February 13, 2024 • 21 mins
Embark on an educational odyssey with Erica Bauer, the heart and soul behind Green Local Schools' remarkable shift towards a nurturing and conducive learning atmosphere. As a school counselor and the mastermind coordinating PBIS district-wide, Erica joins us, along with Diane Ruff and Dianne Ferrell to unfold the narrative of how positive reinforcement and strategic behavioral supports can revolutionize a school district. We celebrate the triumphs and discuss the texture of the journey that led to the successful implementation of Tier 1 support systems and recognition through esteemed awards. With a passionate emphasis on forging strong relationships within the school community, our conversation unveils the pivotal role of a united district-level PBIS team, supported by state, in sculpting an academic environment where every student thrives.
The conversation takes a deeper look into the craft of enhancing school performance through meticulously organized teams and the astute application of the Tiered Fidelity Inventory (TFI). We share the wisdom behind the maxim "go slow to go fast," a philosophy that has anchored nearly a decade of gradual yet impactful development. Erica's strategic focus on team composition and action plans has led to a district-wide culture of incremental improvement, and the enduring success of Tier One procedures. Join us as we celebrate Erica's tireless efforts in community outreach and her knack for rallying schools under the PBIS flag—culminating in Green Local Schools' proud moment as the new district PBIS Award winner. If you're inspired by tales of educational transformation, this is your invitation to listen, learn, and perhaps even lead change in your own community.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
Welcome to PBIS.
Journey to Genius.
Are you in the process ofimplementing PBIS?
Are you wondering where tostart?
You are in the right place.
We are here to support you.
Stay tuned.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
This is PBIS Journey to Genius.
I'm Diane Farrell and I'm herewith Diane Ruff, and today we
have a very special person who'sagreed to come and talk with us
.
We have Erika Bauer.
She is a school counselor butalso the district PBIS
coordinator for Green LocalSchools, and they have had quite
(00:53):
a PBIS journey, and so Erikahas agreed to come to us and
talk a little bit about thatjourney and herself.
So, starting out, erika, canyou just tell us a little bit
about yourself and why you wentinto education?
Speaker 3 (01:09):
So thank you so much for having me Again.
My name is Erika Bauer.
I am a school counselor.
I have been in Green LocalSchools for 20 years and 17 of
those years I've been a schoolcounselor.
I was in second grade beforethat.
About nine years ago I startedon this PBIS journey and it
(01:32):
really tied into what brought meto education in the first place
, and that was building positiverelationships with kids and
families.
I always knew I wanted to be acounselor, but I fell in love
with the school setting and theability to really make
connections with people.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
You have both our hearts right now, because I was
a school counselor for 25 yearsand I just retired last year,
and I've worked with my goodfriend Diane for many of those
years and Diane was a secondgrade teacher, yes, so thank you
for a lot of years.
A lot of both of us.
Yes.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
That's very cool.
So, going into education orsince you moved into the
counseling world, you probablyhave an aha moment, something
that just warms your heart orjust keeps you coming back every
single day.
Could you share that with us?
Speaker 3 (02:26):
So I was really thinking about that aha moment
and I think there's been manyover time and again.
It always for me goes back tobuilding those positive
relationships with students orparents.
When I was a teacher and I hada student that finally made a
connection with either thecurriculum or was able to solve
(02:46):
or work through something, itwas so encouraging and I was so
excited for that student or thefamily member that we were able
to connect with.
So I think for me it just allboils down to building
relationships is the way that wecan move kids forward, the way
that we can best support them,and PBIS has really been a
(03:08):
wonderful avenue for that, andto me that is what it's all
about.
So not one aha moment, butprobably many, many over time.
I just love seeing studentsfeeling connected to that one
person or many people.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (03:24):
I love that.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
We've been talking a lot about relationships and a
lot of our other episodes and itreally does seem to just come
down to that People when theythink of PBIS, if they don't
know much about it, they don'tthink about relationships.
But really PBIS is all aboutrelationships, Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
Coming from that school counselors and teachers,
you know lens that you'relooking through.
That is huge.
So let's start talking aboutyour journey, because you have
not only had the bronze award.
Several times, you've beenawarded the gold and now the
district award.
