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Trustees press for breakdowns as Robla reviews behavior referrals, suspensions and attendance efforts
Summary
Board members raised equity questions about referrals and suspensions while principals described PBIS, SWIS and attendance incentives; leadership agreed to provide student‑group suspension data in a December dashboard presentation.
District leaders described a layered approach to behavior and attendance and agreed to return with subgroup data requested by trustees.
Mario Penman summarized suspension and referral data and explained how the district counts suspensions (each student counted once) versus SWIS (School‑Wide Information System) referrals, which can include multiple entries for repeat incidents. He said district suspension rates "look pretty good" and emphasized PBIS and MTSS as the mitigation frameworks for behavior supports.
Principals explained how SWIS referral forms allow multiple checkboxes per incident and said PBIS handbooks and staff trainings establish standardized definitions for categories such as defiance, disrespect and physical aggression. "Not every referral goes home to a parent," a principal said; many referrals are used as schoolwide data to identify problem locations and times rather than as immediate parent notifications.
Trustee Barnes asked for disaggregated suspension data by student group, saying she had previously observed higher suspension rates for African American students. Leadership responded that a prior spike had been traced to a single student in one instance and agreed to provide student‑group suspension breakdowns in the district dashboard presentation on December 11. Trustees also questioned whether teacher or reporting bias might affect referrals; principals described PLC training, principal review of referrals and local data‑cleaning practices intended to normalize reporting.
On attendance, principals and site leaders described incentives that appeared to move the needle: weekly trophies, traveling mascots, visibility of staff during drop‑off, community liaisons and small celebrations (Kona Ice). Leadership said chronic‑absenteeism details will be part of the upcoming dashboard presentation.
Next steps: the board directed staff to return with suspension and chronic‑absenteeism breakdowns by student group and to explore whether SWIS referrals can be disaggregated in the same way.
