Safe & Positive School Climate
We want Olympic View students to be happy and successful at school. Together the Olympic View staff, students, and parents emphasize positive expectations and preventive management. We believe in a fair and consistent code of discipline and effective classroom management. Each student has the final responsibility for his/her own behavior. Parents are vital partners in helping all students, staff, and visitors successfully meet school expectations. The Olympic View Guidelines for Success include the following components and implementation strategies:
A. Preventive Management
- High expectations for student behavior
- Parents as partners in creating a safe and positive school climate
- Ongoing teaching of guidelines and routines
- All staff responsible for all students and all students responsive to all staff members
- Friendship and social skills groups facilitated by school counselor
B. Clear Expectations
At Olympic View Elementary we neither accept nor tolerate passive or aggressive bullying behaviors. We will make every effort to provide a socially and physically safe environment for every student. We will teach and encourage our students to speak out against bullying and to immediately seek adult help when they see or are the target of bullying. Our school will create and maintain an atmosphere of acceptance which each student will model and promote. Acts of kindness will be recognized and celebrated.
We intentionally teach each student about responsible choices. Our counselor teaches classroom lessons about how to handle bullying situations. All of our teachers have classroom rules which promote the anti-bullying focus. Together, the Olympic View Elementary staff is constantly guiding our students toward successful problem solving.
C. Reinforcement of Appropriate Behavior
- Awards for appropriate behaviors
- Verbal recognition from peers and staff
- Calls or notes home to parents
- Participation in special activities
D. Peaceful Problem Solving and Conflict Resolution
Olympic View Elementary staff and families agree on the important educational principle that we want all of our students to learn, grow and thrive in a safe and welcoming environment. A positive learning environment guarantees students the security, confidence and opportunity to do and be their best at all times. We use "key words" to help students learn how to make their own positive interpersonal and behavioral decisions. All staff and students use the strategies on Olympic View Elementary Solution Circle to seek constructive alternatives to becoming engaged in negative or disruptive behaviors.
E. School Wide Guidelines for Success
At the beginning of the school year each teacher and specialist helps our students learn the Olympic View Elementary Guidelines for Success. These guidelines consist of school wide common language for appropriate voice levels around the school, as well as behavior expectations for all common areas around the school. The students are taught the Olympic View Elementary Aim Statement at the beginning of the year and we repeat it each morning as part of our morning TV broadcast. The Aim Statement is below.
Olympic View Elementary Orcas are. . .
Be Kind
Be Strong
Be Well
Student Discipline
The Washington Legislature implemented new student discipline rules effective in 2019 for all schools in the state. The purpose was to ensure that the application of discipline in schools is responsive to the needs of students, supports students in meeting behavioral expectations, and keeps students in the classroom to the maximum extent possible.
State law no longer permits a prescriptive matrix of school responses to behavioral issues. Instead, schools are directed to determine disciplinary responses based on prior student behaviors and outcomes of corrective actions.
Schools must start with forms of discipline that are non-exclusionary such as restorative justice practices, systems of support, school service, or detention to correct and modify behaviors before exclusionary steps are employed. However, schools may use exclusionary discipline if a student poses an imminent threat of material and substantial disruption of the educational process or pose an imminent danger to students or school personnel.
Our school and district is committed to maintaining a safe learning environment for all students. We will continue to use a variety of supports such as school and mental health counselors, behavior paraeducators, deans, and our district’s school resource officer to make sure this happens.
For more information regarding the new requirements and our district’s discipline procedures, student and parent rights, etc. please refer to Board Policy 3241 Student Discipline and Procedure 3241P.
F. Consequences & Interventions
Reflection Room: Students may be referred to the Reflection Room by a staff member for overtly inappropriate behavior that does not demand the attention of the principal. The Reflection Room is open at recess. In the Reflection Room, the students complete a behavior planner which will be signed by the student, teacher and parent.
Principal Referrals: Students are referred to the principal's office by staff. The referrals may be the result of reaching the last step in the teacher's classroom discipline plan or for a serious infraction. Violent behaviors such as fighting, injury to others, and/or intimidation will result in an immediate referral to the principal. Defiance, possession of drugs, alcohol, or weapons, and sexual harassment are also considered serious infractions and will result in an immediate referral to the principal.
Possible suspension/expulsion from school could be the result of any serious infraction.
The principal uses a range of consequences such as Reflection Room, phone calls to parents, in-school suspension, out-of-school suspension, or expulsion.
Appropriate Voice Levels
For the purpose of identifying appropriate noise levels in various locations and situations around the school we have designated the following voice levels. Students and staff are expected to follow the guidelines for voice levels in all areas around the school.
0 - No talking at all
1 - A whisper
2 - Normal conversational voice
3 - Presenter voice
4 - Playground Voice
Behavioral Expectations
Common Area Guidelines For Success
These guidelines help ensure student safety and responsible behavior. Anytime anyone (staff, parents, siblings, community members, and/or students) is on the Olympic View Elementary campus, they are required to follow the Olympic View Elementary Guidelines for Success. Included with the guidelines are our behavior goals and expectations along with teaching and supervising responsibilities. We believe that responsible behavior is a set of skills that must be clearly defined, explicitly taught and consistently reinforced. We believe that all adults are teachers for all children at our school. All adults are expected to give feedback to any student as appropriate. The pages that follow outline the expectations and the skills we will teach to ensure that each child can be successful at Olympic View Elementary.
These guidelines apply to all non-classroom areas of the campus:
- Arrival and Dismissal
- Assemblies
- Lunchroom
- Playground
- Restrooms
- Walkways & Galleria
Assembly Behavior Expectations
GOAL: Students will manage themselves in assemblies by using good listening skills, participating when appropriate, and following directions.
Expectations
- Students will enter the gym in a single file line with a LEVEL 0 VOICE.
- Students will sit flat on the floor and wait for the program to begin with a LEVEL 1 VOICE.
- When a leader goes to the front, all students will demonstrate good listening skills. Good listening skills look like: eyes on the speaker, hands and feet to yourself, sitting flat on the floor with a LEVEL 0 VOICE.
- Students will do nothing that calls attention away from the performer. If the performer asks questions or comments, students will raise their hands (do not yell out an answer). Sarcastic remarks are never acceptable.
- Students will stay seated once the program has begun unless given permission to get up. Students should use the bathroom before coming to an assembly.
- In a group setting, all grownups are responsible for all of the students. Students will respond to the directions of any adult staff member.
- Students will show appreciation by clapping - no whistling, yelling or booing.
- Students will remain seated until their teacher gives them the signal to stand and leave the assembly area with a LEVEL 0 VOICE.
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