Middle School Discipline Plan Reminder
2007-2008
by Susan Grey
Priority
Valley Falls Middle School teachers’ first priority is to teach the curriculum so that all students will have the opportunity to learn.
Purpose
The discipline process is designed to teach, model, and use appropriate consequences (1) to reinforce the responsible behaviors that are necessary to ensure a safe and productive learning environment and (2) to change unacceptable behavior to acceptable behavior.
Belief Statements
1. That students learn the intended curriculum is the highest priority. Therefore the misbehavior of one student
• will not be allowed to continue to interfere with the learning opportunities of other students.
• will not be allowed to continue to interfere with the teacher’s responsibility to teach all students.
• will not excuse the misbehaving student from successfully completing the learning objectives.
2. Parents have a responsibility to ensure their children’s behaviors do not take away from a safe and productive learning environment for others. Changing behavior takes time, effort, encouragement, perseverance, and patience.
3. Teaching and modeling appropriate behavior, along with implementing consequences for inappropriate behavior, are the best ways to help change unacceptable behaviors to acceptable ones.
4. All students can learn to behave in the expected manner.
Expectations (in order to promote school as a safe and productive place to learn)
1. Students will demonstrate self-respect, respect for others, and respect for the things in their environment.
2. Students will be expected to be on task at all times while in the classroom or at other learning activities.
3. Students will come to all classes prepared to learn. They will bring all the materials they need and will have their assignments done and ready to hand in.
Discipline Plan Procedures
1. Students will be given strikes for behavior concerns: The following list contains the general behavioral expectations for all middle school students.
a. All students will demonstrate respect for peers, teachers, and property.
b. All students will come to class prepared which includes completing
homework on time.
2. Strike totals are accumulated in a student account for each nine week period. Advisory teachers will be responsible for strike accounts. (Account totals do not start over each week or each day.)
3. A strike will be deducted from a student’s cumulative total when that student goes 5 consecutive days without receiving another strike.
4. A student may earn a total of 4 strikes per quarter without being assigned to a detention or Saturday School.
a. Students will be required to serve a detention for each accumulative strike number 5 – 9.
b. The student will schedule detentions or Saturday School (SS) with his/her advisory teacher. (Each 30 minutes of attendance will equal one strike.)
c. Once an accumulative strike total reaches 10, then the student will be required to attend a full session of the next Saturday School.
5. If a student is required to attend Saturday School (SS) twice per quarter, then he/she is not eligible for the Dragon Activity for that quarter. (Academic or behavior)
6. Saturday School attendance records will be reported to all middle school teachers.
7. Students and parents will be able to view, through power school, their child’s total strike accumulation - look under the section marked: “Dragon Score”. Be sure to click on the "0".
Level 1: (0 – 4) accumulative strikes:
- Principal or teacher will notify parents via a phone conference at 4 strikes alerting parents of problems.
- Once a student receives a total of 5 accumulative strikes per quarter, he/she moves to level 2.
Level 2: (5 - 9) accumulative strikes:
- Student will be required to serve a detention for all strikes over 4. Each half-hour of attendance will be equal to one strike. (Voluntary attendance at Saturday School will be an option if scheduling of detentions becomes a problem.)
- Parents will be notified.
- Once the student receives a total of 10 accumulative strikes for a quarter, he/she moves to level 3.
Level 3: (10 – 14) accumulative strikes:
- Meeting will be scheduled with faculty, student, and parents (Student Intervention Team or SIT) to create a behavior plan.
- Student will be assigned to the next Saturday School.
- At level 3 the student is a student not in good standing and will be ineligible for one week from the following Sunday to the next Sunday (ineligibility policy comes into affect).
- Once the student receives a total of 15 accumulative strikes for a quarter, he/she moves to level 4.
Level 4: On the 15th accumulative strike:
- Meeting will be scheduled with faculty, student, and parents (SIT) to make adjustments to the behavior plan.
- Student will be assigned to the next Saturday School.
- At level 4 the student continues to be a student not in good standing and will be ineligible for the remainder of the quarter.
***accumulative strike: These are the total number of strikes, per quarter, a student has received.
If a student misses Saturday school, then he/she must attend the next two Saturday Schools.
If a student misses two consecutive Saturday Schools, he/she will be given a hearing on the next day school is in session and will likely face a three day Out-Of-School Suspension (OSS) or more depending upon the reason assigned and/or the frequency of missing Saturday School opportunities.. The student and his/her parents must meet with the principal at the end of the Out-Of-School Suspension.
Teachers will continue to have the authority to assign detentions for specific classroom management purposes without assigning a strike. These detentions will be managed by and communicated to parents by the individual classroom teacher involved.
