• Team Leader
• Sends out timely requests for meeting agenda items
• Faithfully calls the team’s attention the action plan so that we are always aware of our progress relative to our goals
• Encourages input from all team members
• Distributes evaluations and presents results to the team and to the entire staff
• Administrator/Coach
• Provides very visible support for PBS by announcing the names of all PBS honorees, including student who win SPLASH awards, students who are Citizens of the Month, and the names of the classes in each grade level who earn the DIP award
• Conveys information from district level meetings to the team
• Consults with the team in preparing reports and evaluations
• Data Specialists
• Analyze and print data by school and by grade level
• Make note of any especially notable data
• Share data with the PBS Team at each monthly meeting
• Recorder
• Faithfully records and distributes minutes of the meeting
• Timekeeper
• Keeps us out of trouble by making sure we finish our agenda in time to collect our students for the start of class
• Communications
• Assists with communicating information from team to staff, to individual teams and to parents.
• Behavior Support
• Guidance Counselor assists with generic lesson plans distributed to all teachers
• Presents specific lessons tailored to the needs of individual classes and grade levels
• Data Support
• Safe Schools General Assistant enters behavior reports into SWIS daily

Every member of our team carries out her responsibility well.  A large part of this involves communication between the PBS Team and the grade level teams.  Our team members are very conscientious about sharing data and about gathering input from the staff members they represent before we make decisions for the group.  This can be time-consuming, because some decisions are better reached after face-to-face communication.  Sometimes we have to go back and forth from the PBS Team to our represented groups and back more than once.  However, we believe the additional time spent is worth it because we have found that the final decisions are not only better for our school, but they are better supported by our staff.

How does your team use data to make decisions on campus? Our team uses data to make decisions on campus in several ways.  First, our PBS Team flags notable data patterns in student behavior.  Whenever there is a particular behavior problem that can be attributed to a particular grade level or class, Amy Gaillard, our Guidance Counselor and Behavior Support specialist meets with the affected teachers and plans intervention lessons for the classes that are involved. We also use the data, in combination with our training, to devise solutions to problem areas.  We found, not unexpectedly, that we had a high number of behavior problems on the playground when we factored in the amount of time the students spend there.  The playground was the location of 22% of our referrals, yet students spend only 5% of their time there.  We had posted our expectations there, and our referrals were down from the previous year, but we still wanted better results.  Representatives of the PBS team went to the playground during recess and the team is now in the process of revising our posted rules.  Instead of general playground rules, we’ve begun working on a list of specific games students can play and the rules for those games.  This allows us to state in positive terms all the things students can do on the playground.  We can then steer them away from the games that result in problems without using negative terms.

Another way our team uses data to make decisions is by reviewing the frequency of individual student referrals.  We have an “At-Risk Team” at Laurel Oak.  We review the names of students with multiple referrals and plan interventions to assist these students.  Every single student who has four or more referrals has one of the following interventions:

• Check-In Check-Out meeting with an adult each day to review goals for the day and progress toward those goals at the end of the day
• Participation in one of the following groups:
• Social Skills
• Anger Management
• Self-Esteem
• Divorce
• Bereavement
• Mentor Assigned
• Individual Counseling sessions scheduled

Our team also uses staff survey data to evaluate and improve our program.  This is discussed further in the “Obstacles” section.

How do you share information with the rest of your faculty (e.g., emails, newsletters, meetings, etc.)?  How often do you share this information? The primary methods for conveying information are as follows:

• PBS Team to Grade Level Teams and Related Arts Teams - monthly
• PBS Team reviews and discusses data at each monthly meeting.
• PBS Team members take the data back to their grade level team meetings for face-to-face discussion and analysis
• PBS Team to whole staff – at least twice per year
• PBS Team presents student data information to the entire staff in whole staff meetings at least twice per year
• Newsletters
• The PBS Team produces a newsletter every other month and links it to the school website
• The newsletter highlights the teachers and activities that promote the Laurel Oak expectations: Respectful, Responsible, and Productive

What do you see as the overall strengths of your team?  The overall strengths of our team relate to the fidelity of our implementation.  Revisiting the action plan at each meeting is a great tool for keeping us focused.  Another strength is the high visibility of our implementation.  In every classroom there is a “Citizen of the Month” trophy on someone’s desk.  (We do, however, allow for creative differences so that Mr. Wisser, who moonlights as a singer and Elvis impersonator is allowed to use an Elvis statue as his “citizen” trophy.)  One of our business partners, Transport Graphics, provided us with large vinyl, weatherproof banners so that we can display more prominently than in the past. 

We provide links on our school website that list the names of students who earned the “Citizen of the Month” designation. We also have our own PBS Newsletter that is linked to the school website.  It lists the names of the class in each grade level that has won the “Dolphin Incentive Program” award. In our regular newsletter, our Assistant Principal frequently makes references to our expectations: Respectful, Responsible, and Productive.

