How do you take your School-Wide Systems (Tier 1) to the next level?

First Presenter's Institution

Bulloch County Schools

First Presenter's Brief Biography

Todd Veland is serving as a Director of School Improvement for Bulloch County Schools. He has over 23 years combined educational and administrative experience at all levels of school leadership. Todd has held the position of high school teacher, instructional coach, assistant high school principal, principal at the elementary, middle, and high school levels as well as district directorship positions. Dr. Veland has also worked as an adjunct instructor at East Georgia State College. Todd earned his Doctorate of Education from Georgia Southern University and completed his Educational Specialist degree (Georgia Southern University) , Master's degree (University of Alabama in Huntsville) , and Bachelor's degree (University of South Alabama). Todd's specialty areas are transformational leadership, instructional coaching, multi-tiered systems of support, positive behavior intervention supports, transformative school climate and culture, educator wellness, and overall systems improvement.

Document Type

Event

Primary Strand

Positive Behavior Interventions and Support

Relevance to Primary Strand

I will show through first hand experience how leadership at the principal level can transform schools in every facet by focusing on school climate. The presentation will show how to take Tier 1 climate through positive behavior interventions and supports to the next level at the elementary, middle, and high school levels through my personal experience journey.

Alignment with School Improvement Plan Topics

Climate and Culture

Brief Program Description

Yes you can! Transforming School Climate in One Year Learn about a personal experience journey of transformational change at the high school, middle school, and elementary levels by focusing on positive behavior intervention supports!

Summary

Establishing or revitalizing school-wide behavioral supports can be a daunting task. How can you learn to transform your school-wide supports in one years time. We will show you how!

Transformational change of any school takes a massive amount of teamwork, focus, and just good old fashion hard work. My story starts with a challenge of leading and transforming an underperforming middle school. I know from my past transformational experiences at an elementary and high school that school-wide support is always the starting point. This focus will lead you to a drastic shift in school-wide climate and culture. In my experience, this is always the first step in transformational change. However, when I discovered the challenges at this school, I was overwhelmed from the very beginning. How are you supposed to transform a school when everything has been destabilized and everything needs fixing? I have worked and lead challenging school turn-arounds, but this school was on anther level that I had not experienced before. After gathering myself together, I knew that I needed a plan. This plan needed to include expanded school wide supports and take tier one to an entirely different level than we ever had before. This was the only way to transform this school.

After completing a SWOT assessment and coming up with a plan, we had to attack every area of the school with a plan, do, check, adjust team approach of improvement. Every area needed to improve and improve rapidly because the students, teachers, and staff deserved a school wide positive culture and climate. We did the traditional school wide supports at the tier one level, but we expanded and made these supports even stronger and better. The first thing we did was establish a school leadership team and a student leadership team. We understood that these challenges needed the entire school to show leadership and everyone had to contribute. These leadership teams ideas were all based upon the MTSS and PBIS premises of establishing expectations, monitoring implementation, analyzing data, and adjusting in areas that needed to improve. The expanded form of school wide supports included: home visits, student recognition championships, social media expansion, SEL specialists, and an overall revival of school wide tier one basics.

I have read that transformational change takes three to five years and I have experienced that in my line of work as well in leading an elementary and high school. However, now I know through hard work and determination you can completely transform a school in one year. It is always easier to tell than to show, so I look forward to showing you through my presentation how to transform, expand, and take your school-wide supports to an entirely different level.

Evidence

Setting

Most Important Positive Influences (PBIS Implementation)

Outcomes

Future Goals

Alternative (50)

  • Expectations Review

  • Daily/Weekly Goals and Incentive Program

  • Dr. ______and Pilot Mentorship Program

Academic

  • 86% graduation rate

Behavior/SEL

  • 50% reduction in ODR’s

  • 60% reduction in suspensions

  • Student Portfolios

  • Extend Wrap-Around

  • Offer Drug Treatment Program

  • Extend Mentorship Program

Elementary (1,100)

  • Supervision

  • School-Wide Discipline Plan

  • Leadership Team Data Talks

  • Acknowledgements

  • Interventions

  • Parent/Community Relationships

  • Faculty and Staff Celebrations

  • Weekly Grade-Level Check-ins with Teachers on Discipline Processes and Support

  • Non-regrettable Attrition

Academic

Behavior/SEL

  • 20% drop in ODR’s

  • 50% drop in OSS days

  • Repeat Offenders Intervention

  • Social Skills Connections

Middle (850)

  • Supervision

  • Expectations Review with Each Grade Level (Non-negotiables!)

