Harrisburg Education Association President Jody Barksdale addressed the school board at last night’s meeting.
When a student has an outburst during class time, a teacher cannot continue a lesson plan. The teacher drops the plan to address the disruptive student while students who want to learn must wait.
A pilot program in Rowland Academy middle school will address situations like this, school board member Judd Pittman said after the board unanimously approved to implement this “innovative solution” last night.
“This is generating a classroom space for students to de-escalate,” Pittman said. “They can go to that room, get a support team, maybe a mentor or school psychologist, and this allows them to de-escalate.”
The students in this temporary placement classroom would learn basic subjects such as math and language arts in addition to “character education” from one class period to several days, according to the meeting agenda.
“It’s a unique model that meets the needs of the students,” he said.
This $78,000 program, funded by a state Department of Education School Improvement Grant, will run through the end of the school year. If successful, the district will continue and expand the program, Pittman said.
By coincidence, unrelated to this agenda item, more than 15 blue-shirted members of the Harrisburg Education Association attended last night’s board meeting to say that the district needs to bring alternative education in-house.
About 15 members of the teachers union attended last night’s school board meeting.
HEA President Jody Barksdale said an in-house alternative education program, like a program that closed eight years ago, would better meet students’ emotional and academic needs.
Barksdale said the in-house program showed better test scores compared to the current three alternative education programs. She also anecdotally shared the success of her previous students, now adults.
“It was the first time they experienced success,” she told the board. “They have jobs. They’re productive citizens of our community.”
The current alternative education programs, offered by entities outside of the district, place caps on the number of students, Barksdale said.
“If that’s what [students] need, why not give it to them,” she said. “We can do it in-house, with the staff we currently have.”
Pittman, chair of the academic, instruction and student services committee, said access to information teachers collect on disruptive student behavior would help the board members make better decisions.
“With this data, we could look at when and where incidents happen and get at the root cause,” he said.
Teachers brought Pittman student behavior data, which helped his committee create the pilot program at Rowland Academy. Pittman said accessing this aggregated data otherwise is difficult.
“You make the request and hope that it happens,” he said. “I want quarterly reports so we can make data-informed decisions. That’s the panacea.”
Board member Melvin Wilson said more information on disruptive student behaviors would help the board make “informed decisions that empower students.”
“We could look at the larger picture, not just small fires,” he said. “If we have that information, we can address the cause.”
Wilson, chair of the policy and procedure committee, said he did not know the procedure for board members to obtain this district-wide data and doubted that such data existed.
“I’m not so sure the district even has baseline data. Look at what happened with the expulsions,” he said, referencing the board’s recent votes addressing a procedural error in the expulsions of more than 400 students.
The board approved the expulsions of three students last night. Technically deemed an expulsion, the school board votes actually placed students into alternative education programs, said board Solicitor Samuel Cooper.
Richard Soto, a Democrat running for school board, lambasted the board for the recent string of expulsions, misunderstanding the board’s actions.
“This is very sad, very sad,” he told the board. “[Students] should have had another option, like Cougar Academy, the cyber school.” He added that the board put “kids on the streets.”
Students who violate the student code of conduct by actions, such as bringing a weapon to school, warrant expulsion, Cooper said. Rather than getting kicked out of school entirely, as the word “expulsion” implies, the district places students in alternative education programs.
“These kids are not on the street,” Cooper said.
The school board also held a moment of silence for those who passed away in a fire last week in Uptown Harrisburg. This moment of silence recognized student Savannah Dominick and a student’s child, Ashanti Hughes. Those who wish assist with funeral costs for Hughes can contribute to Major H. Winfield Funeral Home in Steelton.
Author: Danielle Roth