So what is that all about?
(04:02):
Let us know a little bit moreabout that.
Speaker 3 (04:05):
So we were lucky enough.
About nine years ago the statesupport team in region eight
contacted my principal and Iabout being a demonstration site
.
Our building is an earlylearning building, so we house
our developmental preschool andour kindergarten and they were
looking for early learningcenters to work through the
(04:26):
framework of PBIS and then be ademonstration site for the
region so that other schoolscould come and kind of model or
see the things that were workingwell for us.
And when they first came to usI had been trained in PBIS many
years before and it's like ohyeah, we're doing wonderful
(04:46):
things.
You know we care about kids,we're doing a lot of really
positive things, but I reallywant to focus on tier three.
So if we could start at tierthree, that would be great.
And they kindly said you know,no, we have to follow the
framework and everybody does,everybody does.
(05:07):
Yeah, and they were absolutelyright.
I couldn't, we would not behere as a building or a district
without state support, teameight and their support.
So they were a hundred percentcorrect that we needed to sure
up our tier one supports andmake sure that our pyramid
wasn't upside down, meaning weweren't supporting too many
(05:27):
students at the tier two andtier three level that really
could have been supported bysolid tier one support.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
And you know, eric we talked about that in one of our
previous podcasts that when youcome to the PBS, just like you
said, we need help for thesesevere kids, these two and tier
two and three kids.
But what they said to you isexactly what we're finding out.
If you start at the groundlevel and you do that tier one
and you do it strong, you affectsome of those tier two and then
(05:57):
that pyramid does go right sideup.
So it is true, but I knowpeople don't feel that way.
So how did you go on?
How did you get to be adistrict?
What does that mean?
Do certain schools have to havegoals, or what does that mean?
Speaker 3 (06:14):
So I think I'll get these percentages right.
But 60% of your schools have tobe recognized at the bronze
level in order for you to applyfor the district award.
And then, just like theapplications for the buildings,
there's criteria for thedistrict award.
So even if 60% of yourbuildings have received bronze,
(06:39):
that doesn't automatically meanthat you'll receive the district
award.
There's additional criteria.
With the support of Joya, ourdirector of student services, we
established a district levelPBIS team as well.
That includes the team lead forPBIS at each building and a
(06:59):
building administrator.
So we are really lookingthrough that district level lens
at what we're doing and tryingto be consistent across all
buildings.
We are working our way througha tool called the DSFI, which is
basically the TFI, which iswhat you use for your planning
(07:21):
through tiers one through threeat the building level.
It's a district level planningtool.
It is comprehensive.
It has taken us a minute to getthrough it, but it really does
ask those district levelquestions that help provide
support to each building andreally make it more of a
philosophy as opposed to eachbuilding trying to do their own
(07:45):
thing.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
Okay, yeah, that's interesting.
Is there any other districtsaround that have the same status
as you?
Are you the only one inNortheast Ohio?
Do you know so?
Speaker 3 (07:57):
I believe there's one other district in the SST-8
region, which would be PortageSummit in Medina County, that
received the district award, andI'm not 100% sure what district
that is at this moment, but Ido believe there is one other
one.
Speaker 1 (08:13):
Okay.
Well, that's quite an honor.
So congratulations, I thinkthat's a good thing, thank you.
So I guess, what are you mostproud of over the last several
years that you've been workingon in PBIS, that you've had a
hand in, that you're just like?
This is amazing.
I'm proud of it.
I'm proud of it our school.
Speaker 3 (08:36):
Yeah.
So I think just that it iscreated kind of that culture and
environment.
I'm proud of so many things andproud of so many different
little moments in time.
For example, I was in apreschool classroom and a
student in that classroom wherewe were talking about our
expectations and being safe,kind and responsible, and she
(08:56):
said oh yeah, my brother alreadytaught me all about that and I
just love that.
I love that older students aregoing home and teaching their
younger siblings about it beforewe even get a chance to meet
them.
That, to me, shows that it'sspreading.
I love seeing our expectationsall throughout the community.
We did adopt the sameexpectations pre-K through grade
(09:19):
12.
So as students transition todifferent buildings, the
expectations are the same.
