Schools hope to curb suspensions, expulsions
District seeks to add support positions
STAMFORD — At first glance, the 2019-20 school year looked like a success for Stamford in terms of suspensions and expulsions — except that the buildings closed in midMarch due to COVID-19 so the statistics essentially don’t account for about a third of the year.
In fact, the district’s suspension rate, which is the number of students with at least one suspension or expulsion, was on pace in 2019-20 to top the previous school year’s mark of 778.
The rate has been on the rise in Stamford since 2014, when the figure was 452 students. Enrollment has also grown in that time, but so has the percentage of students who were suspended.
School officials have said they are aware of the trends and are hoping to make strides in bringing those figures down.
At a Board of Education meeting this week about the budget, Associate Superintendent for School Development Olympia Della Flora acknowledged that Black and Latino students are suspended at a disproportionate rate in Stamford.
In the 2018-19 school year, one out of every 10
Black students in Stamford was suspended or expelled. Suspensions of Hispanic students were also on the rise up until the last school year, when the number was truncated by fewer in-person school days.
At Westhill High School, the district’s biggest and most populous school, Black students represent about 15 percent of the population. But one out of every five Black students in the 201819 school year was either suspended or expelled.
White students, which are about a third of the school, were suspended or expelled at a rate of 5 percent for that school year.
The picture is similar at Stamford High School, where a combined 78 Black and Hispanic students were suspended or expelled at least once last school year, whereas so few white students were given that punishment that the state doesn’t even list a number for that category to protect confidentiality.
“We know that we have not only academic gaps to address in Stamford, but we also have social/emotional learning gaps that we need to address,” Della Flora said. “And these gaps existed before COVID, but because of COVID, they have come more to the forefront.”
Part of the proposed budget for the upcoming 2021-22 school year introduces new positions that would reinforce student support services.
During the recent budget meeting, Della Flora spoke about focusing on “restorative practices,” as opposed to exclusionary ones, when dealing with student behavioral issues.
In a nutshell, the restorative approach seeks to work with a struggling student, instead of suspending that student.
Della Flora drew a comparison to a student struggling in mathematics. In that case, a teacher wouldn’t “push them out of math class,” she said, but would work with the student.
She said students who misbehave should be approached in the same way.
“Instead of punishment, we should take their behavior as a signal that this is a skill that they’re lacking,” she said.
As part of the budget, Della Flora suggested adding seven restorative student support facilitators who would develop a district-wide “restorative support” approach. The total increase from those positions would cost the district about $600,000.
Some members of the Board of Education asked about how the new support positions would co-exist with the current support staff.
Board member Fritz Chery asked about the The Domus Knights program, which was a source of debate last year when it was up for renewal, and assigns at-risk students “family advocates” to help them get back on course.
Della Flora said that program is meant to target students who need a “higher level of support” after schools have exhausted other options.
Board member Jackie Heftman said that with the Domus program, the parent facilitators, and the proposed restorative facilitators, she would like to know more about each positions’ responsibilities to better understand how they would work cohesively.
“While I think that it’s probably good for students to have a lot of different touch points, I don’t quite understand yet ... how this all works,” she said.
Jackie Pioli, another board member, said she was shocked by the suspension numbers at Westhill High School and Stamford High School. She questioned whether the suggested approach would be productive.
“If the staff isn’t buying in, we’re literally wasting $600,000 and the same kids will be suspended and there’s not gong to be a positive outcome,” she said.
Della Flora also called for converting all 21 part-time parent facilitators into full-time positions, while adding two new facilitator positions who would report to Rogers International School and the Anchor program, respectively.
Facilitators, she added, help parents navigate the school system. The total cost of the shift would be $960,000.
“We have many parents who don’t speak English or don’t feel comfortable going to school staff,” she said, adding that many feel “trapped.”
She also suggested adding $292,000 to the summer school budget to pay for extra staffing and supplies.
“We don’t know what the lasting effects are going to be from this pandemic but we do know that we are going to have students that are going to need additional support in order to overcome some of the barriers and challenges that they have experienced,” she said.
Later, she added, “There is a need for us to have multiple tiers of support.”