Schools

Survey: Teachers, Parents Concerned About Bullying

Board of education discusses the benefits of doing the survey every year.

Teachers and parents cited bullying as one of the biggest issues in the district, according to a climate survey from 2010 and 2011, Superintendent of Schools Michael Schilder said Tuesday.

In open-ended questions asking what parents and staff like least about the school, one of the top answers, Schilder said, is bullying.

“Bullying is at the forefront of every administrator’s and teacher’s mind right now,” he said. “I think we have enough set up right now to handle it, better than we have before.”

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Schilder said the district is complying with all new state regulations concerning bullying, including hiring specialists to monitor incidents in each building, among other means required to be done.

But board members expressed concerns about what types of bullying the law actually covers.

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“The law specifies only certain types of bullying, so old fashioned bullying on the playground when it’s one kid on another and there’s no racial component or special needs, that’s not addressed?” asked board of education member Cindy Cullen. “Is our program comprehensive enough for all bullying?”

Schilder said the district’s guidance program begins at the kindergarten level with discussions about respect, and that is strongly emphasized at the start of a student’s career.

“We want to make sure we have a proper climate, according to the state department, whether it’s bullying as described by law or as you talk about,” he said.

But, Schilder said, in compliance with new state law, all incidents that might be considered bullying, even what was referenced to as “old fashioned,” is required to be written up and submitted for investigation. And if any incidents are not found to be bullying as defined by state law, he said, they are still dealt with as violations of the district’s code of conduct.

"That should be dealt with, and I see how that is dealt with through the paperwork,” he said.

Schilder said the district also has peer mediation programs in the high school and others throughout the district that are effective in handling bullying.

“Every piece we put in place helps, but not one thing will fix the problem,” he said.

The survey as a whole, Schilder said, is normally done every two years, with a special exception this past year.

“The emphasis is a climate of cooperation,” he said.

The survey was distributed to parents and staff in April, and results came in in June when they were shared with the board of education and school principals. Now, Schilder said, they are up to presenting the information to the public and staff, with follow-ups coming beginning in November.

There were two parts to the survey, Schilder said, the first being quantitative results as those submitting the survey marked on their level of agreement with several statements, broken down into strongly agree, agree, neutral, disagree and strongly disagree.

For parents and staff of students grades kindergarten through four, the top statement was that most parents agree that substance abuse is not a problem at the schools.

As for parents for grades five through eight, the top statement was agreement that the quality of schools influenced a decision to live in the community. The top statement for staff was that they agree teachers are willing to give students individual help outside of classes.

That latter statement was also the top one for staff at the high school, while for parents, the top statement was about the quality of the school.

As far as the statement that received the most disagreements, for both parents and staff in kindergarten through fourth grade, it concerned doing a good job teaching foreign languages.

“This should come as no surprise because we had to cut foreign language programs and there have been no replacements,” Schilder said.

Schilder said he also noticed that many parents in the younger grades feel the school is not doing a good job teaching health education.

“We are in the midst of a five-year evaluation for the health program, so we are looking at it,” he said. “A focus on language arts and math could be the reason. Or maybe we have been efficient with scheduling health teachers and we have over-scheduled them.”

As for parents and staff for kids in fifth through eighth grades, the biggest issue concerns bullying.

Schilder said it is also interesting to note that staff have an issue with school discipline being appropriately maintained at the school.

“This came up many times, and it is common for staff to be critical of discipline,” he said. “Teachers want clear hard rules. Administrators talk on flexibility.”

As for the high school, the statement that most parents and staff disagreed with concerned substance abuse not being a problem at the school.

“I was surprised [with the violence and vandalism report] that there were only six kids at the high school showing up as being under the influence, yet we have both teachers and parents in the survey giving a clear sentiment that there is an issue,” said board of education president Evan Lerner. “I’m not suggesting anything other than that the numbers speak to a perception of an issue, which is inconsistent with the six kids caught.”

As for positive comments in the open-ended questions, Schilder said, some of the most common were the quality of the staff, warm supportive learning environments, academic rigor, accessibility of teachers, student diversity and variety of high school courses.

Staff commented on quality of staff, warm collegial environment, student diversity and having an organized safe environment.

In terms of negatives, parents commented on bullies, smaller class sizes needed, lack of enrichment and parents not always feeling welcome at school buildings.

Staff commented on the need for more teacher empowerment, discipline lacking and communication between administration and staff needing improvement.

Schilder said there have been some complaints about too many top-down decisions without any input from the teachers. He said he is not sure if that is indicating the principals, administrators, superintendent or board of education.

“I worry that when the staff sits at meetings with principals, I don’t know that they will feel comfortable saying to their principals that they are having a problem, especially if they are not tenured,” said board of education member Jill Gladstone.

The other concern from teachers, Schilder said, had to do with there being too much of an emphasis on test scores.

“This is not surprising,” he said. “With No Child Left Behind, by 2014, 100 percent of students must be proficient. So we have to be very attentive.”

“The balance issue is very important,” he added. “The principals are being required by me to produce aggressive AYP plans. It is interesting and valuable to look at if we are going too far or are we keeping some balance.”

Schilder said he recommends not doing another survey this year and waiting until the year after. But several board members expressed concern about not getting feedback quickly.

“I’m concerned about us staying on a steady course of increasing [how many participate in the survey],” said board of education vice president Patrick Breslin. “What concerns me is that particularly in a work environment, I think these surveys should be habit and I’m not sure every two years is habit-forming.”

But, Breslin said, he also understands that performing the survey, which costs $1,700, each year does not leave enough time to implement new techniques to fix concerns.

“By the same token, I think there’s a lot to be gained by making this a habit every year,” he said. “Maybe we can do it in alternating years between parents and teachers and seeing the overall response rate.”

Lerner recommended considering doing the survey every 18 months instead, allowing for six months to implement change and a year to take on the changes.

“There is no requirement to do it every April, so maybe that gives us time to improve,” he said.

For more results from the survey, visit the school district’s website.


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