Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Student Behavior topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Faribault High credits PBIS, restorative practices for big drop in suspensions and referrals
Summary
Faribault High School staff told the school board that a first-year PBIS rollout and restorative-practices training corresponded with a 42% drop in behavioral referrals and an 84% drop in suspension days compared with the previous year.
Faribault High School principal Nate Mader told the Faribault Public School District board on March 16 that the school’s first year of implementing Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) and sustained restorative-practices training has coincided with large reductions in discipline measures.
Mader said behavioral referrals fell from 384 at the same point last year to 220 this year — roughly a 42% reduction — and days of suspension fell from 235 to 37, an approximately 84% drop. "We are not lowering the bar for behavior, but instead students are rising to meet our expectation," Mader said.
Mader, joined by assistant principals Allison Sweeney and Joel Timmer, described PBIS as a multi-tiered framework the school taught across settings. The district-aligned expectations — summarized by the SOAR rubric (Safe, On task, Accountable, Respectful) — are being posted in common areas and explicitly retaught at the start of each semester, presenters said. Staff also completed year-long professional development in restorative practices intended to build relationships, teach skills and allow students to restore harm and return to instruction.
Administrators credited several concrete steps for the improvements: clear, district-aligned expectations taught from elementary through high school; focused staff training in restorative approaches; targeted behavioral-intervention classes that teach organizational and self-regulation skills; and classroom practices that reduce cell-phone disruptions. Timmer noted the school already provides classes that teach executive-skills and self-regulation as part of the broader PBIS strategy.
The presenters described a four-year implementation timeline that begins with establishing common language and staff positives, continues with teaching expectations in every common space and moves toward increased classroom-focused interventions and reward options in subsequent years.
Board members asked for details about what produced the data change. Mader and the assistant principals highlighted consistent communication across grade levels and a focus on positive relationships. Sweeney described staff training as a factor that changed response patterns to lower-level behaviors, keeping students in classrooms and reducing lost instructional time.
The board praised the team and acknowledged that while some incidents still require suspension under the student handbook, the district’s approach prioritizes teaching behavioral expectations and restoring students to instruction when appropriate.
The board heard the presentation during its regular business meeting and did not take action beyond offering thanks and asking follow-up questions; presenters asked board members to direct further data requests to district staff.