It's be safe, be kind, beresponsible, and we've really
found that, kiddos, no matterwhat grade level, you can fit
just about anything into thosethree.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
Absolutely, did we freeze, expect to?
Definitely, I'm sorry, oh no, Ithought for a minute we froze,
but no, we're good.
Speaker 3 (09:47):
So having that consistency.
It's also great for parents.
They don't have to learn a newset of expectations, they can
use that language at home.
We've had an amazingpartnership with Starbucks in
our community and they havereally partnered with us to
promote our expectations.
They honor a staff member aweek.
(10:09):
We do two-week transitions, butthey honor a staff member a
week that is demonstrating PBISand then that staff member gets
to honor a student in theirclass.
They provide us with theselovely gift boxes to present to
the teachers and then thestudents also get a little gift
box.
So that's been really cool toeven build relationships with
(10:34):
businesses through PBIS.
I'm so thankful for that, veryproud of that.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
That is a real thing to get the businesses in on it.
Because last week there wassome talk about preparing kids.
It was a high school MaslinCity Schools and they were
talking about preparing kidswith these soft skills.
For those high schools thatdon't think PBIS is for them
(11:03):
it's an elementary thing, it'snot.
For them, those soft skillsthat get them ready for the
workforce will look atStarbucks' understanding that
they're understanding that thepeople that come to work for
them, they want them to be kind,to be respectful.
They want those Then to rewardthat, to branch out into the
(11:23):
community and to have thatreinforcement.
That's just excellent, that'sawesome, that's great to hear.
Speaker 3 (11:30):
We're very proud of that partnership and Starbucks
has been so generous with ourdistrict always involved.
That's been incredible.
They've done some specialevents with the high school and
contests.
It's been really exciting.
We also have our academicbooster, so to speak.
(11:51):
I guess you would call it isGreen Schools Foundation, and
they have partnered with us inour financially supporting our
PBIS initiatives so that we cansustain the work.
We try our hardest to make ouracknowledgements things that
don't cost anything but, as youknow, there's cost involved in
(12:12):
acknowledging.
They have committed andpartnered with us to give each
building and our district fundsto purchase because they also
agree and see the value.
We know that behavior andacademics are directly
correlated.
If students are able to have asuccessful day, they're
(12:33):
demonstrating safe, responsiblebehaviors.
They're going to do better intheir academic work as well.
We want to honor students forall their success, not just
academics, although those are,of course, very important, but
we also want to honor those kidsthat are demonstrating those
kind behaviors or going aboveand beyond to be safe or
responsible.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
You said that was Green Schools.
What was the company?
Speaker 3 (12:58):
That is a nonprofit organization within our
Community Green SchoolsFoundation and they provide
grants and scholarships to ourschools.
And they jumped on board topartner with us for the PBIS
initiative.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
Nice, another community outreach.
That's great.
So you've got the whole packagehere.
We can see it.
It's so exciting If you hadschools that were listening to
this, because we've had lotsthat are listening to it,
emailing us, asking us for help.
What would be your tip intrying to?
Because what we see you asdifferent than others is you've
(13:36):
gotten many buildings involved,so you're not just you have been
working on your building, butyou've got many buildings
involved in this.
What would be your tip forother schools trying to do that?
Where would you even start?
Speaker 3 (13:51):
So I do think when you first start looking at PBIS,
because it's been around for solong, because it's so heavily
researched, it can beoverwhelming all the information
you can find.
And for me, what we did throughthe support of coaching,
through SST-8, and then whatI've tried to model in our other
buildings, is really followingthat tiered fidelity inventory.
(14:15):
So, looking at the TFI, whichis that tool, you can find it on
, I think, pbisorg using thattool to help drive our decisions
.
So we started with the TFI hereat Greenwood we scored
ourselves.
We did not score very well thefirst time and it was important
that we scored as a team.
Speaker 2 (14:38):
Our coach made sure we understood.
Who did you include in that andyou did it the first time.
Who did you include in that,because that would be a big tip?
Speaker 3 (14:47):
Yes, so we established a team.
It had an administrator, it hadmyself as a counselor, our
school psychologist.
We had teachers representingall our grade levels, which for
us it was just pre-K and K, butit was important to include both
.
