Marcy Principal Reports Progress on Academics, Discipline

Marcy Elementary School basked in the spotlight Monday night. 

Marcy had the typical list of student behavioral challenges faced in any building full of young children but Principal Michele Trawicki reported to the Hamilton School Board that her staff has made progress on fostering better behavior and as a result, more time for learning.

Trawicki recounted that early in 2008, her first year at Marcy, she had to deal with six cases of children whose behavior on buses demanded disciplinary attention. And that wasn't counting the typical misbehavior incidents of running in hallways, mischief in bathrooms and on the playground, and the occasional instance of disruption of classroom learning by a student.

Now, "instructional time is way up and discipline time is way down," Trawicki told the board.

The school, at W180 N4851 Marcy Road, has established behavioral expectations for all students under a national program known as P-B-I-S, Positive Behavioral Intervention and Supports, while enforcing a positive approach to discipline, Trawicki said.

Trawicki praised her teachers and staff both for boosting academics and for reducing problems with student behavior. Principals in the Hamilton School District are regularly asked to report to the board on their schools' initiatives and progress. 

Marcy is in the third year of a "school site plan," a set of objectives intended to meet goals and tackle problems.

"Our first tactic (objective) has been to measure the difference between our perceptions of how students are doing and where they're actually performing," Trawicki said.

She told the board she had seen academic progress in reading, writing and math scores but also that she was committed to accomplishing more.

"Our second tactic at Marcy Elementary continues to be a huge success," Trawicki said.

Marcy's progress with improving behavior under PBIS has been cited on an educational website as an example for other schools in southeastern Wisconsin, and has been heralded "as a true success story," Trawicki explained.

School Board member Lynn Kristensen agreed. She spends time volunteering at Marcy and told Trawicki and fellow board members that efforts at Marcy "have changed the entire enviroment of that school."

"It's fun to be there, and whatever I happen to be doing when I'm there, the atmosphere is one of kids encouraging each other. It's having a fabulous impact on the environment in which they're working," Kristensen said. 

Trawicki said she was also concentrating on making certain that students "receive the academic support they need, with particular focus on math."

"We make math as visible as reading and writing, and we have made certain that technology and 21st century skills are built into all of our educational efforts," she said.

Trawicki said that with past challenges under management through the PBIS method, and with more time for academics as a result, a special focus going forward would be to not only support the larger number of students in the middle of performance standards but also the exceptionally "high-performing and low-performing students."