Dear Parents,
In the Parent Bulletin dated October 22, 1999 I announced some adjustments
to the discipline policy and said I would elaborate on my rationale for
implementing the new policy.
The discipline policy was developed because there was a high percentage of
parents that replied in last years survey about the increase in teasing
and physical aggressiveness at Arbor Heights. Also, the academic
achievement of our students is directly related to the amount of
interaction offered in the classrooms. When teachers spend excessive time
diffusing issues and calming down upset students, academics suffer.
Here at Arbor Heights we are fortunate to have a wonderful group of
students. Some students, however, will model negative behavior if they
observe that there are no consequences or consistency in the execution of
a discipline policy. For this reason we have made it a school wide
policy.
The zero tolerance does not allow specific circumstances or individual
personalities. Whenever you have a broad based, all encompassing policy
like this there will be some incidents that will appear to be unfair. I
am empathetic to those circumstances, but I do not want to change the
policy for every circumstance. I do, however, evaluate each situation
individually.
Students should never act in a physically aggressive manner towards
another student. Students should never be verbally aggressive or verbally
insensitive to another students. Students must find alternative ways to
handle anger and allow their fellow students the dignity and respect every
person should receive unconditionally.
Student intervention in the classrooms by teachers will continue to be a
vital part of the program. Our teachers are the interventionists that
teach problem solving skills on a daily basis. The maturation of
students' skills takes place in the classroom. When a student does not
respond to these positive instructional intervening techniques they come
to the office.
This year we wanted to start with very high expectations. It's much
easier to lower expectations, than to raise them later in an effort to
react to a series of events. Our goal is to provide the safest, most
successful educational climate we can. I believe this discipline policy
is helping us to achieve that goal.
Sincerely,
Barry S. Dorsey
Principal
Upcoming Events
The conference schedule will continue through Tuesday, November 23rd.
Our P.M. kindergarten students will be back at school beginning tomorrow,
Friday, November 19th from 9:00 - 1:00 p.m. A.M. kindergartners will be
back on Monday, November 29th.
School will dismiss at 2:10 on Wednesday, November 24th for all students.
Students that take a bus home will arrive one hour earlier than their
normal schedule.
November 25th and 26th - Thanksgiving Break, no school
December 16th - Winter Program at 6:30 in the school
auditorium
December 17th - All students dismissed one hour early
December 20th - January 2nd - Winter Break, no school
January 14th - Martin Luther King Jr. Assembly
January 17th - Martin Luther King Jr. Day, no school
January 31st - Learning Improvement Day, no school for
students