We had a specials teacher andwe had a classified staff member
, a classroom aide, as part ofthat, because when you're
(15:10):
looking at the questions, I mayfeel like we're doing a great
job of something, but our staffother staff might feel like I
don't feel like we have that yet.
And that's exactly whathappened I.
You know, from my perspective,it seemed like we had things in
(15:30):
place, but across the buildingmaybe that wasn't being
communicated correctly.
So it was really important andI think it's okay to score
really low.
Like I said, we did not have agreat score the first time.
We did it, and it's not that wedidn't upgrade things in place,
but we needed to be a littlemore structured in what we were
doing and consistent, and Ithink that's what that tiered
(15:52):
fidelity inventory helped us dois get organized.
So we were working smarter, notharder.
We had lots of things and wekind of needed to weed the
garden a little and focus on thethings that were going to give
us the most benefit.
So that's exactly where Istarted with our teams at each
building I met with, typicallyit was a counselor and an
(16:12):
administrator, and we created ateam for each building, again
with that TFI criteria of havingeveryone around the table, all
groups represented, so that wecould get the best picture of
our building.
Speaker 2 (16:29):
So you are the common thread at Green.
Okay, because that's importantright there.
So you, from what I see, right,diane, we have this one common
thread person.
So your advice in doing this asa district and Diane jumped in
anytime is reaching out to yourSST, okay, getting your support,
taking that tiered fidelityjust to the heart, like let's
(16:52):
not worry about being perfect,let's worry about being how
everybody feels, and then doingthat across all the buildings.
Speaker 3 (17:00):
Yeah, and really the other thing that was nice about
that that helps me is when wescored, we immediately started
creating action steps, like, forexample, the first point on the
TFI, I think, is teamcomposition.
So we looked around the roomand said, wait a minute, do we
have all team membersrepresented?
And if we were missing someonelike let's say we hadn't invited
(17:24):
a classified staff member Okay,let's make sure that's our
action step For our next meeting.
We wanna get someone invited tothe team.
So we started creating thoseaction steps and then that was
my agenda guide going forward.
So, as the person trying tocreate the agendas and keep us
moving, it helped me so muchbecause I could just look at
that and be like, okay, we didthat, now let's move to our next
(17:47):
step.
What's the next thing we needto do in our action plan?
And it made it because we'reall busy and we all have lots of
hats to wear.
It made it much easier to takeit one piece at a time.
I remember my coach for SST8who I just she knew so much.
(18:07):
She had such a wealth ofknowledge she would just give me
one piece at a time to work onand I greatly appreciated that
and she would always say go slowto go fast, really taking our
time and being thoughtful aboutit.
We've been doing this.
This is our ninth year.
It took us a minute to geteverything in place.
We planned for an entire year,tier one before we rolled
(18:30):
anything out to teachers becausewe wanted to make sure we had
it.
Speaker 2 (18:34):
I understand that too .
Speaker 3 (18:38):
Yeah, we wanted to make sure everything was right
before we shared it withteachers and of course there
were things we needed to adjust.
But I mean, really for the lasteight and a half years we've
been doing the same things fortier one and it's still strong,
it's still working, it's notgotten stale, it's been very
(18:59):
effective and we've seen amazinggrowth in our building.
Speaker 1 (19:04):
That's awesome.
That is, that's great.
Yeah, I just believe the tierone has got to be so strong and
we've had the same tier oneprocedures in place for as long
as you nine or 10 years and,yeah, kids just know and
understand all the expectations,and so we're very pleased every
(19:27):
year at our pyramid as well.
I love the fact that you'reable to get your other schools
on board.
Our middle school is startingto really move along with that.
We're still trying to get thehigh school on board, but I
think the fact that you're thatcommon denominator with the
different schools sounds likethat's a good thing.
A good thing.
Speaker 2 (19:51):
All right, diane, are we about at the end of our
podcast?
It just went so fast.
But, erica, I really want tothank you so much.
You brought such a wealth ofinformation to schools who are
starting this out.
Your community outreach isamazing.
That is wonderful.
That's a big take I took notes.
