At a recent meeting, Dr. Jennifer Weller, Supervisor of School Climate and Safety at Milford School District, presented a School Discipline Improvement Plan (SPID) to the Board of Education. The presentation explained that the SPID is the result of monitoring by the Department of Education annually.
“We are going to present on our SPID for Milford Central Academy and Milford High School, keeping in mind this is a first read and we will bring this back for your approval in May,” Weller said. “The report details data on out-of-school suspensions, expulsions, alternative school assignments, and in-school suspensions. That data is then broken down by race, ethnicity, gender, low income, grade level, and other criteria.”
Weller explained that there are two thresholds that DOE reviews, with any one subgroup that exceeds 15 students per 100 receiving OSS, and the other is the gap between the lowest suspended racial subgroup and the highest suspended racial subgroup. DOE also notes the gap between students with disabilities and students without disabilities with more than 10 percent for out-of-school suspensions.
“If schools meet or exceed these thresholds for out of school suspensions for three or more consecutive years, they are required to develop an improvement plan, which is monitored by the Department of Education,” Weller said. “Milford Central Academy and Milford High School have both been identified for both thresholds. We have been working on this since we were made aware of our identification by DOE and have completed several professional development opportunities with DOE and other districts across the state.”
In addition to professional development, Weller stated that staff had met internally as a team, and the administration is collecting surveys from staff, students, and parents on discipline practices and ideas for improvement. Those surveys will be used to create focus groups to continue to address our disparities as they continue to be monitored over the next three years by DOE.
“We will continue to implement the BRIDGES program and apply progressive discipline using the Code of Conduct appropriately and effectively,” Weller said. “We are going to continue to work with our social and emotional learning lessons and monitor the growth of that. We’re going to maintain our Conscious Discipline work while creating a Men and Lady Buccaneers Group for our students in the identified subgroups as well as others to monitor, mentor, and support social skill growth.”
When asked what the BRIDGES program was, Weller explained that it is a short-term intervention that allows staff to put a student in the program rather than suspend them, with parental permission. It is held in one of the modulars with a full-time social worker and special education teacher.
“So, if there is a fight or something, they would go there for five days instead of out-of-school suspension, and we work with them through mediation, conflict resolution, along with social and emotional lessons,” Weller said. “We do some reflection with them, and then we set them up with a positive behavior intervention plan so when they leave BRIDGES, they know what they can do to prevent the incident from happening again.”
Weller explained that the program has been a huge success and that a presentation was planned over the next few months.
“I think once you see that presentation, you will see that we’ve been really able to support students,” Rene Diaz, Principal of Milford High School, said. “We’ve taken a supportive model, and instead of suspending them from school, we want to build those skills because we know our students need to build those skills. In the past, there have been times we have suspended students, but there is no real behavior change; we haven’t supported growth.”
Diaz explained that the BRIDGES program allowed the staff to work with the family as well as the student, helping parents understand the consequences of making poor choices. Diaz admitted that there is a small percentage of students this program does not help, but it has opened the door for more dialogue with them to improve behavior among those students as well.
“The Men and Ladies Buccaneer Group is similar to one that Mr. Albert runs now, but it’s going to be a group that kids can be invited to when we see the need for leadership skills,” Diaz said. “We are planning a curriculum with outside speakers coming in and talking to them or field trips where we can show them how positive behavior can lead to better things, maybe colleges, things like that. We will also mentor them as we go.”
Diaz explained that many students who are discipline problems simply do not know where to go or who to ask for help, so the more positive connections that can be created, the more likely the discipline issues will resolve.
“I would hate to see us, we want to do everything you said, but I also want to be consistent in the way we execute our discipline policy,” Dr. Adam Brownstein said. “I would not want us to fall into a trap where we are close to that 10 percent threshold and sort of look the other way on certain issues in an attempt to keep them under that. I would rather be on an improvement plan and be honest than not be on an improvement plan and be dishonest.”
Weller explained that, looking at discipline as an educator, the focus is not on the outcomes, but on the systems put in place before getting to the outcome. She felt that providing the support and systems with a tiered intervention, they would get the outcomes they desired. Weller admitted there were variables that could not be controlled, but insisted they would consistently apply the code of conduct.
“It appears that everything that can be done is being done, and I don’t mind it at all,” Brownstein said. “I think the programs you have put together are outstanding, and I have every confidence we will achieve all three goals.”
