Rantoul City SD 137 advisory committee reviews discipline data, weighs SEL changes and targeted transition supports

Rantoul City SD 137’s Parent Teacher Advisory and Behavioral Interventions Committee met to review district discipline data, discuss social-emotional learning (SEL) curriculum options and outline targeted supports for transitional grades.

Jamie Rountree, director of curriculum and instruction, opened the meeting and said the committee “brings together family, staff, and community members to review student behavior systems and supports” and set norms emphasizing systems-level analysis over individual grievances. The committee reviewed visuals showing incidents, in-school suspension (ISS), out-of-school suspension (OSS) and use of a short-term alternative-to-suspension care program for the school year through April 30.

The data drew attention to kindergarten and sixth-grade patterns. A presenter noted, “There were 36 incidents from kindergarten,” and cautioned that the charts represent incidents rather than unique students. A district staff member who said they have worked in the district since 2017 added, “I can say with confidence that every year physical aggression has been the number 1,” underscoring that physical aggression consistently appears near the top of referral categories.

Classroom staffing, transitions and program fidelity were the focus of much of the discussion. Parents and community members asked whether consistent teaching-assistant coverage and class sizes could explain higher referral rates in some K–2 classrooms; staff replied most kindergarten rooms have a teacher and a TA, with occasional additional adults depending on needs, and said available data should be disaggregated to distinguish a few students driving counts from broader grade-level patterns.

Teachers described mixed reactions to the district’s SEL materials. Emma Larson, a second-grade teacher, said of the district’s recent additions, “Something I love about RCS … is the responsive classroom approach that we have added,” but also noted that some available curricula do not translate well to younger students and can be time-consuming for teachers to implement. Several teachers and behavior specialists recommended evaluating supplemental curricula such as Second Step, and asked for a dedicated block in master schedules for Tier 1 SEL instruction so lessons are delivered consistently.

Committee members debated implementation timelines. A community member warned against frequent program changes and urged sustained implementation: “There’s always a first year of any implementation … you have a five-year implementation to weed out and move,” she said, arguing that shorter pilots can undercut teacher buy-in. Staff countered that curriculum changes were driven by teacher feedback and data showing practical challenges to implementation, not change for its own sake.

The committee collected several near-term recommendations: obtain more disaggregated data (to tell whether counts represent many students or a few repeat incidents), monitor and report physical-aggression referrals by grade, examine whether kindergarten incidents reflect developmental behavior or more serious safety concerns, and prioritize supports at identified transitional grades. Staff said they would work with the superintendent and return with more detailed analyses and dates for follow-up meetings. No formal motions or votes were recorded during the session.

Next steps recorded by the committee include producing more granular discipline reports, exploring culturally relevant SEL materials and identifying concrete, measurable goals for reducing physical aggression at targeted grades. The meeting concluded with a commitment to reconvene after staff supply the requested data and recommendations.