I thought, oh my goodness, yeah,because I'm thinking yeah, talk
(20:15):
to our team about reaching outand that whole idea of you being
that common thread and gettingthose schools on and using that
tiered fidelity to get thatstuff.
I mean those are all such greatthings to share and take away
from this.
So well, everyone, that's allthe time we have, so I'm Diane
(20:37):
Farrell and I'm here with Diane.
Ruff, and this is our podcastPBIS Journey to Juniors.
Please reach out and email usif you have any questions or
concerns.
We'd love to email you back andlet you know, especially with
this new district PBIS Awardwinner, green Local Schools.
So thanks again, erica, andwe'll see you all next week.
(20:59):
Wasn't that awesome.
Welcome to PBIS.
Journey to Genius.
Are you in the process ofimplementing PBIS?
Are you wondering where tostart?
You are in the right place.
We are here to support you.
Stay tuned.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
This is PBIS Journey to Genius.
I'm Diane Farrell and I'm herewith Diane Ruff, and today we
have a very special person who'sagreed to come and talk with us
.
We have Erika Bauer.
She is a school counselor butalso the district PBIS
coordinator for Green LocalSchools, and they have had quite
(00:53):
a PBIS journey, and so Erikahas agreed to come to us and
talk a little bit about thatjourney and herself.
So, starting out, erika, canyou just tell us a little bit
about yourself and why you wentinto education?
Speaker 3 (01:09):
So thank you so much for having me Again.
My name is Erika Bauer.
I am a school counselor.
I have been in Green LocalSchools for 20 years and 17 of
those years I've been a schoolcounselor.
I was in second grade beforethat.
About nine years ago I startedon this PBIS journey and it
(01:32):
really tied into what brought meto education in the first place
, and that was building positiverelationships with kids and
families.
I always knew I wanted to be acounselor, but I fell in love
with the school setting and theability to really make
connections with people.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
You have both our hearts right now, because I was
a school counselor for 25 yearsand I just retired last year,
and I've worked with my goodfriend Diane for many of those
years and Diane was a secondgrade teacher, yes, so thank you
for a lot of years.
A lot of both of us.
Yes.
Speaker 1 (02:10):
That's very cool.
So, going into education orsince you moved into the
counseling world, you probablyhave an aha moment, something
that just warms your heart orjust keeps you coming back every
single day.
Could you share that with us?
Speaker 3 (02:26):
So I was really thinking about that aha moment
and I think there's been manyover time and again.
It always for me goes back tobuilding those positive
relationships with students orparents.
When I was a teacher and I hada student that finally made a
connection with either thecurriculum or was able to solve
(02:46):
or work through something, itwas so encouraging and I was so
excited for that student or thefamily member that we were able
to connect with.
So I think for me it just allboils down to building
relationships is the way that wecan move kids forward, the way
that we can best support them,and PBIS has really been a
(03:08):
wonderful avenue for that, andto me that is what it's all
about.
So not one aha moment, butprobably many, many over time.
I just love seeing studentsfeeling connected to that one
person or many people.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (03:24):
I love that.
Speaker 1 (03:25):
We've been talking a lot about relationships and a
lot of our other episodes and itreally does seem to just come
down to that People when theythink of PBIS, if they don't
know much about it, they don'tthink about relationships.
But really PBIS is all aboutrelationships, Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
Coming from that school counselors and teachers,
you know lens that you'relooking through.
That is huge.
So let's start talking aboutyour journey, because you have
not only had the bronze award.
Several times, you've beenawarded the gold and now the
district award.
So what is that all about?
(04:02):
Let us know a little bit moreabout that.
Speaker 3 (04:05):
So we were lucky enough.
About nine years ago the statesupport team in region eight
contacted my principal and Iabout being a demonstration site
.
Our building is an earlylearning building, so we house
our developmental preschool andour kindergarten and they were
looking for early learningcenters to work through the
(04:26):
framework of PBIS and then be ademonstration site for the
region so that other schoolscould come and kind of model or
see the things that were workingwell for us.
And when they first came to usI had been trained in PBIS many
years before and it's like ohyeah, we're doing wonderful
(04:46):
things.
You know we care about kids,we're doing a lot of really
positive things, but I reallywant to focus on tier three.
