Petoskey High School finds success with new PBIS initiatives

PETOSKEY — Since the start of the school year, discipline referrals have been down at Petoskey High School, but not by chance.

This year, the school introduced Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports, or PBIS.

“PBIS is acknowledging great behavior, teaching exceptional characteristics and behavior, and then rewarding those behaviors,” Assistant Principal Robert Harris said. “It is just trying to catch kids being awesome and then help develop those skills as well."

Harris said the concept isn't new to the state, and it’s not even new to the district, but PBIS initiatives in the high school began last spring.

The school made up a PBIS team, made up of teachers, counselors and administrators, to build the initiative, Harris said. They started developing curriculum and a “PRIDE” matrix while meeting over the summer.

The success of the initiative is backed by data, Harris said. He said the number of discipline referrals in February and March was down 77 percent from where they were in September and October of 2022. Out of school suspension is down 71 percent as well.

“Those are pretty strong numbers in terms of that much time and that much change,” he said.

The "PRIDE” matrix is used to encourage students to operate using personal integrity, respect, inclusivity, dedication and engagement. The PRIDE matrix has been well received by students and staff at the school, Harris said.

Staff and faculty at the school have tickets they can give out to students, and tickets can be redeemed for prizes, ranging from having a treat with the school resource officer to getting a gift card for a local business. The tickets are handed out by staff members, and the aspects of the “PRIDE” matrix students were rewarded for are kept and used as data while the PBIS team writes the curriculum.

“When we collect the tickets, we get that data,” Harris said. “We actually customized lessons based on that data to address parts of the matrix that needed a little revisit.”

The PBIS implementation has also come with “Way Back Wednesdays” and “Reach Higher Thursdays.”

On “Way Back Wednesday,” some faculty members dress up as Waldo and Wenda from the “Where’s Waldo?” series. Students look for the staff members and voluntarily turn in their cell phones, which they can pick up at the end of the day.

Harris said to date, more than 50 phones have been kept in the office throughout the school day.

“It's more about just being OK with stepping away from that technology, because the data says that even just having it outside of the room improves achievement in school,” he said. "That's been kind of a neat thing, to see them take on the movement.”

A no cell phone policy has also been instituted in the classroom from bell-to-bell all day every day, Harris said.

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For “Reach Higher Thursdays,” there are three 5-10 minute long lessons on PBIS, usually set with a video and discussion questions.

Harris said that “nothing’s perfect” and the school is still trying to get better and improve the system, but that initiatives have been well-received by both students and staff. The school is still working to try to reach as many students and teachers as possible with the PBIS programming.

“Everything that's successful at Petoskey High School is a result of our staff, and students, and everybody working together as a team,” he said. "Knowing that this is going well and that we're seeing results is really just a manifestation of the culture we have here at Petoskey High School where everybody works together to make this place as good an organization as it can be.”

— Contact education reporter Karly Graham at kgraham@petoskeynews.com. Follow her on Twitter at @KarlyGrahamJRN.

This article originally appeared on The Petoskey News-Review: Petoskey High School finds success with new PBIS initiatives