Design

Describe your plan of action and how each of your four chosen competencies will influence its design and implementation.

There is a desire and need to revisit our discipline policies and procedures at my school. (See training documents below.) For several years, we have seen the same results and concerns come out on our MBI~SAS and My Voice staff assessments.

Though it is not a menu or tool that is often requested, I believe if we can build capacity for restorative practices in our school, we will build strong relationships with students, and amongst staff. Restorative practices are not something that can be implemented quickly, and if implemented without a foundation in place, we will continue to get the same results from our staff surveys.

This work will start at my building level, but it is my hope to be able to share district wide.

How will your leadership leverage the strengths and address the needs of diverse stakeholders to support the plan of action, develop capacity, broaden decision-making, and learn collaboratively?

I am a member of two different leadership teams at my building level, as well as union building rep. I am able to be a voice that bridges the work and conversations between those teams, and I am often a sounding board when people have questions, or concerns about decisions. (See meeting schedule/overview below.)

How will you use collaboration, questioning, data and reflection during the implementation of your action plan?

In order to begin any of the restorative practices work, we need to get to a place that staff and "buy in" and support the process. Before we can get buy in, we need to know if this is something that there is interest in learning about, which means we need to have time to share information, and discuss. I will share a short overview of restorative practices with staff. We will then ask about interest in learning more about restorative practices. If there is interest, we will consider first a book study, and then additional training opportunities. We will plan our moves based on feedback from staff. (See overview presentation below.)

How will you address obstacles you may encounter in implementing your plan?

I think there will be some resistance from a few staff members. I believe teachers are overwhelmed with "new" right now, and presenting the idea of restorative practices might feel like it's one more thing to some. There are also a few people that have already said "I do restorative practices." In order to be respectful, of both of these scenarios, it will be important that we approach this as a time for learning before we decide to "do." That can give us the time to learn that this is more of a systems and policy change, as well as a mindset change. It can also give us all time to determine if this is the right policy to work on to best meet the needs of our stakeholders.

How will you know if your action plan is successful? What evidence would support your claim?

If I am successful, there will be enough of a staff consensus to move forward in first learning about restorative practices, and then in implementation of restorative practices. We will revisit our policies for discipline, including in and out of school suspension. We will be able to clearly articulate the routines and procedures we have in place to support all students, as well as how we "manage" challenging behaviors. Parents and students will understand our policies and processes as well.