State and national data are showing a large increase in student behaviors everywhere following the pandemic, Assistant Superintendent Jeff Pegues told the Board of Education Monday.
Being fully transparent, Pegues said he wanted to share with the board what trends the district is seeing and how it is handling those, and how they need to adjust to those challenges.
Pegues said they did see an increase in behavior referrals from last year at this time. The district saw a large increase in Level I behaviors, such as profanity, horseplay, disruptive behavior, cell phone incidents, or dress code violations. There are four behavior incident levels.
“I think a large part of that is, in talking to our admin to start the year we wanted to really emphasize intentional supervision (especially at high incident times, lunch times, passing periods, locker rooms, where horseplay tends to happen). We thought we had way too many violent instances the last couple of years,” Pegues said.
Referrals for horseplay are high, especially at the middle school where such instances can quickly escalate from horseplay to a fight.
When supervision is increased, Pegues said they are going to catch more Level I infractions.
At the same time, he said you are going to see decreases in the level of behavior they were targeting, so violent incidences are now down.
“There’s over a 50 % reduction in violent incidences, so that’s something that is really positive in the data we’ve seen,” Pegues said.
Out-of-school suspensions are up but in-school suspensions are down.
Vaping continues to be an issue across the nation and the state, but Pegues said those numbers are also trending down in Parsons schools at this point.
Last year the district saw a large increase in incidences of disrespect, and while Pegues said he couldn’t say why, the number has come back down.
While the data may sound like there are a lot of behavior problems, Pegues said actually 87% of the students don’t have any behavior problems, so they are not talking about a large portion of the students that are misbehaving.
“It’s about 10 % that are repeat offenders that we are dealing with,” Pegues said. “So the number of kids that are on track with behaviors is 90 % district-wide.
With restorative practices the district has in place it’s positive how the district deals with those issues, as evidenced by the Social Emotional Silver Star Award the district just received, Pegues said.
Pegues said they have also seen a big decrease in the number of chronic absences compared to last year. The majority of chronic absences have been at the primary levels – kindergarten, first and second grade.
IN OTHER BUSINESS, the board:
Heard Oct. 23 is early dismissal at noon after lunch and parent teacher conferences will be that evening for every grade level from 4:30 to 7:30. Conferences are scheduled on Tuesday for middle school and high school from 4:30 to 7:30 and on Wednesday, for elementary only from 4:30 to 7:30. Parents should have received an email with a link to Signup Genius to schedule a time.
Heard there is no school Friday Oct. 27.
Heard the $107,642 remaining of ESSER III funds will be used to update the elementary math curriculum. All told, the district has received a total of $7,177,048 in ESSER I, II, and III funds.
Heard there are two district audits, the CPA and KSDE audits, the first two weeks of November, which following the workers comp audit currently underway.
Heard Nov. 1 is the candidate forum at the Parsons Municipal Auditorium from 6 to 8 p.m.
Heard Nov. 7 is Election Day and everyone is encouraged to get out and vote.
Heard there is no school Nov. 13 due to professional development.
Heard the district received to Star Awards from the Kansas State Department of Education. The district was one of 18 out of 286 districts to receive a Silver Star Award for Social Emotional Learning. The district received a Bronze Star in that category last year. This year the district also received a Bronze Star for Graduation Rates. The state’s average is 89.3 and the district average is 91.6. The board also learned the district was 1/10th of 1% away from winning the Commissioner’s Award, which is given based on data showing districts are performing better than expected based on their at-risk data.
Heard the Parsons High School Debate was recognized in the Prestigious 100 Club based on the ratings they received last year.
Heard Lauren Burke has been named the SEK High School KMEA Music Educator of the Year.
Accepted donations totaling $5,221.94 for district schools.
Approved new accounting software, Software Unlimited, for the district, as the former used for 24 years is no longer supported. It is one of two options supported by Greenbush and offers 24-hour support. Cost is around $5,500 a year.
Approved Policy JGFGA – Administration of Opioid Antagonist, like NARCAN, as recommended by the Kansas Association of School Boards. The district has the medicine available and will work with the Parsons Police Department and CHC-SEK to make sure the medicine is available at each school and people are appropriately trained to administer it. Approved a change to the enrollment policy JBC to remove information relative to non-resident students.
Discussed developing a new open enrollment policy for out-of-district students as required by the state in accordance with the new state statute. The statute requires all districts next year to accept any student from anywhere unless they are suspended expelled. This year the district was able to refuse two students, one with 35 pages of behavior referrals and one with 37 pages of behavior referrals. Next year, the district would be required to accept those students, regardless. The following year the district can have policies in place, to refuse students who are not in good standing. The statute requires a public hearing regarding the policy and that is set for Dec. 18 at 6 p.m. as a part of the regular December board meeting.
Approved the National Background Check consent form.
Revised policy 5350 for resignation in the Classified Staff Handbook., relative to insurance coverage end date change falling on the last day of the month the person resigns.
Recommended for employment Kendra Barcus as high school Technology Student Association sponsor; Patsy Britton, part-time evening custodian; Adam Brubaker, bus driver, Roger Bynum, bus driver, Mary Friess, high school HOSA sponsor, Megan Fugate, high school Technology Student Association sponsor; Kyle Hostetter, middle school head golf; Trudy Peak, Title I Aide at St. Pat’s; Pierce Thomas, high school fall and spring weights; Dariq Williams, high school fall and spring weights; and Chelsie Brinson as Lincoln Behavior Support Aide. Accepted the resignation of Roger Daniels, bus driver and Jeff Schibi, fall and spring weights.