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.)? Our team consists of both administrators (principal and assistant principal), two classroom teachers, one resource teacher, one paraprofessional and one ESE teacher.  The team meets on a monthly basis.  We work well together because of communication.  First of all, our meetings are structured with an agenda.  Before each meeting, Cindy Troxel (our team facilitator) communicates with the team to ensure that all issues are represented on the agenda.  During the meeting, she keeps us on track according to the agenda.  Each member of the team has a role. The Assistant Principal brings the data, the secretary records the minutes and we go from there.  Once the meeting is finished (most meetings last only one hour), each person is assigned tasks to complete before the next professional development or the next team meeting.  We are great at follow through.  We work together to get the job done. 

How does your team use data to make decisions on campus? Data is reviewed at every monthly team meeting.  When it is shared, information is discussed regarding why the data looks the way it does.  Then, strategies are put in place to fix areas of concern.  For example, during one of the monthly meetings, we discovered that bullying was beginning to be an ongoing issue on campus.  We brainstormed solutions and implemented them along with providing professional development to the staff. 

How do you share information with the rest of your faculty (e.g., emails, newsletters, meetings, etc.)?  How often do you share this information? Information is shared with the staff through two venues:

1. Weekly newsletters – every Sunday evening, the staff receives a newsletter with announcements for the week.  This weekly newsletter has a section on PBS that emphasizes updates, data and upcoming events. 
2. Monthly Professional Development – once a month, the PBS Team presents professional development to the staff on a given topic.  Each professional development session begins with the sharing of data to support the topic of discussion and to celebrate successes of PBS.  Then, professional development is presented using interactive methods, modeling techniques to be used in the classroom. 

What do you see as the overall strengths of your team?  Please provide details. Our teams overall strength is communication.  We communicate with each other through email and team meetings.  We also have great leadership and teamwork.  Our team facilitator does an excellent job keeping us on track and our team works together to make sure everyone is doing their part to make sure our school is working towards the same goals. 

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.

1. Teaching and reviewing expectations … Ask any one of our students and they will tell you our school wide expectations.  Our staff has done an excellent job reviewing these expectations throughout the year (at the beginning the year and after each major holiday/vacation). 
2. Professional Development … each month, our PBS Team has presented professional development on a given topic of need.  Our staff has participated in this professional development and has been receptive to each “bite” of the elephant as we’ve fed it to them. 
3. Monthly rewards … We implemented student dog tags as a part of the school wide reward system this year.  Each month, the students were able to earn a dog tag that spelled out a letter of one of our school wide expectations.  Students were excited to earn all 6 dog tags.  #1 - P = Positive Attitude, #2 - R = Respectful Behavior, #3 - I = Independent Thinking, #4 - D = Dedication to Safety, #5 - E = Engaged in Learning, #6 - PRIDE (last dog tag with all letters)

Discuss the changes you have seen on campus since PBS implementation (e.g., data, climate, morale, etc.). The largest change has been the decrease in the number of office referrals.  Students are taking responsibility for their actions and teachers are teaching students how to take responsibility for their actions.  To date, we have a total of 312 discipline referrals.  Last year at this time, we had a total of 702.

What are some obstacles that your team has had to overcome?  Please explain the process for overcoming these hurdles below. The main obstacle we’ve had to overcome is the concept of teachers thinking there are no consequences.  We’ve overcome that issue through continued professional development, one on one conversations with specific teachers and supporting them in their efforts. 

The other obstacle has been the implementation of the tracking form.  Some of the teachers saw the tracking form as more work rather than a tool to assist them with the student.  Once we addressed the tracking form through professional development providing other examples, more teachers understood the purpose.