Principal of Olivia Park Elementary School, Mukilteo School District
o Email correspondence with Tom Edwards, Principal of Keithley Middle School, Franklin Pierce School District
o Email correspondence with Shaun Carey, Principal of Elmhurst Elementary School of Franklin Pierce School District.
o Example of schools in Washington State currently using Positive Behavior Support that were or are Make Your Day schools created by Jennifer Talbot.
We discussed Wenatchee Learns. The process has generated lots of feedback. A significant amount of the feedback deals with Make Your Day and behavior management. Based on this feedback, Mr. Flones will recommend to the School Board that a committee be formed to discuss behavior management. He noted that this is a 2-3 year process.
I challenged that the School District promised to take a serious look at our behavior management program over 2 years ago (reference - Wenatchee School Board Minutes, March 2009 & May 2009). I stated that the School Board has already had an opportunity for discussion and that it was time to start taking action. I challenged that this spring would be a good time to send staff members to a PBIS conference and that a school could be approached to pilot a PBIS model or modify Make Your Day to fit into a PBIS model this fall.
According to Mr. Flones, the Educational Service District (ESD) is hosting a PBIS meeting this April in Wenatchee. Mr. Flones stated that the School District was looking into having a group attend.
Mr. Flones stated that based on the Wenatchee Learns comments, he is asking the board for additional support in developing behavior management and citizenship and character models. I challenged that this needs to be addressed in a public manner at a School Board meeting or as a press release in a newspaper. Mr. Flones promised that behavior management would be on the agenda at the public School Board meeting on March 13, 2012.
I talked about the accountability of the School District to our community. I asked that Mr. Flones consider how the perception of our school system affects the local economy and support from our community. I reminded him that I am not just one parent and that I represent parents of future, past and present WSD students, staff that are too intimidated to speak up, and community members. I asked him to consider the information that is available to the public: newspaper articles, school board minutes, and information on websites about Make Your Day and PBIS.
I communicated to Brian Flones the following:
· I will be attending the School Board meeting on Tuesday, February 28, 2012. During Citizen Comment I will extend an invitation to our community information meeting, Positive Behavior Support for our Schools, on March 12, 2012.
· I will be attending the School Board meeting on Tuesday, March 13, 2012.
· I have scheduled a follow-up meeting with Brian Flones.
I will be holding Mr. Flones accountable for the following:
Are we indeed sending a group to the ESD-PBIS meeting in April? Who will be attending? How can we support these staff members? Is this meeting sufficient to create an action plan?
Is part of the agenda for the School Board meeting stating an action plan and support for modification of our current behavior management? Have we formed a committee at the School District level? Who will be on that committee and when will they be meeting?
by Jennifer Talbot
Wenatchee, Washington
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