RCSD opens Restorative HUB, home for new student problem-solving philosophy

The Rochester City School District last week unveiled the Restorative HUB at the Frederick Douglass campus, establishing for the first time a physical site to encapsulate its move toward restorative justice practices.

HUB stands for Healing, Understanding and Belonging. The space, which takes up much of the second floor of the school, is among other things a place for mediations for students and led by other students.

Those mediations are based on referrals from schools across the district. The goal in each case is to resolve significant conflicts that threaten to disrupt the students involved as well as their classmates.

Already since October there have been 120 of them involving 500 students, 600 parents and 250 community partners, RCSD Director of School Climate and Culture Jessica Nordquist said.

L'Oréal Figgins, a student at Northeast College Preparatory High School, recently completed her training to be a student mediator and has gone through restorative circles herself. Having teens lead them rather than adults can help ensure students feel heard, she said.

"The ones I've been through have been OK, but I feel (the adults) didn't really understand where I was coming from," she said. "As another student, I'll understand that."

The HUB will also serve as a home for staff training, for community partner meetings and for teacher wellness activities, including yoga.

"It's exactly what we need in this district at this point in time," Superintendent Carmine Peluso said. "Having our community partners here is how we're going to make an impact. ... We can no longer do this in isolation."

Discipline figures still declining after COVID

Disciplinary problems spiked across Rochester and the country as students returned from COVID lockdowns. East and other high schools saw a surge in gang-related violence, causing the district to rethink its distancing from the Rochester Police Department.

In response, RCSD used federal COVID funds to hire additional counselors and specialists to help calm students down and focus them back on their work. Data released by the district this month shows that those efforts have borne some fruit.

Across the district, suspension rates have fallen for each of the last two years. Through mid-November 2023, 5.7% of RCSD students have received a suspension compared to 7.1% at the same time in 2022.

Deputy Superintendent Ruth Turner attributed that success to a number of district interventions, the HUB foremost among them.

They also include further training on help zones and restorative practices and working with the Regional Transit Authority to reduce suspensions based on school bus infractions.

"If we keep our commitment to what was already established pre-pandemic … I’m confident we’ll be OK," Turner told the school board.

East seeks to re-establish its standard

The improvements in suspension rates have not been evenly distributed across the city.

The Alice Holloway Young Academy of Excellence and Franklin Lower and Upper Schools have seen major drops in suspensions, but others — notably East Lower School and Monroe Lower School — have seen increases.

"When we came back from COVID there was such an absence of warm, strong relationships and trust, and it took time to build back up," East Superintendent Marlene Blocker said. "What we often heard from the older scholars those first two years was: 'What are these (younger) kids doing?' Because they hadn't been taught."

The suspension rate is up this year in part because East Lower School added several dozen additional students, Blocker said, creating additional opportunities for friction.

"Suspensions don’t help us in any way as far as academic success," she said. "It’s critical to identify the root causes and figure out how to repair them."

The interventions East has relied upon the last several years are similar to what exists elsewhere in the district: places and people designated to help students cool down and process their emotions without resorting to violence. But East, thanks in part to its unique relationship with the University of Rochester, has a fuller continuum available.

Misbehaving students can be sent to the Alternatives to Suspension room. As its name implies, it is designed to replace in-school suspensions for minor offenses and instead get students back to school.

From 2022: RCSD adds resources for students shaken by trauma

That's where one seventh-grade boy found himself one day earlier this month after a dispute in the classroom. He accused another student of copying off his paper and she didn't take kindly to it.

The boy told the story to Sam McCutchen, a Center For Youth employee who was there for that purpose. He listened to the boy's perspective and offered pointers where he could have done better.

"So when you raised your voice a little bit, that disturbed the whole class,” McCutchen observed.

Satisfied that he'd said his piece, the boy sat down at a desk. Before he could leave the room, he needed to write a reflection on what brought him there.

“I feel like it’s an opportunity and a punishment at the same time,” he said. “It’s cool; you can just chill and do your work.”

This article originally appeared on Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: RCSD opens Restorative HUB, home for new problem-solving philosophy