In what areas of PBS does your team excel (e.g., rewarding students/staff, teaching expectations, data-based decision-making, etc.)?  Please provide details below. Our team excels in rewarding students and teaching expectations.  Our reward system is very well-balanced, with multiple opportunities for students to earn praise and rewards for positive behaviors. 
This is done as follows:

1. Citizen of the Month - 42 different outstanding students (one per class) each month
2. Dolphin Incentive Program – Six different classes (one class in each grade level) earn a reward each month
3. Splash – Everyone who is caught doing something good is eligible to earn a reward
4. Individual Teacher positive behavior plans – teachers have the option of using the SPLASH reward system as their classroom positive behavior plan, but most have their own classroom behavior plans.  From Mr. Morey’s frog pond to Mrs. Hritz’s “lunch with the teacher” rewards, our staff does a great job of emphasizing the positive.   
5. Examples of two of the individual teacher plans follow.

Our team also excels in teaching expectations.  When students exhibit positive behaviors, our teachers do a great job of framing their praise with the terms respectful, responsible, and/or productive.  The same is true when staff member discuss negative behaviors.  We explain why a particular behavior is not respectful or responsible.  Many teachers use “Think Sheets” that guide students toward positive choices. Our students have also been brought into the teaching process.  A group of students came to school a week early to make a video that teaches the expectations.  This video was run after the morning announcements for the first week of school.  We also show it to new students when they arrive at LOE.  In addition, our 5th grade morning news crews sign off each morning be restating our expectations, so that they are the last thing students hear before they begin their academic day. Our Related Arts teachers have done an excellent job of reinforcing the expectations as well.   In their computer class, the students practiced with power point by creating presentations that explained our expectations.   Our third and fourth grade concert was centered around good character.  The students sang songs such as “Teamwork,” “Respect,” “Keep My Promises,” and “Tidy Up Your Room.”

Discuss the changes you have seen on campus since PBS implementation (e.g., data, climate, morale, etc.). Behavior problems decreased when PBS was implemented at Laurel Oak.  However, we have found that as we get greater staff buy-in, and as we implement with greater fidelity, the decrease in problem behaviors has accelerated.  In the 2005-2006 school year, we had 57.49 referrals per 100 students.  In 2006-2007, the number dropped to 54.91.  However, this year, our referrals per 100 students dropped to 32.93. In addition to the data supporting improved behavior with fidelity of implementation, there is also anecdotal evidence of a more positive school climate.  Staff members have noted a more collegial atmosphere and less of a focus on negatives in parking lot and faculty lounge discussions.

What are some obstacles that your team has had to overcome?  Please explain the process for overcoming these hurdles below. The problem of teacher dissatisfaction with the Dolphin Incentive Program (DIP) became apparent when the staff was surveyed at the end of the 2006-2007 school year.  This program was designed to reward the class in each grade level with the best behavior.  When a class exhibited positive behavior, it was rewarded with a die cut dolphin.  These dolphins were counted at the end of each month, and the class in each grade level with the most dolphins was rewarded with “Fun Time with the Deans” while their teacher got an extra planning period. 

Two problems resulted.  First, teachers had different standards for awarding dolphins so the same teachers won repeatedly.  Secondly, the teachers whose classes did not win speculated that the winning teachers were awarding dolphins indiscriminately in order to get an extra planning period.

The process for resolving initial problems with DIP was as follows:

• The PBS Team brainstormed solutions at PBS Booster Training and proposed the following:
• Dolphins should be awarded only by related arts teachers, insuring that no class would have an advantage over others
• The extra planning period for the winning teacher was eliminated, primarily because administrative staff was cut in half and it was no longer feasible
• The individual PBS Team members introduced the proposed changes to their respective teams (grade level and related arts) and facilitated discussion of the proposed changes.
• The grade level teams and the related arts team all approved the proposed changes.
• Teacher buy-in appeared to increase because the staff saw that their concerns were taken seriously and addressed.

A subsequent problem with the new and improved DIP was brought to the PBS team from two grade level teams.  Some of the kindergarten, first and second grade classes had to split into three or four smaller groups and go to related arts classes with the students from a different class.   Therefore, they were not being included in rewards for a class they didn’t belong to. 

The process for resolving this subsequent problem was as follows:

• The PBS Team put this item on the agenda and invited teachers of the split classes to attend and help brainstorm solutions.
• One of these teachers from a split class came up with an equitable solution. The related arts teacher now sends dolphins to the teacher of the split class as well as to the teacher of the main class. The split class calculates the average number of dolphins they got from the two or three different groups they join.
• The solution was approved by the team and then by the teachers whose classes were split.
• The process worked well because of the excellent communication between the grade level representatives and the PBS Team, and because the teachers negatively affected by the problem were specifically invited to assist in brainstorming solutions.