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Syracuse school district has new discipline guidelines

Ryan Delaney
/
WRVO file photo
Syracuse superintendent Sharon Contreras greets students outside of Hughes Elementary and Syracuse Latin on the first day of school last week.

The Syracuse public school district has released new guidelines for disciplining its students. It’s getting positive marks from district teachers and principals.

A student pulling the fire alarm has become a well-discussed example as the district spent seven months reworking its code of conduct.

The district has put more emphasis on restorative over punitive discipline. That means considering the situation in which a student pulled an alarm.

A 50-member task force has broken discipline into three-tiers, with more focus on discussion and keeping students in school.

The district was suspending students at a rate three-times the national average. It prompted an investigation from the state attorney general’s office.

Expectations for dealing with problems students has been raised, said Nick Sholz, a vice principal at H.W. Smith, at a public hearing on the new code of conduct Tuesday.

"We are providing very clear standards and that’s something that in the nines years that I’ve been in the district, this is the first time I understand the standards; I know where they’re at. And I think we now have some unity," he said.

Teachers are already training on the new discipline practices. The board of education is expected to vote to enact the new code at its monthly meeting tonight.

"We’re trying to do that and take feedback as we go," said Patty Clark, the district's head of student support services. "But I also think we need to move forward and the document will be removed and the implementation will be reviewed annually so that we can make some adjustments and improve the code of conduct for our students."

Clark said there will be monitoring of discipline practices to make sure they continue to be followed.

The district spent seven months overhauling the code of conduct. Some of the highlights:

  • A greater emphasis on accountable and restorative interventions that will support students to improve their behavior and experience greater success at school
  • A greater emphasis on promotion of positive social behaviors and prevention of discipline problems
  • Differentiated responses to discipline problems for students in grades pre-Kindergarten–5 and students in grades 6-12
  • More precise descriptions of behavior concerns and violations aligned to levels of specific interventions and consequences
  • More limited use of out-of-school suspension, in-school suspension, and removal of students from the classroom

"I think it's long on philosophy and short on specifics," said Heidi Tesca at the hearing, representing a community group, Be The Change.
"We believe that staff needs more clear parameters as to how to define some of these terms with the understanding that some discussion is necessary," she said. "We believe this will ensure all students are treated fairly and equally."

Tesca added that for the first time in a long time, they're hopeful.

"It scares me how much work it's going to take to implement this," said board of education commissioner Bill Bullen.