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School Discipline Vacuum Must Be Filled

There is no silver bullet when it comes to school discipline.

During budget talks last May, Jamestown Public Schools board members approved a plan to end the night OSS/APP program. Program officials said it had many benefits, including acting as a deterrent for poor behavior. District officials decided to cut the night program to save money, because they felt the night program wasn’t doing enough to help students academically and, certainly, because district officials likely received the same complaints from parents that were received by The Post-Journal over the way the program was administered.

Ending the program wasn’t a sign the district wanted to be light on discipline. It was driven by finances, a well-meaning desire to keep as many students as possible in the classroom in an effort to help more students meet state standards and a belief the district needed to be fair to all of its students, not just those termed “good” kids.

Ending the night OSS/APP program happened along with implementation of the Positive Behavior Intervention and Supports philosophy and a 49-page code of conduct.

The results are mixed.

Washington Middle School has seen an increase in major referrals of students to the school office from 219 in the first three months of the 2013-14 school year to 375 in 2014-15. Twenty-four more students have been issued in-school suspension. Fighting is up 78 percent, noncompliance with staff has increased 162 percent and school officials report profanity reports have doubled. At Love Elementary School, 191 referrals have been handled, including 139 in the classroom. Ninety-two have come from fourth-graders. Officials throughout the nine schools in the district report not only an increase in incidents but a general feeling that students are acting out more, being more profane or misbehaving more. Jamestown High School officials estimate more than 2,000 incidents since the start of the school year, with 60 students referred to the office 10 or more times and 18 students who have been given multiple out-of-school suspensions.

There is some good. Schools that have had PBIS in their building the longest largely have the fewest behavior problems. And, statistics shared by principals said, by and large, more than 90 percent of students in all of the city’s schools have either zero or one office referral. That would indicate the district has an identifiable population of children who create most of its discipline problem. This year, as the district implements a new discipline structure, that population is influencing other students who think they can get away with misbehavior.

Tim Mains, district superintendent, and Mike McElrath, Jamestown High School principal, have been talking about a new program that would change the district’s Adaptive Educational Program (which replaced the APP program) from a half-day to a full-day, particularly for students McElrath termed multiple, repeat offenders, students who are significantly undercredited or those who present chronic attendance problems. Previous programs didn’t reach those children, but we hope McElrath and Mains can implement their new program as soon as possible. It must allow those students to learn while, at the same time, creating an environment that is less desirable than an in-school suspension and longer than a detention.

That doesn’t mean the district should throw the PBIS philosophy out with yesterday’s lunchroom garbage. There has never been a change of philosophy within an organization that has taken root overnight, so an overreaction after three months is unwarranted. Discipline problems in the district have less to do with the PBIS philosophy and more with mixed messages from administrators to staff that has taken the classroom authority out of the teachers’ hands. It takes 49 pages to define how people should act in a school and to spell out the consequences for misbehavior. There are reasons for the way the code of conduct is written, but student behavior and punishment needs to be distilled into a much simpler format. District officials must quickly define proper behavior and list the appropriate punishment.

Chris Reilly, Jamestown Teachers’ Association president, said recently principals tell teachers they are strongly discouraged from removing students from classrooms and that some teachers are so discouraged with the lack of discipline options that they have simply given up writing referrals. This has created a lack of respect and authority the students have for classroom teachers in some cases. Not only does it disrupt learning for the misbehaving student, but also all of the other students witnessing the lack of action.

Stepping up discipline, in conjunction with the PBIS philosophy, can happen immediately. It doesn’t require creation of a new program, the addition of new staff, finger pointing, hurt feelings, union grievances or any of the rest of what we see happening right now.

Frankly, it doesn’t matter what created the discipline vacuum in the Jamestown Public Schools. It exists and it must be filled.

District administrators must take the lead.

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