So if we could start at tierthree, that would be great.
And they kindly said you know,no, we have to follow the
framework and everybody does,everybody does.
(05:07):
Yeah, and they were absolutelyright.
I couldn't, we would not behere as a building or a district
without state support, teameight and their support.
So they were a hundred percentcorrect that we needed to sure
up our tier one supports andmake sure that our pyramid
wasn't upside down, meaning weweren't supporting too many
(05:27):
students at the tier two andtier three level that really
could have been supported bysolid tier one support.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
And you know, eric we talked about that in one of our
previous podcasts that when youcome to the PBS, just like you
said, we need help for thesesevere kids, these two and tier
two and three kids.
But what they said to you isexactly what we're finding out.
If you start at the groundlevel and you do that tier one
and you do it strong, you affectsome of those tier two and then
(05:57):
that pyramid does go right sideup.
So it is true, but I knowpeople don't feel that way.
So how did you go on?
How did you get to be adistrict?
What does that mean?
Do certain schools have to havegoals, or what does that mean?
Speaker 3 (06:14):
So I think I'll get these percentages right.
But 60% of your schools have tobe recognized at the bronze
level in order for you to applyfor the district award.
And then, just like theapplications for the buildings,
there's criteria for thedistrict award.
So even if 60% of yourbuildings have received bronze,
(06:39):
that doesn't automatically meanthat you'll receive the district
award.
There's additional criteria.
With the support of Joya, ourdirector of student services, we
established a district levelPBIS team as well.
That includes the team lead forPBIS at each building and a
(06:59):
building administrator.
So we are really lookingthrough that district level lens
at what we're doing and tryingto be consistent across all
buildings.
We are working our way througha tool called the DSFI, which is
basically the TFI, which iswhat you use for your planning
(07:21):
through tiers one through threeat the building level.
It's a district level planningtool.
It is comprehensive.
It has taken us a minute to getthrough it, but it really does
ask those district levelquestions that help provide
support to each building andreally make it more of a
philosophy as opposed to eachbuilding trying to do their own
(07:45):
thing.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
Okay, yeah, that's interesting.
Is there any other districtsaround that have the same status
as you?
Are you the only one inNortheast Ohio?
Do you know so?
Speaker 3 (07:57):
I believe there's one other district in the SST-8
region, which would be PortageSummit in Medina County, that
received the district award, andI'm not 100% sure what district
that is at this moment, but Ido believe there is one other
one.
Speaker 1 (08:13):
Okay.
Well, that's quite an honor.
So congratulations, I thinkthat's a good thing, thank you.
So I guess, what are you mostproud of over the last several
years that you've been workingon in PBIS, that you've had a
hand in, that you're just like?
This is amazing.
I'm proud of it.
I'm proud of it our school.
Speaker 3 (08:36):
Yeah.
So I think just that it iscreated kind of that culture and
environment.
I'm proud of so many things andproud of so many different
little moments in time.
For example, I was in apreschool classroom and a
student in that classroom wherewe were talking about our
expectations and being safe,kind and responsible, and she
(08:56):
said oh yeah, my brother alreadytaught me all about that and I
just love that.
I love that older students aregoing home and teaching their
younger siblings about it beforewe even get a chance to meet
them.
That, to me, shows that it'sspreading.
I love seeing our expectationsall throughout the community.
We did adopt the sameexpectations pre-K through grade
(09:19):
12.
So as students transition todifferent buildings, the
expectations are the same.
It's be safe, be kind, beresponsible, and we've really
found that, kiddos, no matterwhat grade level, you can fit
just about anything into thosethree.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
Absolutely, did we freeze, expect to?
Definitely, I'm sorry, oh no, Ithought for a minute we froze,
but no, we're good.
Speaker 3 (09:47):
So having that consistency.
It's also great for parents.
They don't have to learn a newset of expectations, they can
use that language at home.
We've had an amazingpartnership with Starbucks in
our community and they havereally partnered with us to
promote our expectations.
They honor a staff member aweek.
(10:09):
We do two-week transitions, butthey honor a staff member a
week that is demonstrating PBISand then that staff member gets
to honor a student in theirclass.
