What makes your team work so well?  Please discuss in detail (e.g., what is your administrator’s role on the team, how is staff represented, etc.)?   As I stated earlier, our team has a diverse group of teachers that each bring their own unique strengths to the table.  They are all devoted to helping the PBS program be a success.  We have 100% attendance and participation at our Core Team meetings, and each individual offers suggestions for improvement.  We are fortunate enough to have complete support from our administration.  Our principal, Dr. Mosley, is a member of the Core Team.  Although she offers her support and guidance, she also gives us a great deal of freedom to make decisions as we see fit based on our discipline data and faculty/student input.

How does your team use data to make decisions on campus?  At each of our Core Team meetings, we reflect on our monthly discipline data to see what kind of changes need to be made in our program.  Our highest area of referrals this year came from dress code violations.  In turn, we have decided to build in dress code reward days for the upcoming school year.  This school year, our team used different strategies to try and combat the high frequency of dress code referrals. We have held team dress code contests, where the team with the fewest dress code referrals received free admission into PBS events.  We have also hosted PBS Dress Code Fashion Shows to try and motivate our students to take pride in the dress code here at Southport Middle School and make it their own.  In addition, we sought feedback from the students as to what they disliked about the dress code, and found that their greatest concern was being able to wear hooded jackets.  As a result, administration has amended the dress code policy for next year to allow the students to wear hoodies. As per discipline data, we recognize that the majority of our referrals happen in the classroom setting.  In order to try and minimize behavioral issues in the classroom setting, our faculty has committed to increase the use of verbal praise accompanied by distribution of Cane Cash for appropriate behavior.  Each teacher pledges to distribute 4 Cane Cash dollars each period along with very specifically stated praise that relates to our school-wide expectations.  We have also developed a team of PBS Student Mentors to help familiarize new students to our PBS program and model school-wide expectations consistently.  Furthermore, our entire staff has decided to begin their instruction every day with a 1 minute PBS related activity that reinforces our school-wide expectations.   We feel that the most effective way to teach appropriate behavior is to teach it consistently on a daily basis throughout each of the classes on our campus.

How do you share information with the rest of your faculty (e.g., emails, newsletters, meetings, etc.)?  How often do you share this information?  We share discipline data on a monthly basis with our faculty via email and/or during our faculty meetings.  We also send biweekly Core Team meeting minutes via email, and our Core Team leaders are in continual contact with our staff about PBS events and ideas. 

What do you see as the overall strengths of your team?  Please provide details.  As I mentioned before, our Core Team is a unique mix of teachers and staff members that each bring different strengths to the table.  We have classroom teachers from each grade level, as well as ESE Teachers, elective teachers, administration, support staff, and district support.  By having this diverse group of professionals, we have the ability to monitor the progress of PBS from each different grade level throughout the school.  Our Core members consistently consider data and student feedback to shape and reform our program so that it continues to improve.

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.  Although we feel that our team has excelled in many areas of PBS this school year, we have really focused our efforts on rewarding our students and staff.  We have held a variety of PBS events that we felt would interest many different types of students (ie: dances, carnival, field day, talent show, ice cream socials, spirit dress code days, student/faculty volleyball, dodge-ball, basketball, pizza parties, movies, and individual team rewards).  We have also developed a system of rewards for our teachers and staff members.  Individuals recognize other staff members for their positive efforts by giving “Hurricane Slips” with specific praise for their efforts.  Those slips are then put into a drawing once a month.  The staff member that is chosen is given a gift card in honor of their effort.

Discuss the changes you have seen on campus since PBS implementation (e.g., data, climate, morale, etc.).  The climate on our campus has improved since the implementation of our PBS program.  Students have conveyed that they feel they are being recognized more often for making an effort and practicing responsibility.  According to our school climate survey, the majority of staff members feel that there is a positive school climate.  The data shows that our school has remained at or below the average number of referrals written per year, and our number of referrals has gone down from previous years.

What are some obstacles that your team has had to overcome?  Please explain the process for overcoming these hurdles below.
Although we have had several obstacles this year, our biggest hurdle would probably be getting full staff commitment.  We really feel that the entire faculty and staff need to believe in PBS and practice it whole-heartedly in order to make it a success.  Of course there are always resistant individuals, but we decided that perhaps the best way to get them on board would be to retrain them on the basic principles and fundamentals of PBS, along with offering data to coincide with what we were saying.

Several teachers pose the argument, “Why do we reward students for doing what they should be doing anyway?”  We decided to answer that question by implementing our staff reward program.  We committed to rewarding teachers for modeling PBS related behaviors, such as showing respect for students, making an effort to help around campus, etc…  Now clearly these are things that any good teacher or staff member should be doing anyway, but it still feels good to be recognized and rewarded.