Brattleboro Area Middle School Leadership Council Meeting Minutes – Mar 7, 2024

Brattleboro Area Middle School
Leadership Council
Thursday, March 7, 2023
6:00 pm
In Person at BAMS Conference Room and via Zoom

Attendance: Keith Lyman, Tom Daughton, Doreen Burke, Matthew Betz, Peggy, Rich Leavy,
Andrea Conkling, Sharon Carlton Newton, Kelly Brown, Robin Morgan

Call to Order – 6:00 pm

Rich called the meeting to order at 6:03.

Review of minutes from January 4, 2024

Confirm Notetaker for future meetings

Robin agreed to take notes

School Update from BAMS Principal

Matt Betz and Peggy shared about the advisory system. They use Developmental Designs. A majority of the staff are formally trained in this framework. Every day starts with advisory – a small group of 10-12 students. It’s like a family during their two years at BAMS. There is a lot of social bonding that takes place among the team. They have daily connection building activities like sharing circles and games. There are team meetings once a week and regular assemblies to celebrate successes and address concerns.

Teachers meet daily to discuss how to support students in navigating their journey at middle school. They focus on academic, behavioral, and social-emotional growth. The amount of common planning and meeting time is unusual in the district and in middle school in general, but it’s extremely important.

Kids do have bullying occur and other negative things that happen to them. When this happens, it’s not something that is dealt with just by administrators. Teachers are on the ground addressing this as it happens and discussing proactive solutions in their team meetings.

The school has two counselors who also support the staff by attending team meetings and helping to plan additional supports for students who need it. They also get referrals from teachers to work with specific students. They can support students with mental health needs, attendance issues, communication skills, and conflict resolution through restorative justice work. They also work to provide education to all students about safety, harassment and bullying so that students are better equipped to navigate challenges that arise.

The team approach of having students and teachers stay together as a group for two years helps teachers and students to know each other deeply and gives teachers opportunity to tailor their curriculum to match student needs. Often there are decreased behavioral needs by the time students reach 8th grade due to maturity.

The school offers different tiers of behavioral support depending on an individual student’s needs. When teachers are able to identify needs early on they can nip problems in the bud and the team approach is very helpful with this. Current students have a younger level of social maturity and executive function skill due to the impacts of the pandemic on their development. One option is a Transition Room where students can have a non-punitive break and get support to be able to return to class. All staff are trained to complete a specific process when they suspect a situation rises to the level of bullying or harassment.

Consequences do have a role in helping kids understand the limits. Things like detention, suspension. Restorative practices are also used. Parents are important partners in dealing with behavior difficulties and Mr. Daughton communicates often with them when appropriate. Collaboration of staff teams is a crucial element of addressing behavior needs.

The underlying goal is to help students develop their social skills. BAMS staff are committed to ongoing reflection and improvement of behavioral support practices.

Around 10% of students are having a hard time even being in the classroom at all. Some are spending all day with a counselor or social worker. The school is struggling to meet these kids’ needs and there are a higher number than usual who are receiving tutoring instead of attending class at BAMS.

Parents asked about restorative justice in the peer conflict resolution group. Restorative Justice is not yet a school-wide program – some teachers are trained in it but not all.

Parents asked if students work in small groups on these issues. Mr. Lyman said Most of the time small group work is focused on academic needs. There is some teaching and practice in a small group with students who have behavior struggles. Shannon asked about the elimination of the PEAK program. This was eliminated because pulling students out of core instruction is not correlated with lasting success. The district’s focus is on inclusion. BUHS is running a new program and having success with that model and BAMS is looking to incorporate something similar. It would have some elements of the PEAK program.

Parents asked whether the increased behavior issues seem related to the current 7th grade cohort missing in-person engagement during 3rd and 4th grade. About 80% of behavior referrals are from the 7th grade. The issues are rooted in immature behavior. Disrupting class or walking out due to dysregulation. Mr. Daughton said that cell phones have an extremely detrimental effect on student development. Related to having less problem solving skills in the moment.

The chair noted that it sounds like the school is doing quite a bit to address student needs, and also recognized that this discussion is happening due to concerns from parents and community members about what is going on. One thing that seems needed is a bridge to connect the community with awareness of what the school is doing. This could be a role for the Leadership Council. Despite this issue continually being brought up, there are few parents here. Resolution doesn’t seem likely if everyone can’t get together to talk about it.

The need to engage families and caregivers is a huge challenge. In the past there was a successful Parent Education class. Having people who are interested in creating a robust project to engage parents is the challenge. It would require really dedicated people.

Kelly said she wants to know how to support the teachers and volunteered to invite more friends to participate. Andrea and Kelly talked about the importance of parents having the opportunity to connect with other parents. Robin suggested each LC member could try and bring another BAMS parent to the next meeting.

Robin asked about how behavior support is addressed in the Continuous Improvement Plan.

The School leadership team meets regularly. They haven’t talked a lot about behavior supports but it is part of that system to reflect about how well the behavior support systems are working.

Robin asked about how the school is addressing the issue of students feeling unsupported when they report bullying and harassment. My Lyman replied that in the past there was a deep focus on trying to follow protocols to avoid liability and this took precedence over having check-ins with the student after the fact to see how they are doing. Feedback about how students were feeling led to a lot of reflection about how these needs are addressed.

Staff now focus on following up with victims much more than they did a few years ago, to see how things are going, if any other issues are happening or continuing. Importance is placed on making sure all counselors and team teachers are aware of what’s going on, especially when there is a racial or gender harassment element. That is a focus now, where it may have been missed years ago. School staff try to assure families and kids that they take it seriously and that the other student is being held accountable.

Sharon suggested asking students who are reporting these types of incidents targeted questions such as Do you feel heard? Do you feel the problem was addressed? Is it still happening?

Rich suggested creating future agendas around solutions to address the issues that have been raised – student engagement, parent engagement, administrative transparency.

School Board Update

Kim Price gave the school board update. The Annual Meeting will be March 19 at 7pm. She encouraged all parents to come and vote on the budget. There will be an informational meeting on the 12th to inform voters about the budget. She noted that a third of the budgets across the state did not pass on Town Meeting day. If the budget does not pass then the board will have to develop a new budget that addresses voters’ concerns, but the delayed timeline will impact things like teacher contracts and grant funding.

She also recommended that parents watch the last WSESU meeting to see a presentation about BEAMS by the BAMS counselors.

New Business/Items from Previous Agenda:

● Dance Ideas/Discussion

There is a spring dance scheduled for April 5. There will be a dress up dance later in May. The LC discussed having a social gathering for parents during the April dance. It was discussed to provide some snacks for parents. Kelly offered to pick up supplies if needed. A table with some entertainments for younger siblings was suggested. Rich will send out an email to help finalize details.

Next Meeting Scheduled for 4.4.24.

The meeting was adjourned at 7:38.