|
Board adopts standards of student conduct
BY CHARLES GARRATT • STAFF WRITER
WARM SPRINGS - Following a year-long process assisted by consultant Dr. John Eller, the Bath school board has adopted a new parent/student guide for standards of student conduct.
The new guide will be included in student handbooks distributed this fall to every student at each of the county's three schools.
The new guide is derived from the Standards of Student Conduct, explained Bath County High School principal Pete Pitard. The standards of conduct are based on state law and are updated periodically. The new guide is a "condensed form to give parents an overview," said Pitard.
Unlike the SSC, the new guide puts behavior and possible consequences side by side in a table form. Behaviors are also grouped in order of severity and whether they are classroom or school-wide.
Sue Hirsh, director of instruction and personnel for the division, said, "We don't know how lucky we have it here. We have minimal disruptions." As a result, she said, problems that do occur tend to stand out.
Principals at all three schools echoed Hirsh's comment. Valley Elementary principal Les Balgavy said, "We are blessed to have very few major behavior problems."
When a problem does occur, Balgavy said, "People hear about it quickly."
Pitard agreed that compared to other school systems, Bath County students are generally wellbehaved but any major problem "sticks its head up."
The new guide is a result of almost a year's work reviewing and revising the discipline plans and procedures from the classroom up to the division level, Eller told the board last week before the guide was adopted.
Meetings were held at each school, surveys were conducted and workshops held for faculty and staff.
Now that the guide is adopted, Hirsh said, each school will implement the plans developed specific to that campus. At each school, the new plan is already in place.
Millboro principal Martha Reish said administrators, staff and faculty are watching the plan "to see if we need to make any changes."
At VES, Balgavy said his faculty is taking what was adopted at the school level and applying it to the classroom. Balgavy added most discipline problems at VES were related to logistics - students moving classroom to classroom, classroom to lunch, and classroom to physical education.
Just as a driver slows down if he knows there is radar set up ahead, students will behave better if they know a teacher is just down the hall, Balgavy said. Part of the new plan calls for more faculty and staff presence in areas where students are transitioning.
Hirsh said the objective of discipline is to keep students learning and to maintain a good environment for all students. "Discipline means to teach," Hirsh said. The purpose is not just to catch and punish, but rather to help the student.
Teaching that "what we do has some consequences, some positive and some negative," is what discipline should be about, said Hirsh.
The goal of the discipline plan from division level to classroom is to be "firm, fair and consistent," said Hirsh. That means to focus on appropriate consequences at the appropriate level. Many issues, she points out, should be handled in the classroom rather than sending a student to the principal.
While the standards of conduct are the same throughout the division, different classroom settings require different plans, said Hirsh.
Pitard said the idea behind the progressive discipline plan is "to keep kids in school and receiving an education."
"We look at every one of our teenagers as individuals, where they are, their demeanor, etc." when deciding on appropriate response to a discipline issue, said Pitard. "We are trying to avoid just reacting to the student and the situation."
The new guide lists 15 possible corrective actions as "among those available" for violations of the Student Code of Conduct. Inschool suspension is ninth on the list, followed by out-of-school suspension.
"There are some issues that are non-negotiable," said Hirsh. Verbal and physical violence, weapons in school and similar violations are examples, she said.
One of the goals of the work over the past year has been to help teachers be able to convey to students in a constructive way, "I am in charge here," said Hirsh. Little things such as where the teacher stands when students are passing in assignments can make a difference, she said.
Hirsh pointed out the better the teacher plans, the smoother and less disruptive the class tends to be. Improving discipline then becomes a matter of helping the teacher rather than just reacting to the student.
"Very little is in black and white," said Hirsh. The new guide will help parents and students understand the standards of conduct and the possible consequences of violation.
Workshops, plan reviews and peer mentoring will help faculty and staff create and maintain a better learning environment. The new guide and the year-long work on discipline, as Reish, Pitard, Balgavy and Hirsh all agreed, is not to address specific problems at any of the schools, but rather to improve on a system where most students are already well-behaved.
| 
