Leavenworth schools report drop in suspensions after Safe and Civil Schools rollout

Leavenworth USD 453 reported substantial reductions in office referrals and suspension days after rolling out Safe and Civil Schools classroom-management practices and a centralized incident-tracking system, district staff said Tuesday.

District staff presented semester-one metrics showing 73.2% implementation of the agreed classroom-management plans across 157 walk-throughs and a 32.9% decline in both office referrals and incident counts compared with the same number of weeks last year. Suspension days fell 53% year over year, the presentation said.

The data were delivered by Dr. Rebecca Varvel, who led the district task force that developed a unified classroom-management approach and a tiered response matrix. "Our data. It is showing, a lot of success," Varvel said, recounting results from training and implementation of CHAMPS (elementary/intermediate) and Disciplinary Secondary Classroom protocols.

Nut graf: The district tied those classroom practices to centralized incident tracking through Kickboard and to weekly cabinet review. Administrators said fewer suspensions returned students to instruction and reduced lost instructional time, which the district converted to a notional taxpayer impact estimate.

Varvel told the board the district formed a 31-member task force, adopted CHAMPS and related secondary strategies, built a behavior matrix of about 75 common behaviors, and linked those items to a one-page "behavior playbook" for teachers. She said the matrix also standardized communication protocols for in‑building emergencies and administrative follow-up.

Implementation and outcomes: District administrators reported 157 classroom walk-throughs in semester one, yielding the 73.2% implementation figure. Office referrals and incidents each fell 32.9% versus the same interval last year. Suspension days fell from 6,825 days last year to 3,181 this year (a 53% decrease), which the district estimated converted to a reduction in lost instructional hours (roughly 47,778 hours to 22,270 hours) and fewer missed adult–student interactions.

Varvel and staff also reported that 8.9% of the district’s students had received at least one suspension this year and 4.2% had two or more; among students who had one or more suspensions, 47% had two or more events (the district used these figures to identify a small population of repeat offenders). Special education students made up 28% of students suspended, down from much higher prior figures, Varvel said.

District leaders cautioned that the dollar figure they presented — an estimated $176,000 “perceived savings” compared with last year — is a calculation of taxpayer funds being used for in-seat instruction rather than money returned to the general fund. The district said it spent roughly $80,000 on the first-year implementation effort.

Staff described next steps: a January 29 task force meeting with accreditation team members, ongoing building-level work to create schoolwide behavior plans, targeted professional development tied to building data (for example, a February mini‑PD on student sleeping in class at Anthony Elementary), weekly cabinet review of behavior metrics, and a June 2025 year‑end report to the board.

Board members asked about methodology for benchmarks such as "opportunities to respond" and "ratio of interactions." Varvel said those measures are collected during administrator walk-throughs; administrators observe 10-minute samples and record time on task, opportunities to respond (target 40 interactions per 10 minutes), disruptions, ratio of positive-to-corrective interactions (goal 3:1) and alignment with expectations. She said those walk-through measures are provided back to teachers and used for targeted support.

Ending: District staff said they will continue to monitor the data weekly, provide targeted supports where classrooms lag, and return to the board in June 2025 with a year‑one summary and recommendations.