“From Overwhelmed to Supported: How Restorative PBIS Transformed Petaluma City Schools”
When I first worked with Laura, I was a principal. I was one of those principals that was like, “I don't need this.” And then I realized, “Oh, I DO need this.” Then when I became an Assistant Superintendent in Petaluma City schools I brought Laura in to work with our schools here.
Laura does a beautiful job of putting together PBIS and Restorative Practices. She’s done the work in a school setting so she understands what it's like and offers a lot of credibility to her work. She relates well to school staff and what they're going through on a daily basis.
I had stepped into a new role as Assistant Superintendent of Student Services and I was immediately just flooded with behavior issues. It was overwhelming. I needed a systems approach. I felt I couldn’t continue to put my fingers in all of these individual holes and hope that things were going to work out.
There wasn't really a Tier 1 response to behaviors and expectations. I firmly believe in professional development and I think that is the key to creating collective experiences. So that sense of overwhelm, I needed to get my arms around it and try to put some systems in place. That is why I went looking for Laura so that she could train us and help us create that collective understanding. When you have these gaps in people's knowledge and understanding, it just leads to holes in the implementation. PBIS isn’t going to magically make all your behaviors go away, but it helps you understand why they're happening and what you can do to help prevent them.
I think that Petaluma City Schools benefited from a small urban town and that pre pandemic, they had some things in place. However, once the pandemic hit and everybody's systems kind of just went out the window, they all needed to be rebuilt.
After Working with Laura
Many of our schools are finding great success. We're starting to speak the language that will help make a difference. PBIS and Restorative Practices helps resolve a lot of the situations that leaders encounter. Whenever somebody comes to me with a situation, I ask, “So how's your PBIS system going?” And they often will go back and revisit that.
My first step was sitting down and really talking to Laura about what I was seeing and what needed to be addressed. The first step was being real with where we were and what we needed to have it put in place.
It was essential to really just be honest with where we were so that we could meet with Laura and plan what needs to happen in order for things to be put in place. Laura made that possible because she’s very good at asking questions. I knew that I could be honest and she was a trustworthy confidant. Also knowing that she has a mental health background was of huge importance to me. Laura doesn’t come from a punitive place. She comes to try to understand what's happening with people, and that's part of the beauty of her approach. Yes, we can have all these consequences, but until we understand what's happening with a family and a child, we're not gonna have much success. We can put these systems in place, but also when you get down to those who need more support, Laura approaches it with much more understanding and empathy because of her mental health background than someone who was coming at it from a purely systems approach.
Initially
I think, um, because this school district is double the size of the system I came from. I was brand new and I reached out to Laura the first month that I was here. So I had very little collateral with anybody. I took a big giant leap because I saw a need and I didn’t have time to wasted. Because of the urgency of our situation, having people understand why we're moving that direction was a challenge. And it still is. As much as we want to be more restorative, we still live in a very punitive society. That is the biggest challenge.
Coaching for District Leaders
A big part of the success for us is having somebody who can coach the principals. The individualization of the services that Laura provides for them is invaluable. Because every principal is in a different place. When I was a principal, that was the most important piece, because Laura could come in and look at the setting and help diagnose what to change. And for me that was key because as a principal, it's a super, super lonely job. You don't get a lot of support. So having somebody who can come in and, and talk to you about what's happening and what things you might want to try, I think is probably the most important thing. I also think the group work that Laura does is wonderful because she moves people along.
I am a department of one so working with Laura made me feel like I had some support and somebody I could talk to about what's happening. Laura was the person that I met with pretty regularly to try to figure out the direction that we needed to go. Because an assistant superintendent role is almost, if not more, lonely than a principal role.
If you look at Laura’s videos, look at her website and look at all the things she can offer. Laura makes doing the right thing in schools so accessible, “ Here's a script for how you call a parent.” right? How much more clear and accessible can it be? It’s quite a bit of support. There's a lot of handholding.
I can't think of another way that this could work if you're not incorporating both PBIS and Restorative Practices together in a school setting. And I think that Laura is the right person for that work. Because of her background as a mental health person, her background in a school setting. Laura creates a space for both of those things to work in tandem that without a doubt are exemplary. As far as professional development, I just have really high standards and I'm not going to work with anybody who doesn't meet them. And Laura’s up there. If somebody's not sure, I think that they should just spend a few minutes with Laura. Then you’ll know.