Parents and teachers press Athol‑Royalston committee over bullying, discipline reporting

Claire Butler, a parent, told the Athol‑Royalston Regional School Committee at its Dec. 18 meeting that her eldest daughter has been so distressed by bullying at the middle school that Butler sought to enroll her in home instruction and urged the district to update its homeschooling enrollment policy to match a 2% Commonwealth cap cited in discussion.

Union representatives and teachers expanded on Butler's concerns, saying classroom staff regularly face verbal and physical misconduct and that the district’s reported discipline statistics understate recurring problems. Jeff Solder, who identified himself as a union representative and a seventh‑grade science teacher, said the district has 441 students at Arms and that “9% of students engaging in tier three behaviors is a high number,” which he translated as roughly 40 students. Solder and another union speaker urged better data collection, a stronger behavioral management system, and a formal task force or dedicated staff time to address repeated incidents.

Speakers said some serious incidents (described in the meeting as tier‑three behaviors) are rare but that tier‑one and tier‑two behaviors—vandalism, class disruptions, profanity and repeated disrespect—are frequent and disruptive to instruction. One speaker also claimed that conduct referrals written by teachers are not reliably entered into the district’s formal reporting system, and that a Google form now used to collect reports means many incidents never make it into the official X2 conduct database the superintendent cited in a rebuttal to a local news article.

School leaders told the committee they have begun local initiatives aimed at strengthening positive behavior—student leadership programs, incentive systems (described in presentations as ‘claw’ or kindness coins), a new dean of students and pilots such as mindful‑mornings and targeted in‑school suspension changes. Assistant Principal Steve Leen described a tier‑one team and a behavior matrix intended to incentivize positive conduct and to produce data for periodic review.

Administrators and committee members acknowledged the need for clearer, district‑wide processes and said the policy subcommittee will review behavior policy language and student handbooks. Committee members also noted the union’s request for greater transparency about referral data and agreed staff would follow up, bring requested records (including any denied homeschool enrollment letters) back to the next meeting, and place enrollment policy clarifications on a future agenda.

The committee did not adopt a new discipline code at the meeting; members directed staff to pursue further review, report back with clarified data and consider policy revisions at the subcommittee level.