They provide us with theselovely gift boxes to present to
the teachers and then thestudents also get a little gift
box.
So that's been really cool toeven build relationships with
(10:34):
businesses through PBIS.
I'm so thankful for that, veryproud of that.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
That is a real thing to get the businesses in on it.
Because last week there wassome talk about preparing kids.
It was a high school MaslinCity Schools and they were
talking about preparing kidswith these soft skills.
For those high schools thatdon't think PBIS is for them
(11:03):
it's an elementary thing, it'snot.
For them, those soft skillsthat get them ready for the
workforce will look atStarbucks' understanding that
they're understanding that thepeople that come to work for
them, they want them to be kind,to be respectful.
They want those Then to rewardthat, to branch out into the
(11:23):
community and to have thatreinforcement.
That's just excellent, that'sawesome, that's great to hear.
Speaker 3 (11:30):
We're very proud of that partnership and Starbucks
has been so generous with ourdistrict always involved.
That's been incredible.
They've done some specialevents with the high school and
contests.
It's been really exciting.
We also have our academicbooster, so to speak.
(11:51):
I guess you would call it isGreen Schools Foundation, and
they have partnered with us inour financially supporting our
PBIS initiatives so that we cansustain the work.
We try our hardest to make ouracknowledgements things that
don't cost anything but, as youknow, there's cost involved in
(12:12):
acknowledging.
They have committed andpartnered with us to give each
building and our district fundsto purchase because they also
agree and see the value.
We know that behavior andacademics are directly
correlated.
If students are able to have asuccessful day, they're
(12:33):
demonstrating safe, responsiblebehaviors.
They're going to do better intheir academic work as well.
We want to honor students forall their success, not just
academics, although those are,of course, very important, but
we also want to honor those kidsthat are demonstrating those
kind behaviors or going aboveand beyond to be safe or
responsible.
Speaker 2 (12:53):
You said that was Green Schools.
What was the company?
Speaker 3 (12:58):
That is a nonprofit organization within our
Community Green SchoolsFoundation and they provide
grants and scholarships to ourschools.
And they jumped on board topartner with us for the PBIS
initiative.
Speaker 2 (13:13):
Nice, another community outreach.
That's great.
So you've got the whole packagehere.
We can see it.
It's so exciting If you hadschools that were listening to
this, because we've had lotsthat are listening to it,
emailing us, asking us for help.
What would be your tip intrying to?
Because what we see you asdifferent than others is you've
(13:36):
gotten many buildings involved,so you're not just you have been
working on your building, butyou've got many buildings
involved in this.
What would be your tip forother schools trying to do that?
Where would you even start?
Speaker 3 (13:51):
So I do think when you first start looking at PBIS,
because it's been around for solong, because it's so heavily
researched, it can beoverwhelming all the information
you can find.
And for me, what we did throughthe support of coaching,
through SST-8, and then whatI've tried to model in our other
buildings, is really followingthat tiered fidelity inventory.
(14:15):
So, looking at the TFI, whichis that tool, you can find it on
, I think, pbisorg using thattool to help drive our decisions
.
So we started with the TFI hereat Greenwood we scored
ourselves.
We did not score very well thefirst time and it was important
that we scored as a team.
Speaker 2 (14:38):
Our coach made sure we understood.
Who did you include in that andyou did it the first time.
Who did you include in that,because that would be a big tip?
Speaker 3 (14:47):
Yes, so we established a team.
It had an administrator, it hadmyself as a counselor, our
school psychologist.
We had teachers representingall our grade levels, which for
us it was just pre-K and K, butit was important to include both
.
We had a specials teacher andwe had a classified staff member
, a classroom aide, as part ofthat, because when you're
(15:10):
looking at the questions, I mayfeel like we're doing a great
job of something, but our staffother staff might feel like I
don't feel like we have that yet.
And that's exactly whathappened I.
You know, from my perspective,it seemed like we had things in
(15:30):
place, but across the buildingmaybe that wasn't being
communicated correctly.
So it was really important andI think it's okay to score
really low.
Like I said, we did not have agreat score the first time.
We did it, and it's not that wedidn't upgrade things in place,
but we needed to be a littlemore structured in what we were
doing and consistent, and Ithink that's what that tiered
(15:52):
fidelity inventory helped us dois get organized.
