Phoenix Elementary outlines specialized supports as special-education enrollment rises

Phoenix Elementary leaders told the Grand Forks School Board that the school has reintroduced specialized programming for students with emotional and behavioral needs and expanded early-childhood special education.

An unidentified Phoenix presenter said the school currently operates a Setting C classroom for students with emotional disorders and that the class of four students will add a fifth next Monday. The presenter also noted three early-childhood special education classrooms for 3- and 4-year-old children and said Phoenix returned some programs that had previously been operated elsewhere.

"We started out with 38% proficient with a goal of getting to the 50% level," the presenter said, summarizing the school'wide target. She described a staffing model that assigns three "general strategists" to specialize in literacy, math and behavioral supports so specialists can share students rather than manage isolated caseloads. She named Angie Mercile (literacy), Marissa Geiss (math) and Amber Rasperson (emotional/behavioral supports) among staff in those roles.

Carla McDonald, Phoenix's behavior interventionist, described her role in classroom-based supports, small-group social-skills instruction and documentation. McDonald said documenting incidents using the school''s "purple sheet" system has increased logged entries because teachers now use the tools more consistently; she reported 170 log entries in her first year and 189 in her second year. "I feel like there's more log entries because I'm able to help out with those and encourage the teachers to use them more so we have that for documentation," she said.

Tianna, Phoenix's school social worker, presented attendance data from Panorama showing Phoenix at about 88% of students attending at least 90% of the time, slightly above the district average. She described a tiered attendance process: staff outreach at early signs of absence, Tier 2 interventions that bring in the social worker, and Tier 3 cases handled by an attendance specialist, and named Jen Little as the attendance specialist.

School leaders also described the adoption of a house system adapted from the Ron Clark Academy to build cross-grade relationships and student leadership; the presenter said phase 1 (grades 3'5) is complete and K'2 selection begins tomorrow. The presenter said Title I funds and outside donations have underwritten some of the programming costs, including funding for a full-time counselor and social worker.

Board members pressed staff on the reasons fourth grade showed unexpectedly low behavior logs and asked what resources would move the school from "good to great." Miss Flynn asked about the school's wish list; the presenter said a full-time math interventionist and uniform, research-based math interventions across schools would be the highest priorities.

The presentation closed with administrators noting improved school-climate measures (presenter cited an increase in climate metrics from about 68% to 94%) and multiple teacher-led interventions intended to raise academic outcomes. The board had no formal action on Phoenix's report.