Morongo Unified School District Superintendent Dr. Patricio Vargas was the guest on last Friday’s Up-Close Show With Gary Daigneault, where they discussed MUSD’s approach to student discipline through PBIS, or Positive Behavior Intervention and Support program.
When Daigneault asked Dr. Vargas to explain MUSD’s approach to PBIS, Vargas first mentioned the 12 MUSD schools that received PBIS recognition, including five platinum and four gold awards. “It was really exciting to see this kind of recognition,” he said. “Now, when you see the behaviors we deal with in the schools, it’s sometimes frightening, challenging. Our teachers are exhausted, tired… they say, ‘I came for teaching, now I have to do parenting?’ So, this is a call to the community: we cannot do this alone. Schools cannot be the only institution to educate the students in regards to discipline and how they behave. We need the parents to come aboard. We need them to be partners who support us to ensure our students have proper behavior.”
When Daigneault inquired about new approaches to student suspension in cases where PBIS is not enough, Vargas said, “In the past, it would have been: this problem takes place—suspended, automatically. Now we say, “What has taken place?’ before the suspension, a more in-depth study of the reasons for the suspension, the programs we have in place to avoid those suspensions, and how that affects school culture within the site. So we take a much broader approach than just punishment.”
While the approach might have its critics, Dr. Vargas reminded listeners, “PBIS is a state-mandate. We need to have all these processes in place before a suspension can happen, then there are even more steps in place before they can return to campus. Now, do we have problems where they have to be automatically suspended? Yes, we do—but those are few and far between, which tells us a lot about our community. We have a great community.”
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