Starpoint Middle School rolls out weekly "Spartan Circles" to build student social-emotional skills

Starpoint Middle School has implemented a districtwide program of weekly community circles — branded “Spartan Circles” — that runs for 30 minutes on Wednesday mornings during an adjusted homeroom schedule and aims to build students’ social-emotional skills and connections.

Administrators said the program began in September 2024 and uses a scripted binder of prompts and supporting slides so any teacher can lead a circle. The school reorganized homerooms so almost every teacher now has a homeroom of about 12–15 students; on Wednesdays homeroom runs from 7:40 a.m. to 8:10 a.m. and other class periods are shortened across the day to accommodate the change.

School leaders said the decision responded to increases in referrals and suspensions and to research on restorative practices. A district presenter summarized independent literature reviews showing that community circles can increase connectedness, improve academic outcomes and reduce absenteeism, bullying and suspensions. Building staff led the rollout after participating in summer training and small-group practice sessions.

Teachers use a dated, scripted binder for each weekly prompt; each page pairs an opening quote, a scaffolded prompt and a closing reflection. A slideshow of the prompt is emailed to teachers each Tuesday and displayed during circles. Classrooms are arranged in a physical circle, and each homeroom has a shared centerpiece and a “talking piece” to structure conversation and equalize speaking time. Staff said the structure helps draw out quieter students and gives all students a weekly chance to speak in a low-stakes setting.

Administrators reported early qualitative results: teachers and administrators observed students who rarely spoke begin sharing in circles, and staff noted improved day-to-day conversations linked to circle topics. The district has created a Google form for teachers to submit immediate feedback about prompts (for example that a prompt was “too difficult” for a grade level) and plans a student survey in the coming months to gather broader input from the roughly 720 students in the building.

School leaders described a phased approach: earlier prompts are intentionally lighter to build comfort, later prompts dig deeper after months of practice, and prompts are adjusted annually using the accumulated feedback. Staff members and administrators said one goal is to increase student ownership over time so students will help facilitate circles and bring personal talking pieces.

Administrators said weekly Spartan Circles run in conjunction with other building initiatives — including month-long character traits and PBIS-related Spartan Time — so that circle prompts align with schoolwide themes. The district plans to track outcomes longitudinally to look for effects on referrals, suspensions and attendance, but no quantitative results were offered at the meeting.

Questions from board members and staff at the meeting emphasized practical rollout details — scheduling, teacher workload and the binder’s usability — and praised the staff-driven nature of implementation. The school credited a small teacher team that worked over the summer to build the materials, and multiple board members and attendees described seeing the program in action on a recent district tour.

The program is ongoing; administrators said they will use teacher forms, faculty meetings and the student survey to refine prompts and schedule details over the summer and into next year.