So we were working smarter, notharder.
We had lots of things and wekind of needed to weed the
garden a little and focus on thethings that were going to give
us the most benefit.
So that's exactly where Istarted with our teams at each
building I met with, typicallyit was a counselor and an
(16:12):
administrator, and we created ateam for each building, again
with that TFI criteria of havingeveryone around the table, all
groups represented, so that wecould get the best picture of
our building.
Speaker 2 (16:29):
So you are the common thread at Green.
Okay, because that's importantright there.
So you, from what I see, right,diane, we have this one common
thread person.
So your advice in doing this asa district and Diane jumped in
anytime is reaching out to yourSST, okay, getting your support,
taking that tiered fidelityjust to the heart, like let's
(16:52):
not worry about being perfect,let's worry about being how
everybody feels, and then doingthat across all the buildings.
Speaker 3 (17:00):
Yeah, and really the other thing that was nice about
that that helps me is when wescored, we immediately started
creating action steps, like, forexample, the first point on the
TFI, I think, is teamcomposition.
So we looked around the roomand said, wait a minute, do we
have all team membersrepresented?
And if we were missing someonelike let's say we hadn't invited
(17:24):
a classified staff member Okay,let's make sure that's our
action step For our next meeting.
We wanna get someone invited tothe team.
So we started creating thoseaction steps and then that was
my agenda guide going forward.
So, as the person trying tocreate the agendas and keep us
moving, it helped me so muchbecause I could just look at
that and be like, okay, we didthat, now let's move to our next
(17:47):
step.
What's the next thing we needto do in our action plan?
And it made it because we'reall busy and we all have lots of
hats to wear.
It made it much easier to takeit one piece at a time.
I remember my coach for SST8who I just she knew so much.
(18:07):
She had such a wealth ofknowledge she would just give me
one piece at a time to work onand I greatly appreciated that
and she would always say go slowto go fast, really taking our
time and being thoughtful aboutit.
We've been doing this.
This is our ninth year.
It took us a minute to geteverything in place.
We planned for an entire year,tier one before we rolled
(18:30):
anything out to teachers becausewe wanted to make sure we had
it.
Speaker 2 (18:34):
I understand that too .
Speaker 3 (18:38):
Yeah, we wanted to make sure everything was right
before we shared it withteachers and of course there
were things we needed to adjust.
But I mean, really for the lasteight and a half years we've
been doing the same things fortier one and it's still strong,
it's still working, it's notgotten stale, it's been very
(18:59):
effective and we've seen amazinggrowth in our building.
Speaker 1 (19:04):
That's awesome.
That is, that's great.
Yeah, I just believe the tierone has got to be so strong and
we've had the same tier oneprocedures in place for as long
as you nine or 10 years and,yeah, kids just know and
understand all the expectations,and so we're very pleased every
(19:27):
year at our pyramid as well.
I love the fact that you'reable to get your other schools
on board.
Our middle school is startingto really move along with that.
We're still trying to get thehigh school on board, but I
think the fact that you're thatcommon denominator with the
different schools sounds likethat's a good thing.
A good thing.
Speaker 2 (19:51):
All right, diane, are we about at the end of our
podcast?
It just went so fast.
But, erica, I really want tothank you so much.
You brought such a wealth ofinformation to schools who are
starting this out.
Your community outreach isamazing.
That is wonderful.
That's a big take I took notes.
I thought, oh my goodness, yeah,because I'm thinking yeah, talk
(20:15):
to our team about reaching outand that whole idea of you being
that common thread and gettingthose schools on and using that
tiered fidelity to get thatstuff.
I mean those are all such greatthings to share and take away
from this.
So well, everyone, that's allthe time we have, so I'm Diane
(20:37):
Farrell and I'm here with Diane.
Ruff, and this is our podcastPBIS Journey to Juniors.
Please reach out and email usif you have any questions or
concerns.
We'd love to email you back andlet you know, especially with
this new district PBIS Awardwinner, green Local Schools.
So thanks again, erica, andwe'll see you all next week.
(20:59):
Wasn't that awesome.
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