The conversation about student behavior continued at the Manitowoc Public School District’s Board of Education meeting this week.
Superintendent Mark Holzman was on the WCUB Breakfast Club this week, where he explained that while suspensions are still high at Lincoln High School, the largest number of incidents are occurring at the middle school level.
“Our 6th Grade has the most behaviors that we have seen across the district,” Holzman said. “Actually, there’s more out-of-school suspension days in 6th Grade than there is at Lincoln High School combined.”
Holzman said part of the reason for that comes from a combination of the lack of maturity to self-regulate, and the lack of consistency in their school schedule.
“Our 6th Grade kiddos…if you look at last year in 5th Grade in Elementary School was a mixed year where they had some in-person, some virtual, then back to half-day in-person and virtual,” Holzman explained. “The year before that, when they were in 4th Grade…we all went virtual. So the last time they were actually face to face five days a week was in 3rd Grade.” This has caused the teachers and staff to see some issues with self-regulation.
That combined with the natural changes children go through at that time combined for a powder keg of misbehavior.
As for what the MPSD is doing to address the issue Holzman explained, “We have added mental health providers in all of our schools, we’ve supported full-time counselors, we’ve added some Deans of Students, we continue to work with our Police Department, we’ve got police liaison officers at our Middle Schools and High Schools, and they support our Elementary Schools if necessary. So we are doing a lot of things…but one of the things we absolutely have to continue to do is work on that social/emotional piece.”
Part of that will be teaching students about self-regulation and how they can better handle stress.
The MPSD has also created an Ad-Hoc Student Behavior Committee, which will continue to look into how to better address the student behavior issue.
