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Portage presentation highlights ‘No Place for Hate’ gains and plans to tie culture work to achievement
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Summary
Presenters told the Portage Township Schools board that the district’s third year of the No Place for Hate initiative shows steady multi‑year gains in belonging and teacher–student relationships and outlined activities, community partnerships and plans to correlate discipline data with survey results.
A student-staff team updated the Portage Township Schools Board of Trustees on the district’s third year of the No Place for Hate initiative, saying small but steady gains in student belonging and teacher–student relationships suggest the program is having a measurable effect.
Sarah Pierre, the No Place for Hate presenter, summarized Panorama survey results and said the district saw a 3 percent increase in school climate that places Portage around the 70th percentile nationally. She cited effect-size findings from John Hattie’s visible learning work, saying "belonging has an effect size of 0.46" and that teacher–student relationships showed a larger effect.
The presenters described program components now used districtwide: monthly ‘activity boards’ aligned to a critical value of the month, student pledge cards displayed across schools and in district offices, student-led clubs, assemblies, and a new staff-facing survey link and staff-shoutouts section to collect scenarios for committee review. They also noted local partnerships, including Chamber of Commerce engagement and a recent appearance by Mayor Austin Bonta at an elementary event.
Board members asked whether the initiative is becoming embedded in school culture and whether it is changing student behavior. In response, presenters said the district will correlate Simple Discipline data with Panorama results to look for reductions in suspensions or incidents and can track positive referrals; they described positive-referral reporting as a recent data source the district will use.
A staff member described an observed change in student behavior: "We're a no place for hate school. We don't do that here," testimony that presenters said shows students are self-correcting language and peer behavior without adult intervention.
The presenters also announced the district’s third annual Portage Township Schools Cultural Fair on April 23 at Portage High School Field House (5–7 p.m.) and stressed that cultural observances, classroom activities and districtwide displays are part of the effort to normalize belonging and respect.
The presentation closed with the team noting that the district is the only district in the state with all eligible schools certified No Place for Hate at the 8–12 level, and that leadership expects next year — after several staffing and building changes — to function as a new baseline for tracking progress.
The board thanked the presenters and moved on to regular business.
