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District outlines mental‑health tools, restorative discipline plans and debate over testing and grading incentives
Summary
Superintendent and trustees reviewed district mental‑health supports (including Hazel Health), plans to strengthen restorative discipline and debated whether standardized formative assessments should be tied to grades to improve student accountability and motivation.
District leaders described current and planned student supports — virtual mental‑health access via Hazel Health, social‑emotional learning (SEL) programs and safe‑school professionals — and trustees discussed implementation of a stricter restorative discipline plan and changes to the cell‑phone policy to reduce classroom disruption.
Superintendent Tim Logan (and staff) listed programs in use: Hazel Health (virtual mental‑health access planned for next year with parent permission), Character Strong at the middle and high school levels, Compass and Navigate360 at elementary levels, Ready Rosie for pre‑K and district safe‑school professionals present in all schools. The district said it will pilot Hazel Health this summer and expand in‑school access next year with parental consent.
Trustees pressed for consistent implementation of restorative discipline and asked staff to revisit cell‑phone policy options used in other districts to remove the burden from teachers acting as “phone police.” Staff described chronic absenteeism definitions used by the state and district (elementary chronic absenteeism triggers at 18 absences per year) and said chronic absenteeism is already a district priority (DPP goal).
A sustained portion of the discussion centered on low reading and math scores, assessment fatigue, curriculum fidelity and proposals to incentivize student performance. Trustees debated whether to tie growth on computer‑adaptive assessments (MAP Growth, Smarter Balanced) to grading policies to motivate students, but staff cautioned that adaptive assessments change question difficulty based on responses and therefore may not align cleanly with a single grade; staff recommended careful analysis of standards versus assessment content before attaching high‑stakes weight to adaptive tests. The district said it is moving toward MAPs adoption and emphasized that these assessments are designed to pinpoint strengths and weaknesses rather than serve as a single summative grade.
No board votes were taken. Trustees asked staff to continue work on implementing restorative discipline consistently across sites, research cell‑phone policies used elsewhere and return recommendations for policy changes and grading alternatives where appropriate.
