By Rachel Kalina and Anthony Rifilato
At a board meeting last week, school officials said they were working to improve the "tone" at Baldwin Middle School, an initiative that they hope will lead to stricter and more immediate punishment for students who disrupt classes. The new focus on the middle school follows last month's presentation of a similar plan at the high school, through which educators aim to create a safer school climate.
The efforts come as School Superintendent Dr. Robert Britto has been working to dispel what he said is a myth that the high school is a bad place, partly in response to a series of bomb threats in the past year at the high school and middle school.
Brown addressed similar concerns - like bullying and class disruptions - in the middle school at the Nov. 8 meeting. He discussed objectives that faculty, administrators and other staff members had collectively outlined for the middle school to achieve in 2006-07. Included were an anti-bullying program, the already completed Rachel's Challenge assembly program, and methods of reducing disciplinary problems.
"These objectives were discussed in a school-wide discipline committee," Brown said. Mentioning the bomb threats in 2005-06, he noted that some of the new objectives were specifically intended to counteract such behavior among students. One example was the creation of morning extra-help passes for students who attend sessions prior to school. Parents will now have to either write notes for their children the night before the extra-help class or call that morning to give the child permission to be in school at that time.
Brown said that the passes would reduce loitering before school, and that one of the bomb threats last year might have been prevented if this system had been in place, as it occurred during the pre-school hours. Students' increased use of ID cards during school hours would also ensure that they are in the right place at the right time, Brown said.
Regarding the anti-bullying program, Brown explained that school officials would be working closely with the recently hired Long Island Parents Education Network, a group that focuses on this type of harassment. And Rachel's Challenge, which targets bullying, prejudice and other negative behavior, recently came to Baldwin High School and Middle School.
Promoting the positive goals of Rachel Scott, a student who died in the Columbine High School shootings in Colorado in 1999, Rachel's Challenge will return to the middle school next year, Brown said, because of its positive affects on students. "We have a great sense of citizenship and companionship among our early adolescents," he said of the qualities the program has encouraged.
Although there are other important developments at the middle school, including the addition of exterior security cameras, Brown spent much of his time at the meeting detailing what he called the "Four-Step Process." It is a plan designed to deal with disruptive students in class, and, Brown said, it has greatly decreased the number of suspensions in the first two months of school, compared with last year. It involves defining inappropriate student behavior, giving disruptive students two warnings before removing them from classes and taking them to an administrator's office, and informing parents of a student's behavior with a phone call. Bad behavior is punished immediately, and students who are removed from classes are required to work while in an administrator's office so they do not see the time out of class as a free period.
"Too much time is given to disruptive students," Brown said. "If we can educate and discipline students for lower-level infractions, we will see less higher-level infractions, like bullying or teasing. The immediacy of a consequence is important."
School board members praised the initiatives at the middle school. "I was very impressed with a lot of changes going on at the middle school," said Trustee Anne Hannon after Brown's presentation.
The issue of a positive school climate has been on the minds of some parents recently as well. At a community input meeting last month, parents asked about a fight that occurred at the high school. Britto and other school officials attributed the altercation to typical "teenage subject matter," revolving around an insult to someone's girlfriend. Britto made it clear that he was upset about the injuring of several students, who have been suspended. He explained that some students received district-level suspensions, and that one case was referred to the juvenile justice system.
"This was an unfortunate incident, since there were people who were hurt," Britto said, emphasizing that the altercation was not gang-related and that the investigation into the matter had concluded. "This fight was an aberration," he said, in what was otherwise the best school opening in years.
Students at the input meeting praised the board and the district for all of the positive activities that they said are often overlooked. Students Allison Kim and Corinna Joseph complimented the board for its support of programs such as the Robotics Team, which has received numerous awards, as well as the district's numerous extracurricular activities. "I think this school offers so much for its students," said Kim.
Joseph told of how welcomed she felt when she moved from her native India to the Baldwin district, which, she said, promotes creativity and provides a healthy learning environment. "Before I could realize it, I was a part of this institution," Joseph said. "A child's success is guaranteed here."
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