NCES Families,

The start of a new school year gives us the opportunity to establish consistent routines and procedures for students.  Routines, procedures, and clear expectations enable students to know what they need to do to be successful.  This is comforting for students and helps reduce anxiety that can often accompany the start of a school year.

As a school, we use positive behavioral interventions and supports (PBIS).  It is an evidence-based, tiered framework for supporting students’ behavioral, academic, social, emotional, and mental health.  A huge component of the framework is the establishment of clear expectations for students.  As part of implementing these expectations, staff intentionally look for opportunities to acknowledge students who are following them.  In doing so, students receive positive reinforcement that encourages further appropriate behavior.  Another component of the framework is proactively supporting students in their areas of need.  Parents and guardians are a vital part of that support, and we work with our families to creates plans of actions to support our students' needs.

To complement our school’s implementation of PBIS, we encourage positive school-wide behavior through our shield rewards program.  Through this program, our classes earn shields for displaying positive behavior throughout the school day.  Staff members provide shields to classes for a variety of positive behaviors.  As classes reach predetermined levels, they receive rewards.  A list of reward levels can be viewed here.  Students get very excited about their achievements and look forward to the rewards they earn in the process.  This helps our school establish consistency in our expectations, routines, and procedures while helping to build a school climate conducive to learning and student emotional well-being.

Respectfully,

Shawn Wilson, Assistant Principal