NEW ULM — The New Ulm School Board heard progress on a behavioral initiative at Jefferson Elementary School during their Study Session Thursday.

Learning Services Director Paul Henn and Jefferson Behaviorist Casey McMullen presented the program. Henn said staffing has been a problem in recent years, and finding more sustainable practices was necessary.

A challenge they want to tackle is the behavioral response protocol. Oftentimes, students were pulled out of class when behaving negatively. This results in them losing class time and falling behind as a result. When Henn was at a conference in Phoenix, he found the solution he was looking for.

“Why don’t we teach behaviors the same way we teach academics?” He said. “We never give a kid a multi-digit addition test if we haven’t taught them multi-digit addition, so why do we do something different with behaviors? I went over to Casey and I said, ‘Casey, we’ve got to build a model, a framework based on a set of behavioral standards.’ Casey said, ‘Great, let’s formalize it and make some of these changes.”

Henn said the biggest change they made was integrating this behavioral learning into the classroom setting for around 300 minutes a week. Kids can learn and be redirected toward positive behaviors without needing to lose time in the classroom. McMullen said an additional benefit was creating consistency in responses to behavioral problems across classrooms.

“Three or four years ago we were having one classroom where a student was asked to leave for looking at you wrong. In another, a kid chucked a chair and was managed in the classroom,” she said. “We wanted to create consistency in expectations and consequences across classrooms. This shows the expectation is the same regardless of where you are.”

McMullen said they drew from already existing behavioral curricula such as Boys Town to develop this system. It was established in all areas of the school building, from the teachers to the paraprofessionals and custodians. Looking at the numbers, Henn said the program has been a success thus far.

“These first graders that are now second graders are predicted to finish with about half as many behaviors reported [than last year],” Henn said.

After the presentation, several board members voiced their approval of the program’s results. Board member Steve Gag asked if this could be implemented at Washington Learning Center for preschool and kindergarten kids. McMullen said there has already been some implementation at that level.

“This year we have a counselor and school social worker at Jefferson and a school social worker at Washington,” she said. “We’re doing a vertical PLC so we meet every Friday as a group. She’s seeing the stuff we’re doing. It’s a different building and age group, but they are trying to carry over some of those things and we’re looking at talks for what we want pushed into the classrooms and curriculum.”

Board member Melissa Sunderman asked if there were fewer referrals to special ed this year than there had been in the past. McMullen said they only had one referral so far when usually they would have five.

Henn said there used to be a backlog of kids submitted for consideration. Now, they can be submitted at any time without waiting. With this new system, behavioral interventions allow them to review the student and aid them before a special ed evaluation is deemed necessary.

The next School Board meeting will be on Jan. 25 at 5 pm. in the District Boardroom at 414 South Payne Street.