Monday was the first day of the school year in Elgin School District U46, and first on the agenda at many schools was a reminder of how kids should behave.
Walking or riding buses, the 40,000 students of U46’s 53 schools said goodbye to summer and were greeted at many schools by a review of how that school’s PBIS (Positive Behavior Intervention and Supports) system works, and what kinds of behavior the staff expects from kids.
At Highland Elementary School on Elgin’s northwest side, parents had been urged to join their children in an early-morning ceremony at the flagpole out front. The 500 kids found their new teachers, who held up signs bearing their names, and assembled by class with their moms and dads. Principal Steve Johnson was working a two-way radio and doing some last-minute reorganizing.
“We need one more desk for Mrs. Shawski’s room. She just added another student,” Johnson said over the air to an unseen maintenance man.
In the waiting crowd, Bob Knetter of Batavia held a preschool-aged granddaughter in his arms while his wife, Shirley, helped their first-grade-age granddaughter, Ariana Roman, find the teacher and kids in her new class.
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The Knetters said they stay at their daughter’s home in Elgin to watch the kids while their daughter is at work, so Monday they also were filling in as Ariana’s parents for Opening day. Shirley Knetter carried a four-pack of Kleenex boxes and a backpack full of school supplies for Ariana.
As the clock struck 8 a.m., Johnson attached the stars and stripes to the flagpole and helped two children crank it up to the top of the staff. Music teacher Tina Pearsall started singing “The Star Spangled Banner” and the crowd turned silent as if a switch had been turned off.
Then Johnson led the crowd in reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. Finally he asked all to repeat “the Highland High Five” — a statement of five principles that every student at the school is expected to live by: Be safe. Be responsible. Be reasonable. Be careful. Be here.”
Then Johnson invited everyone to enter the building one class at a time. The kids proceeded in one direction, to their classrooms, while the parents moved into the gym for an assembly at which Johnson would explain what the school expects from their children.
At Channing Elementary School just east of downtown Elgin, the day began with all children from third grade up sitting on the floor in an un-air-conditioned gym for a quick review of Positive Behavior Intervention and Support expectations.
With just a hand signal from Channing Principal Selene Stewart, the entire crowd fell silent.
“I see most of you have learned to be quiet,” Stewart said. “You have already learned a lot about how to be a Channing Cheetah.”
“My name is Miss Stewart. Do you know what my job is?” she asked.
“My job is to make sure that all teachers can teach and all students can learn,” she told the sitting children. And to do that under the PBIS system, she said, “We have three expectations at Channing: Please Always Be Kind. Work Hard. Stay safe.”
The Channing staff then screened a video showing students in various situations at the school — walking through the halls, visiting the restrooms, eating lunch, having fun on the playground — with a list of what each student should do or not do in each situation.
Stewart also explained how the PBIS’s system of rewards for good behavior works. Whenever a teacher, principal, social worker, lunch worker, custodian or bus driver sees a child acting particularly well, she said, that adult may give the child a PAWS slip. The PAWS slips go into a bucket and Stewart draws some of them daily and weekly for prizes ranging from toys to the privilege of going to school without a uniform to enjoying a special lunch with the teacher. Once a month four or five students’ get their PAWS slips selected at random and are invited to a pizza party with the principal.
After the assembly, each class went through a series of lectures around the school about ways to behave in each location. A teacher in the cafeteria told the proper behavior at lunchtime. One outside the restrooms explained how to behave there. Yet others told how to behave in the hallways and on the playground.
“The cafeteria a large space. If we were to just talk in our normal voices, it would be a really loud place,” said lunchroom instructor Crystal Kempf.
Hallway behavior guru Gloria Helin showed kids how to walk on the right side of the hall and pass a quiet hello to friends by holding their fingers in a “cheetah wave” instead of shouting out “Hi.”
Stewart said the students in kindergarten through second grade will attend a similar assembly and training tour on Tuesday.
In the Channing office, a procession of parents continued to register their children at the last minute. Stewart said 90 percent of the families registered early online, but “we wish even more had. It’s so hard to determine our staffing when families don’t show up until a few days before school starts.”
And “Channing is overcrowded,” she said, looking forward to a proposed attendance-boundary change that would go into effect on Opening Day a year from now. If the change is approved by the board of education, a few blocks of Elgin’s northeast side that now send their kids to Channing will send their children to O’Neal Elementary instead.
“We’re using four mobile classrooms and we had to put our music (equipment) on a cart so we can use the music room as a classroom this year,” Stewart said.