Dear Bacich Community,

I hope you are all staying safe, dry, and warm during these unprecedented March rain storms. The break in the rain this past Friday was such a treat. The sun was shining and the kids were outside playing. Mrs. Skaggs and I hosted a Friday Dance Party during first and second grade lunch recess.

Being out at lunch recess is one of my favorite things that I get to do in my role as Bacich Principal. I have made it a priority to be available to support this important play time for our students. While lunch recess is often a favorite for many students, this less structured play time can lead to more conflict and behavior infractions than during the more structured classroom instructional time. And while conflict is healthy and expected, we work hard to ensure that we are providing students with the tools they need to navigate conflict in a way that does not lead to using hurtful words and/or physical aggression.

Proactive Social-Emotional and Behavioral Supports at Bacich

We are fortunate to have several social-emotional learning programs that we use at Bacich, including Character Counts, Superflex, Responsive Classroom, and Kimochis. Utilizing these programs with our students helps us to establish and maintain a safe learning environment for all Bacich students. Below is a short description of each of these programs and a link to learn more.

• Character Counts! - Six pillars of character: Trustworthiness, Respect, Responsibility, Fairness, Caring, and Citizenship. These pillars are the focus of our monthly character assemblies.
• Kimochis - A system for helping kids grow and transform by dealing skillfully with their feelings. Kids learn how to get along with each other and establish and sustain strong friendships. We recently purchased additional Kimochi kits for classroom and office use with funds from a KSPTA Grant.
• Responsive Classroom - An approach to create safe, joyful, and engaging classrooms and school communities for both students and teachers. Teachers engage in morning meetings and other classroom activities and strategies from the Responsive Classroom curriculum.
• Superflex - A social thinking curriculum to promote self-regulation, social thinking, and related social skills. Students learn how to become flexible superheroes through fun and engaging activities. Our second grade students have just begun a Superflex unit.

In addition to these programs, we also use our dedicated twice-a-week TEAM (Together Everyone Achieves More) time in first through fourth grade to teach and practice social skills. Our Bacich In-Motion assemblies provide an opportunity for us to gather as a school community each week to engage in fun movement activities and to celebrate our students who received Bacich Bear Cards for demonstrating exceptional character.

We also have a school counselor, Andrea Cashman (aka, “Ms. A”), who works with our students in a variety of ways. Ms. A teaches monthly guidance lessons in each classroom. One Bacich favorite is her lesson on using “I Messages.” The counseling program at Bacich also includes individual sessions with Ms. A as well as social groups to support small groups of students. Ms. A is a resource for teachers, parents, and students!

Behavior Infraction Protocols

Despite our best efforts, students occasionally engage in unsafe and unkind behavior at school. This is not unexpected as they are elementary students still learning how to resolve conflict, manage emotions, develop self-regulation skills, and get along with others. When students do not meet our behavior expectations, our goal is to stop the unsafe behaviors and to provide support so students can be successful going forward. We utilize a number of strategies, including restorative practices, logical consequences and loss of privileges, behavior management cards, suspension, reflection sheets, parent meetings, meetings with the assistant principal or principal, and consultation with the school counselor.

For less severe behavioral issues, classroom teachers manage the response and communication with families. For more significant behavioral issues, Mrs. Skaggs or I will get involved and communicate with families. We start by talking to everyone involved in the incident to make sure we clearly understand what happened, especially when an adult did not witness the behavior. We have established guidelines that we use as a school to determine appropriate consequences for misbehavior. Because we work with elementary students, we believe it is important to consider the age and developmental stage of the students as well as any behavior history in making decisions about consequences. Our goal is to support students’ ability to make better choices in the future and ensure a safe learning environment.

Partnership with Parents/Guardians

Our partnership with parents and guardians is crucial when working with students who have engaged in unsafe or unkind behavior. Students need to know that we are a team working together to support them to be successful at school. As part of that partnership, I will be dedicating some time during the next Principal Chat to discuss this topic. I look forward to sharing and brainstorming additional ways we can work together as a school community to equip our students with the tools they need to ensure appropriate conflict resolution and positive peer relations. I invite you to attend the Bacich Principal Chat on March 20 from 8:30 - 9:30 a.m. We will be meeting in Room 33 - thank you Marin Enrichment for sharing this space.

With gratitude,