Six years ago S.G. Reinertsen Elementary adopted Positive Behavioral Intervention and Supports and applied for training from the Minnesota Department of Education. In May, MDE recognized Reinertsen Elementary as one of 30 schools in the state to be named a Sustaining Exemplar School for its successful work using PBIS.
PBIS is a data-driven program that provides districts and individual schools throughout Minnesota with training and technical support to promote improvement in student behavior, especially for students with challenging social behaviors. Schools implement PBIS by focusing on three behavioral expectations for the school, creating a matrix of what the behavioral expectations look like, planning how and when expectations will be taught, creating an office discipline referral form and process and a system for tracking discipline referral data, and developing a system to recognize students who demonstrate appropriate behaviors.
Sustaining Exemplar Schools are leaders in supporting positive behavior, improving school climate and increasing student achievement.
“I congratulate these schools for their leadership in finding new ways to positively address student behavior. Too many times, negative student behavior results in suspensions or detention that takes a child out of the classroom and disrupts their learning,” said Commissioner Brenda Cassellius. “PBIS helps schools set clear expectations for students, teachers and families and new ways to address behavior issues. Each of these 30 schools is showing the benefits of creating respectful and supportive school climates and the positive impact that work can have on student achievement.”
According to Superintendent Lynne Kovash, Reinertsen Elementary was one of the first schools in the district to implement PBIS.
“We are proud of the achievements of the staff, administration, parents and students at Reinertsen, and we congratulate them for their hard work in achieving this recognition,” she said.
Principal Anne Moyano said an active teacher leadership team is essential to sustaining PBIS in a school.
“We have had remarkable teacher leadership over the six years we have been involved with PBIS,” Moyano said.
According to Assistant Principal Travis Okerlund, the team sets the goal for behavior and school climate that will be a part of the School Improvement Plan during the summer.
“Subsequent monthly meetings focus on planning and implementing staff development and student programs designed to address our School Improvement Plan goal,” Okerlund said. “The team generally delivers three one-hour professional development sessions for the staff each year. The team also reviews data and measures progress toward the goal.”
This ongoing effort has led to results.
Reinertsen has experienced a steady reduction of office discipline referrals per day over the last several years, reducing the average daily incident count from 2.4 in 2009-10 to 2.0 in 2012-13. The school also has maintained an average far below the national average for a school of its size. The national average for a school of 900 students is approximately 3.15 incidents per day. Reinertsen’s 2012-13 average of 2.0 incidents per day reflected the combined enrollment of 940 grades 1-5 students at the Reinertsen campus and kindergarten students at the Probstfield campus.
“These steady reductions of a rate that was already below the national average are a testament to the student outcomes resulting from implementation of PBIS at Reinertsen Elementary,” Okerlund said.
Additionally, Reinertsen staff have tracked the number of students with three or more major incidents in a year. In 2010-11, 4 percent of students had three or more major incidents. This rate decreased each year and was 3.1 percent in 2011-12.
As part of the implementation efforts, the school created a behavior interventionist position who meets with students daily, conducts social skills groups, plans with teachers and communicates with parents. Reinertsen also has a Student Support Team for behavior, a team of professionals dedicated to providing supports to teachers with students exhibiting significant behaviors or a pattern of behaviors.
“Our goal is to assist students in finding success within the regular education classroom and to support their teachers and parents,” Moyano said.
A key feature of PBIS is recognizing students for behavior that meets expectations, Moyano said. Reinertsen created a PBIS Celebration Team to specifically focus on student recognition.
“We provide a school-wide theme, materials, ideas and other resources for that purpose,” she said.
Currently, Reinertsen is using a theme based on the children’s book “Have You Filled a Bucket Today?” Staff award “bucket filler” slips to students meeting school-wide or classroom expectations and hold class celebration activities. In addition, they hold school-wide celebrations of student behavior three times a year. Some of the events have included hallway dances, turkey bingo, outdoor lunch with a band, extra outdoor play time and a variety of performers.
This fall the Celebration Committee worked with the school’s PBIS Committee to implement a weekly nomination and recognition program for students. During Friday announcements, “bucket fillers” of the week are announced, the students receive a certificate and a group picture is posted in the main hallway.