  • SEL Specialist

  • 3 A.P.s

  • MARS/Spotlights Data Talks

  • Acknowledgements

  • SEL Room

  • Restorative Practices

  • Wrap-Around Services

  • Relationship Focused

  • Celebrations with Faculty and Staff (Student Focused Climate)

  • Non-regrettable Attrition

Academics

Behavior/SEL

  • 40% reduction in ODRs

  • 60% reducation in law enforcement reports

  • Significant reducation in discipline hearings

Presentation of Accomplishments to DOE Community of Practice MTSS

  • Mentor Program

  • SRO

  • Relationship Focused Faculty and Staff

9th Grade Academy

  • Supervision

  • Expectations Review with 9th Grade Family

  • Leadership Team Data Talks

  • Commitment Ceremony

  • Awesome Team!

  • Sense of Community and Commitment

  • Highest Graduation Rate Class of 2017 to Date (Averaged around 60% graduation rate for system and moved to mid-70s range without gaming initiatives)

  • Student Goal Setting

  • Career Exploration and Assistance

High School (500)

Data 1st Year

Data 2nd Year

  • Schoolwide Discipline Plan

  • Leadership Team Data Talks

  • Grade-Level Expectations Review Periodically (Non-negotiables!)

  • Acknowledgements

  1. Positive Office Referrals

  2. Alternating Attendance and Behavior Acknowledgments

  3. Student Leadership Group

  • Non-regrettable Attrition

Academics

  • Graduation rate highest in CHS history (no gaming, just hard work on interventions...Main Thing Interviews, Mentors, Repeated Senior Meetings, Freshman Focus, Student Leadership Group

  • CCRPI increased by over 10pts from 5 year average

  • Lexile Growth in all Grade Levels

  • EOC improvements...especially in concentrated PLCs (11th Grade Lit, Geometry, Biology)

Behavior/SEL

  • 75% reduction in ODRs

  • Over 50% reduction in OSS

  • Student Discipline Committee

  • SRO

  • Mentorship

Learning Objective 1

Participants will be able to lead transformative change at every level of school leadership.

Learning Objective 2

Participants will be able to take their PBIS Tier 1 to the next level.

Learning Objective 3

Participants will be able to add to their toolbox concerning PBIS Tier 1 implementation and high yield practices.

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

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How do you take your School-Wide Systems (Tier 1) to the next level?

Establishing or revitalizing school-wide behavioral supports can be a daunting task. How can you learn to transform your school-wide supports in one years time. We will show you how!

Transformational change of any school takes a massive amount of teamwork, focus, and just good old fashion hard work. My story starts with a challenge of leading and transforming an underperforming middle school. I know from my past transformational experiences at an elementary and high school that school-wide support is always the starting point. This focus will lead you to a drastic shift in school-wide climate and culture. In my experience, this is always the first step in transformational change. However, when I discovered the challenges at this school, I was overwhelmed from the very beginning. How are you supposed to transform a school when everything has been destabilized and everything needs fixing? I have worked and lead challenging school turn-arounds, but this school was on anther level that I had not experienced before. After gathering myself together, I knew that I needed a plan. This plan needed to include expanded school wide supports and take tier one to an entirely different level than we ever had before. This was the only way to transform this school.

After completing a SWOT assessment and coming up with a plan, we had to attack every area of the school with a plan, do, check, adjust team approach of improvement. Every area needed to improve and improve rapidly because the students, teachers, and staff deserved a school wide positive culture and climate. We did the traditional school wide supports at the tier one level, but we expanded and made these supports even stronger and better. The first thing we did was establish a school leadership team and a student leadership team. We understood that these challenges needed the entire school to show leadership and everyone had to contribute. These leadership teams ideas were all based upon the MTSS and PBIS premises of establishing expectations, monitoring implementation, analyzing data, and adjusting in areas that needed to improve. The expanded form of school wide supports included: home visits, student recognition championships, social media expansion, SEL specialists, and an overall revival of school wide tier one basics.

I have read that transformational change takes three to five years and I have experienced that in my line of work as well in leading an elementary and high school. However, now I know through hard work and determination you can completely transform a school in one year. It is always easier to tell than to show, so I look forward to showing you through my presentation how to transform, expand, and take your school-wide supports to an entirely different level.