Greene County High School has earned certification as an Iowa Safe School for its work to address bullying proactively.
High school principal Brian Phillips announced the certification at the Greene County school board’s regular meeting last week. According to Phillips, of 32 high schools in Iowa that received grant funding in the Iowa Safe and Supportive Schools (IS3) program, only five met the criteria for Safe School certification.
“This is a really big deal,” Phillips told the school board. He said that Jefferson-Scranton/Greene County seemed to “lead the charge” in implementing the suggested plan. “Most of the time we were ahead of the state on the curve,” he said.
He gave much of the credit to Emily Gannon, the school’s grant-funded IS3 coordinator. He noted her hard work, and called the certification “a feather in our cap for the district and the high school.”
The goal of the IS3 program is to create safe and supportive learning environments for all students, with a focus on reducing bullying, harassment and discrimination. Federal funds funneled through the Iowa Department of Education were used for the program.
Greene County HS met stringent standards in eight different areas to become Safe School certified:
- Data collection and analysis
- Buy-in to the certification process
- Leadership at the staff and student levels
- Programs and initiatives related to bullying prevention
- Training for staff and students about prevention and intervention
- Student engagement in the school’s prevention efforts
- Enforcement of reasonable expectations for bullying prevention
- Family and community involvement in the school’s prevention efforts
(“Bullying” for the purposes of the IS3 program is defined as aggression between school-aged youngsters that is typically repeated, or has the potential to be repeated, that is done in a relationship characterized by a power imbalance.)
The data referred to was gathered by surveys completed by students, staff and parents in the spring of 2012, 2013 and 2014. The survey posed questions to determine how safe students felt at school, what impact that had on their learning, and what kind of relationships they had with other students and staff.
The data is used to compute an index score on a scale of 0 to 36. The top range, 30-36, indicates there is a healthy school climate with optimal conditions for learning. J-S/Greene County had an index of 21 in 2012, 23 in 2013, and 24 for the 2014 survey.
Gannon recruited a student Safe School team and together they planned school-wide activities addressing bullying. One activity was inviting students to sign a pledge that “The end of bullying begins with me.” Students dressed in orange to denote unity against bullying. Another day, paper footsteps listing examples of bullying were placed in the floor in the hallways. Students walked on them to represent stomping out bullying.
The school uses the Positive Behavioral Intervention and Supports (PBIS) plan to reward appropriate behavior, a plan Phillips said works well with IS3 program.
The school has developed a safety plan for students who report bullying, keeping them safe during and after a bullying investigation. Staff has attended training in investigating bullying allegations, and students have had many “lessons” about bullying in their weekly advisory classes.
About community support, Gannon said, “It’s very easy to incorporate our family and community in Greene County because we receive so much support from everyone.” The community has helped stock a resource closet with clothing and personal care items for students in need. That developed through the IS3 project.
The Parent Academies held during the spring parent-teacher conferences the past two years, as well as the introduction of Edline to make it easier for parents to know how their students are doing at school, are other examples of projects Gannon has worked on to create a safe and supportive learning environment.
The current school year is a transition year for the local IS3 program as the grant funding expires. Last year’s Safe School team included many seniors. New students were not selected to fill those spots, but Gannon is instead working with other existing groups in the school to incorporate the work of the Safe School team.
Superintendent Tim Christensen said the administration and board will in the next months discuss the future of the Safe School coordinator position with the end of state funding for it.
For an online presentation about Greene County High School’s Safe School certification, click here: Greene County Safe School
