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Harper Creek board hears data showing declines in behavior referrals after PBIS, MTSS and small-group SEL supports
Summary
Presenters from four elementary schools, the middle school and high school told the Harper Creek Community Schools Board that tiers of positive behavior interventions, attendance incentives and targeted small groups reduced referrals, improved attendance efforts and increased suicide-awareness test scores.
Harper Creek Community Schools administrators, counselors and student-support specialists told the school board on April 14 that schoolwide positive behavioral interventions and supports (PBIS), multi-tiered systems of support (MTSS) and targeted small-group social-emotional interventions coincided with measurable declines in office referrals and improvements in student supports across district buildings.
At Beedle Lake Elementary, Jody Ledbetter, MTSS coach, said the school compared this year’s behavior-referral counts with the previous year and found large drops. “Our highest area of concern for behaviors is physical aggression. At this point in the year last year, we had 366 behavior referrals in that area,” Ledbetter said. “This year we have … 190 in that area.” She told the board the building recorded “144 less referrals when you compare school year to school year.”
Ledbetter described several universal and classroom-level strategies credited with the declines: monthly buildingwide celebrations and parties, “happy to see your face” attendance recognition, work-completion incentives (an 80 percent completion goal), and hallway “regulation stations” with sensory and calming options to help students self-regulate.
At Sonoma Elementary, student-support specialist Sarah Piotrowski said staff drilled into a problem of first-grade students who were earning frequent referrals for seeking adult attention. Staff identified five first-grade boys who generated most of those referrals, instituted behavior-support plans and a daily check-in/check-out routine, and then saw referrals fall from 26 incidents of physical aggression in December to seven in March for that group.
Laura Salinger, MTSS coordinator at Wattles Park, summarized building-level data: referrals declined from 520 last year (through February) to 366 this March, a reduction of 154 referrals and 24 fewer students with referrals so far. Wattles Park set goals to reduce chronic absence by 20 percent and students with five or more referrals by 10 percent and described steps including weekly MTSS meetings, revamped child-study processes and increased Tier 2 interventions.
At the middle school, Amanda Schultz, middle school counselor, described a set of tiered interventions. Schultz said the school used Xello career-exploration lessons for seventh and eighth graders, delivered “Signs of Suicide” prevention lessons in seventh-grade health classes, and ran a seven-week anxiety support group with pre/post measures. “After five weeks, students have reported significant decrease in anxious feelings,” Schultz said; she reported decreases of 78 percent (fifth grade), 70 percent (sixth grade), 78 percent (seventh grade) and 90 percent (eighth grade) among participants.
High school counselor Devon Hurst described steps to expand career and college readiness: doubling freshman-focused courses, having 71 percent of students complete Xello inventories and running a course fair and FAFSA help sessions. Hurst said 30 seniors self-reported acceptances to 78 colleges, and counselors worked with seniors to increase postsecondary planning.
Board members asked how families are engaged. Presenters described multiple parent-touchpoints: newsletters with counseling content, advance notice for SEL units, family meetings, attendance outreach (daily health-aide calls for absences) and invitation events such as senior night and literacy nights. Several buildings also reported using ISD (intermediate school district) intensive-support teams to observe classrooms and offer materials or staff help.
Superintendent Rob Ridgeway and presenters emphasized that the district’s suite of interventions mixes universal Tier 1 lessons with Tier 2 check-in/check-out and small-group instruction and Tier 3 individualized plans. Several presenters asked the board to sustain supports and training so the district can scale small-group work next year.
Board members and administrators signaled continued oversight: the board asked presenters to return with results as programs scale and requested clarity on how intermediate school district supports are coordinated with building-level interventions.
Ending — The board did not vote on program changes during the presentation; staff said they will continue monitoring the data and return with implementation details and next-step proposals in coming months.
