Want to go?
A new “office hours” event allows the community to visit with Superintendent Grenita Lathan in a casual, interactive setting. Members of the public are invited to share their thoughts and ideas and ask questions.
The next “Office Hours with Dr. Lathan” will be held at 3:30 p.m. Monday, March 25 at the SPS Professional & Virtual Learning Center, 1410 S. Kansas Expressway.
the problems and find out what we can do to help the situation.”
Kyler Sherman-Wilkins
Sherman-Wilkins, an associate professor of sociology at Missouri State University, served on the SPS discipline review team in 2022, which included looking at data and the process.
He said discipline is clearly a problem but it is important to look at the system in place to determine what is working well, and what is not working and why.
“Is it an issue with discipline protocols not being following consistently? Do we see differences across sites? For me, you have a policy and you have enforcement,” he said.
Sherman-Wilkins said the district must look for the weak links before embarking on a complete overhaul. He added the district can also identify models where efforts are paying off.
“There are some sites where it is working well. Not every single teacher is experiencing some of these issues and not every single site is experiencing some of these issues,” he said.
He said the district must also coordinate with city and state leaders to address student misconduct at the source.
“These students are oftentimes coming from socioeconomic disadvantage, broken homes, maybe violence in the homes,” he said. “We have to recognize that while the district can do a lot in terms of what students get when they get to the school building, or classroom, there are all these other conditions that need to be addressed as well.”