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District outlines PBIS, SEL and wraparound steps after suspension-rate review
Summary
District staff told trustees the Snowline suspension rate held at about 7.2% while the district is expanding PBIS, social-emotional learning, social-worker staffing, partnerships and MTSS planning to reduce suspensions and chronic absenteeism.
Trustees received a detailed update on Local Control and Accountability Plan (LCAP) Goal 2, which uses the suspension-rate metric (California Department of Education definition: percentage of students suspended at least one full day) to monitor discipline and wellbeing.
Dr. Julie Hurst, representing the student intervention and attendance office, told trustees Snowline's districtwide out-of-school suspension rate was 7.2% in the most-recent dashboard, while the state indicator reported that 32% of schools had suspensions in the comparable measure. Hurst said the district is treating suspension reduction as connected to increasing safety, belonging and lowering chronic absenteeism.
"We don't have an NTSS team for the district. We have a PBIS team ... but we don't have a team that brings together the academics and the behavior," Hurst said, adding that a district-level multi-tiered system of supports (MTSS/NTSS) team is being formed and that a staff survey produced 24 interested members to start that team.
Hurst summarized current and planned interventions: 63 new teachers received onboarding PBIS training this year; 11 professional development days focused on PBIS; and site-level PBIS supports and a district PBIS handbook are in development. She said staff have completed 1,305 district Second Step SEL lessons this year and reported school-by-school completion percentages (examples: Phelan 95%, Vista 75%, Baldy Mesa 65%).
The office described a weekly student check-in pilot at Baldy Mesa that has generated about 500 responses in the first weeks; the tool asks students how they are feeling and whether they want to speak to a trusted adult, and staff follow up with students who request help. Hurst also described partnerships and service expansions: IEHP navigators piloting at Phelan and Pinion Hills, mobile medical units being explored with Kaiser Permanente, Hazel Health telehealth services, a food pantry program delivering to 20—25 families per month, and new community partners supporting foster and homeless students.
Hurst said the district established three social-work interns this year, which allowed the social-work team to expand services and special projects. The district also revamped its threat-assessment tracking system in October and has recorded 27 social-worker-assisted threat assessments since the change; staff said improved recordkeeping lets the district track follow-up and reentry supports.
Board members pressed for data-linked results: several trustees asked whether declines in suspension rates for foster youth and other subgroups reflect the interventions or other factors. Hurst said the planned MTSS team will focus on data correlation between behavioral interventions and academic outcomes and said staff will report on trends when new dashboard data are available.
The board did not take formal action but directed staff to continue building the MTSS/NTSS team and return with data and implementation steps in future reports.
