STAR School Community Agreements and Consequences of Broken Agreements

All STAR School students are requested to honor an agreement to:
• Have a positive attitude, or be working on developing one.
• Contribute their talents and enthusiasm to the school community.
• Be respectful and caring to themselves, others and all living creatures.
• Help take care of school property.

Classroom agreements: All teachers are responsible for working with students to ensure a safe, caring and productive learning environment. Teachers may have different ways of doing this at different age levels. Natural consequences and clear communication will be part of all strategies. Punishment will be avoided, but protective use of force such as time-outs or even suspension will be used as needed to protect everyone's physical and emotional safety. Teachers will help students understand group agreements and commit to living by them. Teachers are encouraged to use Nonviolent Communication (NVC), student Reflection Forms, cooperative problem solving, mediation, and parent/student/teacher conferences to handle ongoing disruptive patterns. Counseling and peacemaking services are available in cases where teachers, parents and/or students would like help.

The STAR School also has school-wide community agreements that apply to all students. The purpose of these is to keep everyone safe from physical and emotional harm. The following behaviors will not be tolerated at the school, on buses, or during any school-sponsored activities:

• Violent or offensive language, including cursing, unkind teasing, put-downs or threats
• Intentional or reckless damage to school property
• Physical harm to self or others

Instances of members of the community choosing not to honor their agreements will be handled by teachers and other supervisory staff in collaboration with administrators, parents, and students. Teachers will be consulted on incidents involving students from their class. While we recognize that every situation is unique, the guidelines stated here assist in making decisions which lead toward our vision and protect the health and safety of the community.

Depending on the severity of the incident, the following will be applied starting with the appropriate step and moving down the list if the behavior is repeated. More than one procedure may be applied to address an incident. For handling of instances of intentional physical harm, see below.

1. Use of Non-Violent Communication to resolve the situation. This may be facilitated by a teacher, teaching assistant, counselor, or other staff member.

2. Student fills out reflection form, with follow-up on plans or agreements. This may be combined with brief counseling or assistance from the teacher.

3. Letter home to parents informing them of the situation

4. Conference with parents, involving teacher and/or Director, to develop plan for improvement

5. Peacemaking is an alternative if all parties (students, parents, and Director) agree and participate.

6. Suspension for one or more days in cases of extremely disruptive behavior, with conference between Director or assigned staff member, parents, and student required before student returns to school.

7. Expulsion by decision of the Governing Board is a final option in cases where behavioral problems threaten safety or severely disrupt the learning environment.

Handling of instances of intentional physical harm:

a) Immediate fact-finding discussion held by Director, Counselor, or Director’s designee with child and all involved with the incident. Suspension or other handling determined.
b) Reflection forms given to students to be filled out before returning to school
c) Parents contacted by phone or letter
d) Child taken home or to designated caretaker
e) Suspension for assigned number of days (not including day of incident)
f) Reflection form completed by student and kept in their file.
g) Conference between parent, student, and Director or designee. Topics to be addressed include:

*Understanding of incident and consequences
*Plan for behavior change
*Restorative justice as needed, including apologies and forgiveness and actions to make amends
*Written report made available to parents and students and put in student files
h) Peacemaking, if all parties agree
i) Follow-up on agreements and behavior change plans
j) Notes on incident will be kept in student master file and counseling files.

First incident: remainder of current school day plus one additional day suspension
Second incident: 2-3 days suspension
Third incident: 3-5 days suspension and possible recommendation for expulsion.
In cases where student safety is at risk, alternatives may be decided by the Director.

If you want to learn more, click on these to see other school policies:

Compact for Literacy | Multi-age Learning