Sun Prairie officials outline student services, SEL rollout and discipline data; no board actions taken

Sun Prairie Area School District officials presented a districtwide review of student services, social-emotional learning (SEL), school-based mental health and disciplinary practices during a superintendent report to the school board on Jan. 13, 2025. The presentation, led by members of the Teaching, Learning and Equity (TLE) team and directors in student services and student policy, summarized recent data, partnerships, gaps in documentation and next steps for policy and operational changes.

The district said its Department of Student Policy and School Operations handled 331 documented situations requiring follow-up during the 2023–24 school year and that, at the time of the presentation, Infinite Campus contained 185 elementary handbook violations and 1,263 secondary behavior incidents. Officials emphasized that the majority of students receive zero to one behavior referral and that a small subset of students account for a large share of incidents.

"Our work in these processes are to understand why we have disparate outcomes and to change the adult actions that lead to those disparate outcomes," said Stephanie Leonard of the Teaching, Learning and Equity team. The presentation reported that Black students, students with disabilities, multilingual learners and students living in poverty are overrepresented in exclusionary discipline and behavior-referral risk ratios, and district leaders said they are using disaggregated data to guide targeted supports.

Janet Thomas, one of the district's directors of student services, described the district's tiered model for social, emotional and behavioral supports and reviewed the components of the SEL curriculum cycle, which the district said has completed one full six-year cycle and is beginning the next. Thomas identified four curricular elements—standards, instructional resources, teacher practices and assessments—and said the district uses a mix of outcome and perception measures, including a teacher-rated screener (SABERS) in early grades and a school perception survey for grades 3–12, to monitor implementation.

Thomas gave examples of recent measurement results: K–2 teacher-reported academic domain scores improved from 76% to 80% meeting expectations; second-grade student-reported social scores improved from 76% to 81%; and the SABERS domain range across windows was roughly 71%–84%. She cautioned that some teacher-reported social domain measures in K–2 remain below the 80% target and that second-grade students showed a decline in self-reported emotional-domain measures.

The presentation also summarized tools and partners the district uses for mental health and safety work: Journey Mental Health Center, Catholic Charities, Insight Counseling and Wellness, Crossroads Counseling, Sunshine Place, the Center for Wisconsin Safe and Healthy Schools (WISH Center) and Raptor Technologies, which the district uses for visitor background checks, drill management and emergency accounting. Officials described collaborative programs such as trauma screening, SBIRT (screening, brief intervention, referral to treatment), motivational interviewing training and Building Bridges short-term crisis stabilization.

Bridget Katarik, director of student policy and school operations, reviewed school safety programming and the district role in higher-stakes discipline. She described pre-expulsion agreements (used for significant level 3 incidents), expulsion abeyance agreements (used when a significant level 4 behavior could lead to expulsion) and expulsions (which require school-board action). Katarik said the primary reasons for expulsions in recent years have included level-4 weapons, battery, terrorist threat and drug offenses, with physical battery listed as the most common reason for expulsion recommendations.

Katarik said the district is exploring educational options for students during the early term of an expulsion to avoid a complete disconnection from instruction, and she noted the department is tracking expelled students' educational status after removal. "A comprehensive approach to school safety is essential for providing a learning environment where students can thrive," Katarik said.

Officials identified several areas for operational improvement they will pursue: calibrating staff on definitions and documentation of handbook violations, expanding or clarifying the Infinite Campus incident and resolution dropdown menus to match handbook language, revising the secondary behavior response matrix to clarify restorative and supportive options, and improving capture of lower-level behavioral errors to support prevention work while balancing educator documentation burden.

No formal board votes or actions were recorded in the presentation; board members were given an opportunity to review linked documents including OE 10 and OE 11 evaluations, SR 3 results measures, district and site scorecards, and the district data playbooks. District leaders also asked the board to continue supporting staff retention, compensation and transportation access as part of broader efforts to reduce barriers to attendance and engagement.

The presentation closed with staff requests to continue partnerships in the community and to capture caregiver voice through surveys and interviews as the district refines SEL and behavioral supports for the 2024–25 cycle.