A North Park Elementary School parent, who identified herself as Jackie, tearfully said her third-grade son had been kicked in the stomach by a fourth-grade boy because the fourth grader was mad that he didn’t win a kickball tournament.
Jackie opened the public comment session of the Saugus Union School District governing board’s special meeting Wednesday night that was being held to discuss student behavior across the schools. The meeting was the first of two planned sessions.
She said that after her son went to the nurse’s office to get ice packs, he returned to his classroom crying, where she was volunteering for the day. She added that his crying was not typical behavior as he was a very tough boy.
“Quickly, I found out that the student has had issues since kindergarten up to weekly sometimes,” said Jackie.
Board president Patti Garibay did have to cut off Jackie when she spoke after the three-minute timer went off, but allowed her to continue to hear out her comment and multiple audience members said they wanted her to continue as well.
Jackie continued, saying, “I honestly don’t know the student’s name or what he looks like, but the students could tell me immediately, with no surprise of the occurrence.”
She said her child felt scared to return to school after taking one day off in fear the student was going to “beat him up” if he saw him again. Jackie looked at the board and said, “My child should feel safe at school.”
Ingrid Boydston, a kindergarten teacher in the district, choked back tears as she told the board that her biggest fear is what happened to Jackie’s son would happen to one of her students on her watch.
“How many times does somebody have to hurt somebody else before we get in there first?” said Boydston.
Concerned teachers and parents spoke in front of the board to tell them about how they felt like their time had been wasted after hearing the prepared presentation from district staff.
One after the other, people kept asking what the board was planning to do immediately in response to the problem that has been worsening for years, instead of waiting for the second behavior challenge meeting in June.
When the meeting began, Garibay opened up saying why the special meeting was being held. She said that the district staff was going to present information to the board on how to make a difference in the students’ experience for the better.
For almost two and half hours, Michelle Barries, assistant superintendent of student support services, Tonya Nowakowski, coordinator of student support services, and Superintendent Colleen Hawkins defined what challenging behavior is, what discipline is, and how the district responds.
The presentation was broken into three sections and after each section the board would ask questions or comment on the section.
After the first section, the board asked clarifying questions about what was presented but board member Anna Griese asked if it was possible at the next meeting to change the panel to a parent, a teacher and an administrator so the board could hear from all points of view.
She said she had been looking forward to the discussion, but she feared the meeting was becoming more of a lecture rather than “a true discussion about what is happening” within the district.
“It’s not about the behavior of the child. We all know children are different. We all know the kids have different needs. It is about the response from the district,” said Griese. “It is about the programs and the policies that are in place from the district. Are they working? Or are they not working?”
Board member Matt Watson agreed with Griese, saying she made good points, and he thought this presentation helped provided a base for the context, but they did need to have a conversation on what practices need to be adjusted.
During the public comment session, Sue O’Brien, a district teacher, said that the multi-tiered system of supports practices is not working fast enough.
“Tier one, tier two and tier three, that’s the teachers. We’re in our classroom, we’re doing tier one, we’re doing tier two, we’re doing tier three. If you follow the tiers, eight weeks, eight weeks, eight weeks, and then an SST (Student Study Team), and then another eight weeks, and then we’re running out of school days,” said O’Brien.
She added that the system resets every year for the child even if the issues have not been fixed. It takes too long to make an effect, and it is not making an impact in combatting bad behavior, she said.
TimBen Boydston, a former Santa Clarita City Council member and Ingrid Boydston’s husband, asked the board what is being done for the other children who don’t exhibit disruptive behavior. His questions were echoed by another parent who did not provide her name.
“What about the other 28 or 30 kids?” said TimBen Boydston. “You need to speak to them because each and every child is supposed to have an equal education. And so, uh if you stop the learning for 30 kids for half an hour to an hour, you add it up.”
Several parents said that allowing the child who is acting out to stay in the classroom and removing the rest of the students reinforces to the child that their behavior is acceptable because you’re not teaching the child it is not acceptable.
After public comment finished, Griese said, “I think the five of us, we need to find a solution together and actually have a conversation about how to address the issues.”
She added they are not being proactive in finding a solution quick enough.
Watson agreed that the board needs to find solutions. He said, “It is going to be damn hard, but this is an all-hands-on-deck issue and I hope that the solution process is hyper-collaborative.”
