The faculty and staff in Clinton City Schools has implemented several strategies to help reduce behavior problems occurring in the system’s five schools.

According to Shirley Williams, director of student services, the goal of the system is to establish and implement a plan that will reduce the number of student discipline infractions. After collecting and disaggregating data, Williams presented the overall changes and strategies to the board during this week’s meeting.

District-wide, Williams said a Discipline Data Team has been formed and met with administrators on the proper coding for student offenses.

“Coding is now being done on a consistent basis,” Williams explained.

Board members, along with parents, guardians and community members, have long expressed concern regarding students not receiving the same punishment for an offense when more than one staff member is delving out the suspension assignments.

“You have students doing the same thing and getting two different punishments,” board member E.R. Mason said. “When two or more people are in charge of the discipline, there needs to be a system in place for the assigned punishment.”

This, board members expressed, was a problem at the high school level, where two assistant principals were handling the discipline issues. That has changed, and now all discipline is handled through one administrator.

The district’s discipline data team, made of Williams, Nicole Freeman and LaTreesha Register, has met with and discussed strategies that should be in place at all five schools across the district. District-wide, there was a restructure of the roles of the student support staff and teachers at each school who needed classroom management assistance were identified and will be offered assistance throughout the year.

In an effort to keep students in school and in the instructional atmosphere, CCS has added Structured Day School to help reduce the number of student suspensions. Housed at Sunset Avenue School, the students are isolated from other students in the building. This, Williams explained, allows students to be removed from their daily setting where the problems are happening and given the chance to complete all assignments and be counted present.

Additionally, Williams explained, the Discipline Team has implemented several strategies allowing the staff to develop a better relationship with students.

The team, joined by some of the district’s teachers, made trips through some of the neighborhoods where students live. This, according to Williams, was very effective.

“We had some teachers with tears in their eyes because they couldn’t believe Clinton City Schools had students who were living in these situations, some without lights,” Williams said.

In the past, both L.C. Kerr and Butler Avenue did not have a full-time facilitator of the in-school suspension program. Both schools now have someone in those positions full time.

At Sunset Avenue School, principal Vanessa Brown says the guidance counselors are being utilized in different capacities and teachers have received additional training in classroom discipline strategies.

“Some of these issues have been present since kindergarten,” Brown said. “We work very closely with the other schools to determine strategies that may or may not work for some students.”

Brown and her staff have modeled appropriate behavior through a demonstration video that has been shown to all students.

“Sometime we have to send referrals back to the teacher,” Brown explained. “Some things need to be handled in the classroom.”

Williams said that Sampson Middle School has seen a significant decrease in the number of referrals. During the 2015-16 school year, there were a total of 1,408 referrals. This past school year, that number dropped to 657.

“We met as a school and decided we had to do some changing,” SMS assistant principal Robert Testerman said. “The strategies that we are now implementing in our school are going to reduce the number of in-school suspensions.”

Williams and other members of the disciple data team, along with the staff at each school, will continue to implement the new strategies to help decrease the overall number of discipline referrals at each school.

Shirley Williams, director of student services for Clinton City Schools, presents discipline data to board members.
https://www.clintonnc.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/web1_IMG_2292-2.jpgShirley Williams, director of student services for Clinton City Schools, presents discipline data to board members.

By Kristy D. Carter

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Reach Kristy D. Carter at 910-592-8137, ext. 2588. Follow us on Twitter at @SampsonInd. Like us on Facebook.