Paris Elementary School

The Bullying Project is getting results. At the end of the first trimester of implementation the school was excited with the results it was getting to the increased focus on creating a safer and kinder school.

There have been only five repeat offenders so far this year and not one student has moved beyond a second incident in any of the rubric categories. The school appreciates the outstanding support it is getting from parents.

It has been noted that buses continue to be the "hot spot" for inappropriate behavior and the school is working closely with bus drivers to try to solve that problem.

The school has made a minor but important tweak to the leveled rubrics. The language in Level C says "Offensive Physical Contact (hitting, kicking, shoving)" has been moved to Level B. Level C says "Assault or History of Physical Behavior Toward Others."

The following activities have been fully implemented this fall:

1. All parents who attended open houses this fall learned about the bullying project. A slide show about the bullying project was shared with all children in grades two through six during the first days of school. As new families enroll in the school, they meet with the administration to learn about the project. A brochure about the "Not At Our School" project was sent home to all families in August.

2. All children now are members of advisory teams, which meet once weekly to learn more about social skills and behaviors that lead to bullying.

3. A staff committee, which also includes parents (Jay Lester, Cindy James, Beth Binette) meets monthly to monitor progress.

4. A sixth grade student bullying committee meets monthly to discuss bullying problems and will begin working on a school-wide project in January. There are currently 12-15 students who attend these noon-hour meetings.


5. Every classroom now has adopted a positive behavior plan to recognize students who make good choices. This feeds into the Cardinal Power Award T-shirt program which recognizes four students weekly for a job well done. Cardinal Power Award winners' pictures are posted in the front hallway.

6. Staff will receive training this winter in Restorative Practices to learn more about how to conduct circle talks.

7. Five staff members attended a workshop at the University of Maine in Orono to hear children's author Lester Laminack speak about his book "Bullying Hurts: Teaching Kindness Through Read Alouds."

8. The school is in the process of compiling a school book list of all the children's books about bullying that can be used to help spread the message that bullying hurts. The school will be allotting funds in the FY14 budget to purchase books to supplement the program.