LIBERTY — In-school suspensions at Amite County Elementary School dropped from a total of 200 days in September to about 60 days in February after school officials implemented a new discipline policy, school trustees learned Thursday.
District superintendent Debbie Hopf told school board members that the changes are the result of a positive behavior program introduced at the school in January.
Hopf used a chart to show the rate of suspensions and said the reduction began soon after the program was in place.
ACES principal Keith Brabham said the behavior policy uses a program called “Trojan Bucks,” where students earn money for good behavior that they can spend at the school.
Hopf said fewer discipline problems have meant more teaching time in classrooms.
The behavior program is one of several measures introduced in response to a critical report from a Mississippi Department of Education technical assessment team released in January.
The report highlighted safety and discipline problems and a lack of communication between fourth-and fifth-grade teachers to develop teaching strategies.
Hopf said collaboration between teachers has expanded at all grade levels, and teachers are filing weekly online lesson plans for review by Brabham.
She said teacher support teams are meeting to review student interventions — assistance to help students struggling in different subjects.
Brabham said the support meetings allow teachers to discuss issues involving their classes and individual students.
“We had problems organizing the collaborative meetings in the beginning because of teacher schedules,” he said. “We have been able to work the schedules out to allow the teachers time to meet.”
Hopf said teachers are monitoring student progress through test scores and the school has increased using technology in the classrooms.
She said classrooms are using SmartBoards and SmartTables, which are small, table-type versions of the SmartBoard.
The school has also added new reading programs for students, and revised student after-school pickup procedures to improve the flow of traffic between cars and buses during the school day.
In other action, the board:
• Approved retirement requests from ACES teachers Shirley Toney and Karan Terrell.
• Approved hiring substitute teachers Sonya McGruder, Monica Woodard and Jonathan Wilson.
• Approved the 2011-’12 budget calendar.
• Approved an endorsement for Amite County High School art teacher Greg Kahn to allow him to teach an advanced art class next school year.
• Approved the following 16th Section matters: a 10-year, 1-acre residential lease for Angie and Chris Carraway on land northwest of Liberty for $120 per year; reclassified a 15.5-acre tract northwest of Liberty from farm-residential to forest and to advertise it for a hunting and fishing lease; a five-year hunting and fishing lease for 658 acres northwest of Liberty to Heath Dufresne for $15.20 an acre; herbicide application on four tracts around Liberty. The total acreage involved was unavailable.
• Approved a computer donation from Catherine Murphy, who brought surplus computers from the Zachary, La., School District and donated them to Amite County.
• Approved a school-based administrative claiming agreement. Hopf said the agreement with the state Department of Education allows the school district to receive Medicaid-related funds for disabled students with medical problems.
• Approved advertising old school buses for scrap metal.
