Schools add staff for student behavior: 'We have to have a safe learning environment'

Students will return to Rutherford County Schools Monday with more teachers and assistant principals to address behavior issues.

The Rutherford County Board of Education identified behavior as a top budget priority along with staffing and maintaining school buildings for a fast-growing district expecting to add 1,000-plus students for a total 52,000 children.

The district's main $518.5 million operation budget includes the addition of 19 behavior interventionists certified in teaching K-5 instruction. They'll support elementary school classroom teachers in responding to children with behavior issues.

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Each behavior interventionist either will work with children in their regular classrooms or pull them out when necessary to provide instruction in another room. This will help regular classroom teachers be able to continue lessons for students rather than stop instruction if one child with behavior issues is causing disruptions, Schools Director James "Jimmy" Sullivan said.

"We have to have a safe learning environment," Sullivan said.

The district has witnessed rising behavior issues that led to increases in expulsions and suspensions, Sullivan said.

The behavior interventionists will provide children with social skills instruction on following the "rules of the school," Sullivan said.

The 19 interventionists builds on last year's budget that added at each of the district's elementary schools an educational assistant to focus on student behavior, the director added.

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Behavior interventionists help students catch up with learning

The district faces challenges even if 1% of the students have behavior issues, Sullivan said.

"Five-hundred kids can change the narrative," Sullivan said.

Given some students may "act out because they're behind" academically, the behavior interventionists also will provide instruction to help the children grasp the lessons from the regular classroom teachers on reading, math and other subjects, Sullivan said.

Elected school board member Claire Maxwell said the district officials are "listening to our teachers" and administrators at the elementary-school level about responding to the behavior issues.

"If you catch it in the elementary level, you can keep it from spreading in the middle school and high school level," Maxwell said. "It’s an early intervention."

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Behavior has gotten worse since pandemic, Maxwell says

Maxwell hopes the added elementary school interventionists will succeed in showing children better ways of behavior to become good citizens.

"If we don’t turn things around, it just escalates," Maxwell said.

Behavior issues have gotten worse since the COVID-19 pandemic, Maxwell said. Many students missed days of instruction because of the spread of the virus.

"We want to make sure the students and teachers are afforded with the best schools and supports needed," Maxwell said.

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Late Linda Gilbert spoke about rising behavior issues prior to pandemic

The issue with behavior of elementary school children becoming more of a problem even predated the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a December 2019 email the late Murfreesboro City Schools Director Linda Gilbert sent to the office of state Rep. Mike Sparks, R-Smyrna.

Gilbert, who died of a stroke May 2020, expressed support to Sparks for seeking legislation for the student behavior issues.

"Yes, more funding for counselors would certainly help with the social/emotional issues we are seeing," Gilbert's email said. "Another area is social workers. They are vital, and many school districts are not able to fund them."

Gilbert's email also encouraged Sparks and other state lawmakers to talk to school district directors about the issues that educators are seeing in very young children.

"The behaviors of our 6-9 year olds are like nothing we have seen before," Gilbert said. "They are inordinately disruptive and aggressive; and while we are bringing all of our resources into play, there is no place for these children to go to be assessed and treated. I feel very good about what the Department of Education is trying to accomplish in this area with its emphasis on the whole child. I am hopeful that the Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse will work alongside them to help address the upper tier of children for whom there seem to be no answers."

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Gilbert made similar points when she joined others speaking at a town hall on opioids and mental health issues that Sparks and Rutherford County Commissioner Craig Harris organized October 2019 at Parkway Baptist Church in Smyrna.

Sparks said he'd rather see the state spend more in addressing mental health issues by providing additional funding for school counselors, social workers and nurses than on the prison budget that has doubled with a $600 million increase since he won his House District 49 seat in 2010.

"Why not invest on the front end so we’re not incarcerating people on the back end," Sparks said.

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County adds 11 more assistant principals for student discipline issues

In addition to adding 19 behavior interventionists for the elementary-school level, the district added 11 more assistant principals to help focus more on discipline in grades 6-12.

Eight of the assistant principals will each work at the county's eight large high schools, pushing the total at each campus to five assistant principals, Sullivan said.

The other three added assistant principals will work at middle schools, including one pushing the new total to four assistant principals serving a Blackman Middle campus with 1,700 students, Sullivan said.

The other two added assistant principals will be shared, such as Whitworth-Buchanan Middle and Christiana Middle each getting the position to work half the time at each campus, Sullivan said.

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3rd alternative school to open for students expelled from regular school

Another aspect of the district's budgeted priorities on behavior involves opening a third alternative school for grades 6-12 that serve students expelled from their regular school.

The district plans to spend $2.6 million on the added school through purchase and renovation of an existing building at 814 S. Church St. near downtown Murfreesboro. Sullivan expects two of the three floors to be ready for students by January.

The third alternative school will allow the overcrowded district to serve expelled students longer.

The district's existing Daniel-McKee and Smyrna West alternative schools each can effectively serve 100 students at a time, district spokesman James Evans said.

"In times of overcrowding, the (alternative) school will send some students back to their home schools after 45 days," Evans said.

The future alternative school will push the district's total count to 51 schools. Many of the district's existing schools have dealt with overcrowding and depended on 153 portable classrooms the previous year. The board approved plans to add 20 new portable classrooms this year at a $1.6 million cost.

The district also is adding instructional coaches assigned to Daniel-McKee Alternative School and Smyrna West Alternative School to provide virtual instruction by student assignment only from Director Sullivan, he said.

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Reach reporter Scott Broden with news tips or questions by emailing him at sbroden@dnj.com. Follow him on Twitter @ScottBroden. To support his work with The Daily News Journal, sign up for a digital subscription.

Rutherford County Schools 2023-24 calendar

• Aug. 7: Two-hour registration day for students

• Aug. 8: First full day of school

• Sept. 4: Labor Day holiday

• Sept. 12: Teacher administrative day (no students)

• Oct. 2-6: Fall break

• Oct. 24: K-12 Half day and parent teacher conferences 3-6 p.m.

• Oct. 25: Teacher administrative day (no students)

• Nov. 20-24: Thanksgiving break

• Dec. 20: Two-hour day for students to end first semester

• Dec. 21-Jan. 4: Winter break for students

• Jan. 4: Teacher administrative day (no students)

• Jan. 5: Students return for second semester

• Jan. 15: MLK holiday

• Feb. 19: Presidents’ Day holiday

• March 5: Election Day (no students)

• March 19: Half day for students and parent teacher conferences 3-6 p.m.

• March 25-29: spring break

• May 23: Teacher work day (no students)

• May 24: 2 hour final day for students to end the year

Source: Rutherford County Schools

This article originally appeared on Murfreesboro Daily News Journal: Rutherford County Schools add staff for student behavior for new year