Longview School District work session spotlights MTSS, counselor roles and school‑level behavior supports

Longview School District officials and building staff used a Feb. 24 study session to summarize how the district is using a multi‑tiered system of support, or MTSS, to organize social‑emotional and behavioral supports for students.

Dr. Flanagan, addressing the school board, said MTSS expands traditional response‑to‑intervention approaches to include behavior, attendance and social‑emotional learning, and described the tiered model the state recommends. "Tier 1 should work for 80% of our students," Dr. Flanagan said, adding that if more than about 20–30% of students need intervention, the district should reassess core supports. "You can't provide quality intervention if you have more students getting intervention than are successful in the core," Dr. Flanagan said.

The presentation detailed how the district is treating student well‑being alongside academics. Carrie Montgomery, Executive Director of Teaching and Learning, said the state’s social‑emotional learning (SEL) standards — including self‑awareness, self‑management and social engagement — form the basis for classroom instruction and for any tier‑2 or tier‑3 supports the district adopts. Montgomery also advised caution about screening: the district currently uses academic screeners such as i‑Ready but does not yet have universal SEL screeners and is considering what the community will support. "If you assess something, what are you going to do with it?" Montgomery said. "If you're not going to do something with the information to support kids, there's no sense spending the time to do it."

School teams from Monticello and Mount Solo described practical, day‑to‑day approaches at the building level. Scott Merzoyan of Monticello outlined Tier‑1 practices that emphasize predictable routines, explicit teaching of expected behaviors (a PBIS matrix), greetings at classroom doors and a 4‑B framework — "be responsible, be respectful, be safe, and be a learner." Merzoyan said his staff uses a brief, repeated warm‑up at the start of every class to allow teachers time to check in with students at the door and to reinforce routines.

Monticello’s behavior specialist, Brent Courtney, described his proactive role: checking referral data, observing classes, meeting with teachers and spending time one‑on‑one with students who show patterns of referrals. Courtney said his work sometimes requires extended conversations: "It took me 4 hours before he started sharing," he said of one student whose behavior slowly yielded to relationship‑building. Courtney said Monticello uses a referral platform called Swiss to monitor incidents and to target supports.

At Mount Solo, Principal Jay Upgrand and counselors Jill Whitright and Lisa Maxey emphasized the counselors’ coordination role across stakeholders. Maxey described an advisory curriculum (about 20 lessons) built on the district’s adopted SEL materials and delivered in early grades to establish expectations and teach social skills. Whitright described supports that range from classroom lessons to lunchtime social groups and individual follow‑up for students flagged by teachers: "If they're struggling socially, that can trickle into the classroom. We try not to pull them from academics if we can avoid it; we do many social‑skills groups at lunchtime."

Speakers described a mix of screening and progress monitoring tools. Monticello uses a connection survey each year; Merzoyan said the proportion of students reporting a connection to an adult rose from 75.9% in a fall sample to 84% in the spring. Mount Solo uses i‑Ready and other academic screeners, and the counselors coordinate with a LAP teacher and a new ELL paraeducator to identify students who need extra instructional support.

Panelists also described basic‑needs work — providing food bags, clothing and hygiene supplies — and partnerships that bring mental‑health providers, vision screenings and other services into schools. The district has revised its suicide response procedures and runs a SMART (School Mobilization Assistance Response Team) program, speakers said, and Carrie Montgomery noted that the district’s work aligns with state MTSS guidance from the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI).

Board members asked about measures and progress. Upgrand and Merzoyan said reading and writing scores have shown recovery since the pandemic and that math remains a lagging area. Merzoyan estimated roughly 70% of students may be served adequately by Tier‑1 academic supports and 80–85% on social measures, while Upgrand said reading growth and interim assessment results suggest incoming sixth graders are better prepared than in previous years.

The session closed with board members praising the counselors and behavior coaches and encouraging the schools to share PBIS matrices and other materials with families and substitute teachers so community members understand expectations.

Overall, presenters framed the MTSS work as a district‑to‑building partnership that relies on consistent Tier‑1 instruction, teacher‑led Tier‑2 interventions, targeted Tier‑3 supports and a set of decisions about whether and how to use universal screeners.