TO: FROM: DATE: RE:

Members of the Board of Education Jen Cheatham, Superintendent of School March 28, 2014 Behavior Education Plans

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------As you know, the Board will be asked to approve the new Behavior Education Plans on Monday, which will replace our current code of conduct. The Behavior Education Plans represent a shift away from exclusionary practices that we know are ineffective toward a teaching and learning model. We are proposing this change to the Board for a vote on Monday because we believe we need to make a systemic change that reduces the amount of time students are removed from the classroom and reduces the disproportionate impact these practices have on our students. Policy approved by the Board is generally put into effect on July 1. This raises questions about the impact our current policy would have on students for the remainder of this school year. As the Board prepares to make a value statement about how we define our behavior system in this district, I do not believe that we should continue to enforce our current code of conduct, as it relates to expulsions, for the remainder of this school year specifically, behaviors that, under our new plan, would not result in an automatic recommendation for expulsion. We believe those behaviors should not result in a student suffering from a long-term removal from the educational environment. Rather, they should be met with intensive interventions and student accountability within a learning context. Continuing to enforce those recommendations for the remainder of the year would be difficult to justify to our students or community and most importantly, is not in line with our beliefs under our new plan. Therefore, I am recommending that for the remainder of the year, we adjust our process for expulsions. Under current practice, the Coordinator for Expulsions and Disciplinary Training is tasked with reviewing expulsion recommendations based on Board policy using specific considerations. I am recommending adding an additional consideration whether the offence for which the student is recommended for expulsion would be expellable under the new Behavior Education plan. If it is not, the coordinator would dismiss the recommendation. The students term of suspension, five days, would be allowed to stand, unless the suspension was modified through the suspension appeal process. I would also recommend that the Board use the agreed-upon principles of our new Behavior Education Plan in considering any pending expulsions. While it is past the point of being able to change my recommendations, which were based on current Board policy, I do believe the Board should apply the proposed Behavior Education Plan as a tool for decision making. Please let me know if you have any questions.