Uintah Elementary Salt Lake School District

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Uintah ElementarySalt Lake School District

• Administrator Heidi Kunzler
• Building Coordinator Shelly Powell Hamilton
• Team Members Lori Brown, Leigh Jennings, Carol
  Theurer, Melissa Mendez, Steve Wills, Jennifer
  Gannuscio, Mary Zimmerman,
• Diane Torrez, Pam Edwards, and Kathy Dudley

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Our UBI Journey Begins

• Uintah Elementary is located at 1300 South and
  1500 East in Salt Lake City.
• The population is stable with high level of
  parent involvement. 89 of our students score
  proficient on state CRTs. Enrollment is around
  570
• with 20 of students receiving free and reduced
  lunch.
• School rules were posted in the hallways, a
  discipline tracking form was used to report
  behavior problems to the office, and a school
  wide positive program using the FISH philosophy
  was implemented.
• In spite of those efforts the faculty and
  community recognized a noticeable decline of
  appropriate behavior. Something needed to be
  done. The current procedures did not seem to be
  addressing the problems . Our new principal,
  Heidi Kunzler, researched and found UBI. The
  faculty and School Community Council agreed to
  address this problem, we applied and became a
  first year school.

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Our UBI team

• When creating our UBI team we wanted and
  needed faculty buy in and invited
  representation from all grades, our school
  counselor, a resource teacher, and two parents.
• We were able to keep the faculty on board
  and informed as we made our way through
• the first year.

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We set two goals. 1. Create new school rules
and teach them. 2. Increase positive
recognition for students.

• We were hoping through our participation with
  the UBI training platform to better understand
  positive behavior intervention systems, increase
  faculty and parents knowledge on preventing
  behavior problems, and to strengthen our learning
  community.

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Rationale

• Beginning data Faculty and 100 random
  parents were asked to fill out the EBS Self
  Assessment survey. Students in grades 1-6
  completed the UBI student survey.
• Data from the teachers and parents gave us a
  starting point but the biggest impact came from
  the voices of our students. The lower grade
  student data showed that they were sometimes
  scared at school. First and second graders
  revealed that older students were mean.
• Upper grade students recognized bullying
• and felt it was a problem
• at school.

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Data indicators

• We used self assessment surveys to plan our
  first two goals. The following data were the top
  3 concerns for teachers and parents.

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Trends in data indicators

• Parents and faculty had the
• same top three concerns
• using the EBS survey.
• We plan to repeat the survey next year to
  compare data from the first year to the data from
  the second. This, along with our SET evaluation
  will assist us in measuring our success with our
  first two goals.

Faculty and Parents believe A small number of
positively clearly stated student expectations
or rules are needed. Expected student behaviors
need to be taught directly. Expected student
behaviors should be regularly rewarded.
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Implementation Our First Action Plan

• The existing rules were evaluated by faculty
  and staff. From the faculty discussions new
  school rules were created and approved.
• Color coded rules were designed to facilitate
  easy understanding. The U was integrated to
  promote Uintah pride and invite students to come
  together as a learning community.

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Action Plan continued

• The student council kicked off a mascot drawing
  contest to celebrate our mascot and focus
  students on school pride.
• The 6th graders creatively presented our new
  school rules to their younger peers February
  2008.

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Implementation Faculty and Data

• We included the faculty in each step of our
  action plan to
• ensure participation and support.
• We praised and rewarded follow through when
  giving tasks to the
• faculty and decisions were made based on their
  input.
• Thanks for
  posting our new school rules!
• We did not employ traditional sources of data
  for our first year. Next year we plan to discuss
  and evaluate this data along with our Discipline
  Tracker data each month to look for trends and
  problems.

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The U club kicks off!

• We customized the Principals 200 club to
  promote school pride and to support the teaching
  of our
• new school rules March 2008.
• Be Safe,
• Be Responsible,
• Show Respect!

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Trends and changes in data indicators.

• Suspensions/expulsion safe school
  violations decreased. There was an increase with
  office referrals which has lead us to our third
  goal of clearly defining infractions and office
  referral procedures.
• The initial data was useful. Next year we
  will include data from Discipline Tracker,
  traditional data sources, and the EBS survey.

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Final data April 2008 SET Evaluation

• The results from our SET Evaluation were
  very positive. 100 of students surveyed knew all
  three school rules! 100 of faculty reported
  handing out U club tickets.
• The data shows that we successfully
  implemented new school rules and the Principals
  200 club!

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Plans for adjustment

• It has been a great first year with UBI. We hope
  to
• continue to involve the faculty. At times this
  may have seemed
• to slow our progress. However faculty input was
  essential for
• design, implementation, and success.
• Ongoing assessment and planning will be built
  upon academic
• and behavior al data.
• UBI information will be communicated to parents.
  
• U

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Discussion

• Progress the first year at times seemed
  slow. We took baby steps the whole way (with
  support from our district coaches). Looking back
  we have accomplished more than we realize and
  have built a strong foundation
• for the future.
• We are excited to have reached our first two
  goals and are full speed into our third goal. We
  plan to have in place a procedure map to
  explicitly show teachers how to manage behavior
  difficulties. The procedure map will include
• infractions leveled and a new discipline tracking
  form to
• support our new school rules and help collect
  data for
• the following years.

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Discussion continued

• Real change takes time and slow steps.
  There needs to be time for processing and
  discussion so that the whole learning community
  participates
• and has the opportunity to be heard. Buy
  in is the key to a solid
• foundation and promotes future success.
• We also learned that positives work. Students
  want to be told what behaviors are expected and
  like to be praised for appropriate responses.
  Slowly our approach has evolved to a more
  systematic and positive system for dealing with
• student behavior. We still have a long
  journey but have much
• to celebrate.
• Time commitment. WOW! The committee had no
  idea that there would be so
  much time required for the process. Bimonthly
• meetings and the
  constant demand of keeping the faculty informed
  proved stressful at times. We could not have
  done this without the support of our Principal
  who staggered faculty meetings so we could meet.
• PBIS is about the students, the faculty,
  and building a better learning environment. The
  investments of time, energy, and creativity are
  well spent.