Windermere Elementary leaders outline new supports for behavior, social-emotional learning and literacy

Windermere Elementary Principal Marcy Caspo and Assistant Principal Nicole Holler presented a first-year leadership update to the Amherst Central School District Board of Education highlighting new systems for behavioral support, social-emotional learning and community engagement.

The leaders said they launched a weekly review of office discipline referral (ODR) data with the PPS (pupil personnel services) team, implemented an electronic office disciplinary referral system, and created a Request for Assistance (RFA) process that produces a problem‑solving meeting within a week of a teacher’s request. Caspo told the board the RFA meetings are “super productive, very collaborative” and reported more than 65 RFA meetings to date.

Nut graf: School leaders said the new processes are intended to provide quicker feedback to teachers and targeted interventions for students. Caspo and Holler described tiered supports including a Check‑In/Check‑Out (CICO) tier‑2 intervention, ongoing data dashboards and a team that reviews trends and individual student progress weekly.

According to the presentation, CICO currently enrolls 12 students and has 32 trained facilitators who provide brief morning and end‑of‑day check‑ins and complete daily progress reports aligned to Windermere’s school rules (TIGERS). Caspo said individualized graphs are used to monitor each student, adjust goals and fade the intervention once students meet targets.

The PPS team (school counselor, social worker and school psychologist) reported using the evidence‑based Second Step curriculum in kindergarten classrooms after fall data showed younger learners needed additional school‑readiness and self‑regulation instruction. In a prepared statement played for the board, Melissa Stasio (school counselor), Jordan Francis (school social worker) and Kristen Hanserman (school psychologist) described weekly lessons, nonverbal cues for focus, calming strategies and teacher reinforcement across settings.

Caspo and Holler described several schoolwide initiatives intended to build positive culture and family engagement: “All Are Welcome,” a book‑based theme; “Tiger Tuesday,” an electronic positive referral system that had recorded 654 nominations as of the presentation; and “One School, One Book,” a community reading of Winter According to Humphrey that will culminate April 10 with guest readers and a school library pet named Humphrey.

On instruction, the principals said they are strengthening Responsive Classroom practices, reintroducing “vertical families” (cross‑grade teams that meet monthly), and piloting work on tier‑3 reading interventions with Dr. Lisa Kilmowski of Niagara University to refine decision rules and progress monitoring for intensive reading services.

Board members asked about specific data and implementation details. Caspo said the district’s school report card enrollment categories do not separately list a Middle Eastern category; the school’s internal knowledge of family backgrounds comes from direct contact and language observations rather than a distinct state reporting line. Caspo and Holler clarified that teacher‑managed minor infractions remain separate from major offenses processed through the ODR workflow and that the RFA is intended to formalize supports after a teacher has tried initial responses rather than replace informal colleague or counselor conversations.

Ending: School leaders said they will continue to monitor weekly and monthly dashboards, expand the scope of interventions as needed, and report back to the board at a future update on tier‑3 reading work and attendance trends.