Happy dance for Columbia, Lincoln, and Pioneer

Please join me in supporting and encouraging Columbia Elementary, Lincoln Elementary, and Pioneer Middle School.  These three Wenatchee School District schools are putting together a team of educators to send to the PBIS training this year.  The first two days of training will be in June followed by additional training in late summer and fall.

If your child(ren) or grandchild(ren) attend one of these schools, I would hope that you would express your appreciation and support to the administrator(s), teachers, counselor, and other staff.

As community members, I would encourage you to send a letter of appreciation and support to the administrator(s), counselor, and select staff (list below) at each of these schools. 

In addition, a thank you note to Superintendent Brian Flones, our school board members, and district administrator, John Waldren, would be appropriate. 

It is important that our education leaders know that their community is aware of and supports research based systems in our schools that positively affect our students academic and behavior outcomes. 

So, write a card or letter or email.  Schedule a visit with the principal or your child's teacher.  Join me in supporting and encouraging these schools today!    

Columbia Elementary School - 600 Alaska Street

·         Principal Bill Eagle

·         Counselor Kelli Ottley

·         Teacher Loni Lynch

·         Teacher Ryan Weaver

·         Teacher Miss Martinez

Lincoln Elementary School - 1224 Methow Street

·         Principal Tim Sheppard

·         Counselor Jim Bowen

·         Teacher Kevin Parr

Pioneer Middle School - 1620 Russell Street

·         Principal Mark Helm

·         Assistant Principal Dan Wilson

·         Counselor Tim Trainor

·         Counselor Thomas Tilton

·         Teacher Kathi Bullis

·         Teacher Kerrie Miller

·         Teacher Susie Choman

Additional information:

“What is School-Wide PBIS?”

Improving student academic and behavior outcomes is about ensuring all students have access to the most effective and accurately implemented instructional and behavioral practices and interventions possible. SWPBS provides an operational framework for achieving these outcomes. More importantly, SWPBS is NOT a curriculum, intervention, or practice, but IS a decision making framework that guides selection, integration, and implementation of the best evidence-based academic and behavioral practices for improving important academic and behavior outcomes for all students.        Source: www.pbis.org

WSD Parent Survey 2013

Wenatchee School District Nine Characteristics Survey is available for parents to fill-out via either the survey form or online. 

Notice that the Make Your Day questions are absent from the survey this year.  As Wenatchee School District moves towards full implementation of PBIS (Positive Behavior Interventions & Supports), many of the new questions consider the essential elements of the PBIS framework.

Although all Wenatchee schools are working toward implementing the PBIS systems approach, most K-8 schools continue to use the Make Your Day program for behavior. 

Questions 8, 10, 11, 15, 16, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, & 41 deal directly with the implementation of the Make Your Day program (most Wenatchee K-8 schools) and the PBIS model (Lewis & Clark Elementary and Valley Academy of Learning).

PBIS also supports questions 1, 3, 4, 14, 22, 32, 34, & 35.  If you would like to know more about the essential elements of the PBIS framework, see my blog post from October 7, 2012.  Also, check out the PBIS section on the Washington State Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) website or NWPBIS website About PBIS section.

Please fill out your survey before May 3, 2013.  Whether or not your school is using Make Your Day, working toward implementing PBIS, or using PBIS, the feedback is important knowledge for Wenatchee school's board of directors, administrators, and educators.

Thanks for your support of Wenatchee Schools!

Success at Lewis & Clark Elementary School

Principal Alfonso Lopez along with two teachers presented the change from Make Your Day to PBIS (Positive Behavior Interventions & Supports) at Lewis & Clark Elementary School at a Wenatchee School District Board meeting.  Below is the recap of the presentation at the March 26, 2013 school board meeting taken from the minutes.  Way to go, Trailblazers! 

1) PBIS Update at Lewis & Clark:

Principal Alfonso Lopez introduced fourth grade teacher Angelita Jagla and

kindergarten teacher Donna Limon and they all updated the board on the

progress of the PBIS discipline program at L&C.

Highlights of update:

•

More time is needed during classroom time for dual language; PBIS

allows them that time over the MYD program. After starting last year it

was decided to go full PBIS over MYD.

•

Teachers show; demonstrate positive behaviors and the students follow

their example.

•

Reward system for the students provides additional positive interaction.

•

Blazer Bucks are earned for different activities or items.

•

Time for academics has increased dramatically.

•

Reinforcement for positive behaviors

•

School is more “fun” overall

•

Fewer referrals to the principal

•

We celebrate the “Student of the Month”, never had time for that before

•

Data collection is helping to decide what direction we are taking and what

we need to change to reach our goals, etc.

•

Rules: Respect – Solve Problems – Make Good Decisions, we show these

examples to the students and practice these

•

Three Tier Model: Discipline Strategies = 5% High Risk, 15% At Risk,

80% School Wide System of Support = SUCCESS

•

Matrix in all areas in school and the most impact in the classroom

•

Broken into categories = Minor and Major (Minor taken care of by

teacher in classroom and Major sent to office for principal to handle.)

•

Office Referrals System broken down into details and we collect data,

which is in a Chart showing time of day and kind of disruption. It helps

us to manage and understand the causes of the disturbances. Then we

can address them and change the situation.

www.swis.org

•

Teachers shared their experiences in the classrooms. There is a lot of

teacher collaboration going on to share ideas that work while keeping the

benefits of the students in mind.

•

PBIS shares with the students and shows the expectations to them.

•

PBIS helps teachers feel like they are making a difference in the students’

life.

•

The teachers are working with the principal to make things happen in a

positive way in all areas of the school. But L&C is still learning to make it

work better.

•

The board was invited to come into the classroom and see how it works.

•

Students are going beyond and above expectations and using the program

as a teamwork project to earn points to share in the classroom.

The board expressed their pleasure in hearing about the positive results and the

data collection methods used. They asked questions about input time used and

outcome of data, what it changes. The board also asked for parent input results.

Mr. Lopez and the teachers shared a lot of parent support and how happy they

are with the results in the classroom. More academics are taking place in the

classroom now. Mr. Lopez shared that a coach will be coming to help them with

areas they need to work on to help make PBIS even better. The board thanked

them for the excellent update.

Bloggers comment: PBIS is not a program.  It is a systems approach to teaching behavior, providing a response to intervention (RtI), and using data to guide decisions.