District presents discipline and HIB report; administrators say most students had no incidents

Dr. Blair Rosenthal, assistant superintendent for student support services, opened the district’s discipline presentation and turned the report over to building administrators who reviewed conduct, suspension and HIB (harassment, intimidation and bullying) data for the 2025–26 school year.

Connor Henderson, assistant principal at Chatham High School, said the high school’s enrollment of 1,166 students produced 209 discipline‑type incidents this year, a slight increase but still low on a per‑student basis. ‘‘Roughly 90% of our students went the entire year without any discipline type infraction,’’ Henderson said, adding that most repeated infractions were confined to a very small group of students and that the district relies on progressive discipline tied to counseling and family outreach.

Henderson said disruptive behavior was the most common category of infraction and that ninth‑grade students accounted for a large share (62 incidents). He said academic‑integrity incidents tied to misuse of AI and other tools decreased as teachers adopted measures such as lockdown browsers and in‑class handwritten assessments.

At Chatham Middle School, Danielle Dunes said the school’s four‑year trend held steady despite the addition of fifth grade. CMS reported 25 HIB investigations with 17 confirmed at the time of the presentation; Dunes said about half of the confirmed HIB incidents at CMS involved race or ethnicity as a motivating characteristic. She described advisory lessons, mentoring (Cougar Crew) and monthly restorative activities as part of the response strategy.

Cheryl Russo, Lafayette school principal, reported Lafayette’s enrollment fell from 556 to 518 and that discipline incidents decreased by about 42% year over year. She said bus‑related misbehavior and recess conflicts were focus areas and that Lafayette completed 21 HIB investigations with four confirmed.

Across buildings, administrators described similar approaches: progressive consequences, counseling supports, expanded mentoring, and schoolwide education on character and respect. The district also flagged a planned multi‑year partnership with St. Elizabeth to develop a school climate team, conduct baseline surveys, and implement a school improvement plan focused on culture and climate.

Board members asked for follow up on whether students with repeated incidents were acting in groups and whether discipline patterns were clustered by grade. Henderson said the small number of repeat offenders was a concentrated focus of administrative time and interventions and had not resulted in course removals this year.

The report included comparative metrics—suspension counts remained low across buildings—and administrators said they will continue targeted supports and a summer committee to revise tiered behavioral systems for the coming school year.

The presentation concluded with board acknowledgment of the data and next steps: continued analysis over the summer and implementation of the St. Elizabeth climate work in the fall.