Jennifer Olson, the new principal at Derby’s Irving School, doesn’t sugarcoat or try to spin the challenges she and her staff face this year.
Too many children in the school are being sent to the principal’s office. Too many students are being suspended. The attendance rate is lower than it should be — for both students and teachers. Test scores, particularly in math and reading, remain inconsistent or on the decline.
Simply put, the school’s reputation isn’t great. But that will change this year, Olson said.
Perhaps the new principal is not afraid to talk honestly about Irving because she has a plan — a plan born and battle-tested in New Haven Public Schools, where citywide education reform efforts were recently recognized by the White House.
Olson, hired in July, is bringing some of that New Haven-style reform to Derby.
“My first priority is to change the culture of the building,” said Olson, a Cheshire resident. “It’s going to ask people to take a leap of faith and to buy into this.”
Wednesday was the first day of school in Derby Public Schools. Olson’s “buy in” refers to something called “positive behavior intervention and support,” an educational framework that essentially promotes good behavior among students — which lays the foundation for better academic performance.
Respect
Olson calls the local version the “Irving School Respect Model.”
It sets forth a series of expected behaviors for students. They are very specific. The behaviors are posted below, from a letter sent home to parents last month. Story continues after the document.
On Sept 5., Olson will formally roll out the Respect Model to staff, faculty, students — and any families that want to hear about it. The assembly is scheduled to happen from 2 p.m. to 2:45 p.m. at the school.
“This isn’t a poster that will be put up and then become part of the furniture,” Olson said. “It will be taught to all kids.”
Olson worked previously as an assistant principal at the Brennan-Rogers Magnet School in New Haven. The underperforming school was the first target of the city’s education reform initiative, which has been chronicled extensively by the New Haven Independent.
“At my former school, at one point, it was out of control, to be blunt,” Olson said. “There wasn’t expectations about kids’ behavior. There was a feeling that is the same here — it is not going to change: ‘Don’t bother cleaning that up because the kids are just going to make a mess again.’ If you show them what the expectation is, you are going to get the buy-in from kids. They want to do the right thing, but they need positive reinforcement. They need the expectations laid out very clearly.”
The “reform” at Brennen-Rogers was massive. New teachers, new teaching methods, new philosophies, a partnership with a private company for training teachers, new administrators — and lots of eyeballs on the school.
A year after the “turnaround” started, improvements were noted, especially in the school’s climate. Parents felt the school was safer.
“The lessons learned there are what are helping to drive a vision for change here,” Olson said.
The Irving School serves kindergarten through fifth grade. There are about 400 students. About 67 percent of the students qualify for free or reduced lunches. Turnover among students is high, with families moving into and then out of the many apartments on Derby’s densely-populated west side.
Check-Ins
In addition to teaching kids specific positive behaviors, Olson’s plan will identify students at Irving who need more help in terms of good behavior.
Those students will be assigned an adult to “check in” with first thing in the morning and before leaving the building at the end of the day.
“In the morning when they come in their first job is not to walk to the classroom or walk to the cafeteria. It will be to find the adult they are assigned to and do a check-in,” Olson said.
The idea is to make sure the student is ready to learn the minute they step into school. The goal is to stop disruptive behavior before it starts.
“As an adult you can tell, if the hood is up and the backpack is dragging and there’s a sourpuss on the student’s face — you know that something has to be dealt with before they enter the classroom,” Olson said. “If you don’t deal with it immediately it will fester and it will become a classroom issue which disrupts the learning for other people.”
The adults the kids “check in” with will most likely be Irving’s support staff, such as school psychologists and other faculty members who aren’t in a classroom.
“It’s whoever the student finds a good connection with. You have to find the right person for each kid. The purpose is to develop a deep, trusting relationship between kids and adults. That’s what will help kids feel like they are connected to this school. They’ll know there is someone looking out for them during the day,” Olson said.
A small percentage of the students will receive an even sharper focus.
“Those kids will not only need the check-ins and the over-arching school rules we’re all following, but they might have a behavior chart right there on their desk that their teachers are involved with. Perhaps at the end of every lesson, the student does a quick self-evaluation reflecting on how they did. Perhaps they get a sticker or some type of reward for positive behavior,” the new principal said.
Those students could also be referred for additional help to counseling agencies such as Valley Kids Belong.
What’s This Have To Do With Learning?
Olson said establishing structure in the school, rewarding kids for positive behavior and focused, individualized attention will result in students spending less time in her office.
Olson said her job is to supervise teachers — to make sure they are doing their jobs.
However, that cannot be done if Olson is spending her workdays disciplining students. She estimated that each referral to her office takes at least 30 minutes to deal with. The Irving School Respect Model is meant to nip those issues in the bud.
“My job isn’t to be the school cop. In order to make this a rich, learning environment, I should be an instructional leader. I should be in the classrooms making sure great instruction is happening. I should be making sure teacher lesson plans are done. I can’t do that if you’re tied down in the office calling parents,” she said.
In addition to getting “buy-in” from faculty and students, Olson said getting families on board is hugely important.
She is working to bring more parents into Irving, literally. One of the rooms closest to the school’s main entrance is being converted into a parent resource room. The new principal has welcomed a fledgling Parent Teacher Organization into the building. Click here for the PTO’s Facebook page.
And she’s been reaching out to to community agencies such as the Valley United Way and the Derby Public Library.
The Valley United Way is excited about exploring ways to become more involved in the Irving School, said Patricia Tarasovic, director of the Volunteer Action Center at the Valley United Way.
Olson is “opening the doors” to the United Way, Tarasovic said.
Stacey Whelan, co-president of the Irving PTO, said Olson is a breath of fresh air.
“She’s amazing, just her ideas alone. She’s going to get things done,” Whelan said. “The PTO had a meeting with her — her fundraising ideas are phenomenal. There’s a whole different feel coming here. I’m really excited.”
