Relationships Matter

Our Commitment 

We believe that healthy relationships with both peers and adults are key to students’ ability to learn and thrive at school. 

To that end, we invest considerable time and effort into helping students develop, maintain and benefit from healthy relationships with their classmates and school staff.

In situations where those relationships break down and there is conflict, our staff will intervene immediately or as soon as it is brought to our attention. We will help students navigate the conflict, offer guidance on how to repair relationships, issue consequences when needed, and work individually to help the students get back on track.  We will also involve and communicate with parents as needed.

How do we help kids learn healthy relationships?

Learning to regulate emotions and get along with people is an essential life skill. We build off of  the work that parents do at home and in the community and we work to help students create healthy relationships at school. There are several specific ways that we help students learn these important life lessons:

Second Step Curriculum, Elementary 

Teaches students to regulate their emotions, advocate for themselves, and show kindness to others. This curriculum specifically includes a bullying prevention unit.

PBIS Program (Positive Behavioral Intervention & Supports), all schools

Proactively teaches the behavior expectations for students, and details the specific ways we want students to behave in different school spaces and situations such as hallways, cafeteria, buses, etc.

Morning Meetings, Elementary

This event early in the day helps teachers and students check in with one another, share things about themselves or their lives and build lasting, trusted connections.

Efforts to create productive environments for kids, all schools

With an aim to create productive environments for all students that feel welcoming and safe, this work by staff helps students build knowledge and awareness of words and speech that are demeaning or harmful to students. This program gives students the opportunity to learn and restore the relationship that was harmed. It includes both a prevention component and a response component.

Courage retreat (middle school)

This event, facilitated through Youth Frontiers, helps students establish friendships, build trust and lasting connections with their peers.

LINK/WEB Programs (High School and Middle School)

Helps students who are new to the high school and middle school become oriented to their new school and build relationships with peers in that school.

Prevention & Response

It is critically important that every student feels safe at school, has a sense of belonging and connections with people who care about them. If that status breaks down and we see or hear about instances of bullying, demeaning behavior or unkindness, we intervene immediately.

This intervention will look differently depending on the situation, but our response could include sitting down for a conversation with the students involved, conducting a deep investigation to learn and understand the situation, coaching conversations with those involved, communicating with families, issuing consequences and following up with those who reported the issue.

Parents’ Role

Parents can support at home with helping their child navigate the ups and downs of friendship and class relationships.

Reporting a behavioral concern

If you have a concern regarding an incident involving your child, you are encouraged to contact your child’s teacher or the principal at your child’s school (find school administration contact information here). The district takes all reports of behavioral incidents between students seriously. Once you reach out, school staff will contact you or speak with your child to learn more about the reported incident. Staff will work closely with you to address the concern and, within data privacy limitations, will share the steps school staff will take or have taken to address the issue. If a situation develops into bullying, there is a bullying report form below that parents can use to report the issue.