In an era where national news reports focus on violence in schools from fights to shootings, one might think that it is commonplace.
In reality, the most common infractions in the Columbia School District include items like bus rule violations and tardies.
Director of Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment Deedee Randall presented annual statistics last week to the school board and members and administrators found the numbers interesting.
“Overall discipline was down from 2,851 to 2,648 incidents,” Randall said.
At Columbia Primary School, 193 disciplinary incidents took place, a decrease from 375, but as Randall noted, the third grade moved to Columbia Elementary School.
At CPS, the most common infraction for students was violation of bus rules at 58 percent, which was up 16 percent from the previous year. Habitually violating school rules/policies came in second at 15 percent and willfully being disobedient/ disrespectful was third at 7 percent.
Columbia Elementary School increased from 330 to 347 incidents; however, Randall said that increase was likely due to the addition of the third-grade students at the school. The No. 1 issue was violation of bus rules at 39 percent, a decrease of 6 percent, tied for second was creating a disturbance at 14 percent, and also language or gesture usage also at 14 percent and fourth was willfully being disobedient/ disrespectful at 12 percent.
Jefferson Middle School saw a jump for 302 items to 378. the top issue was being tardy at 27 percent, a 3 percent decrease from the prior year. Second were violations of bus rules at 24 percent, which was the same as in 2017. Inappropriate actions made up the third category at 13 percent.
Columbia High School’s top issue made up 68 percent of the infractions and was tardies. Dress code and ID policy violations were a distant second at 11 percent. Third place was cell phone violations at 4 percent.
Board member Dr. Ron Luethje said seeing the type of violations that were named was a relief to board members.
“I don’t see drugs, I don’t see crime or violence,” he said.
“You’re right,” Randall answered. “It’s just that 74 percent was getting to school on time and wearing the proper clothing.”
Superintendent Jason Harris said there had been very few major violations.
“We’re very proud that this is the case,” he said. “We will work to avoid the tardies and other violations.
Randall also presented numbers from a parent survey which showed overall a high satisfaction rate with the district. The survey had parents from different schools answer questions about transportation, safety, technology and more.
From the survey, Randall said officials were able to identify needs to work on in the coming school year.
“We need to streamline and increase parent communication,” she said. “This is at the district and teacher level. Many of the comments provided insight into communication being an underlying factor in dissatisfaction.”
The Board also approved purchasing school supplies in bulk. The supply fee for pre-K and kindergarten is $25. Students in first through eighth-grade will be assessed a fee of $40. The fee must be paid at the time of registration. All supplies will be issued when school begins.
Columbia High School students will be issued a Chromebook that they may take home during the 2018-2019 school year. There will be a $25 computer insurance fee due at the time of registration for high school students.
