Bacon Elementary School Setting and Context
Community Culture
The culture of Bacon Elementary is based on providing the best opportunities fir a great education. All staff, parents, and volunteers are dedicated to helping develop the whole child, this includes academic, social, emotional, and physical development.
In each classroom lies a foundation of values such as iBark (Integrity, Be responsible, Always work hard, Respect others, and Kindness counts) and the Positive Behavior Support System (PBS), which are repeated and used everyday. These expectations are taught and reinforced in all areas of the school. They are rewarded for positive behavior through weekly drawings and monthly Bulldog Award Assemblies.
One of the greatest parts of the culture I have seen is a little chant the students are taught in preschool and kindergarten and is used in each grade and each classroom; “We keep our friends safe, we keep ourselves safe, and we keep our stuff safe.” Words to live your life by.
Demographics
Currently there are 530 students at Bacon, a large school. The student to teacher ratio is 18:1. 85.1% of the student population at Bacon Elementary School identify as Caucasian. There are roughly an equal percentage of males and females at Bacon Elementary School with 52% males and 47% females forming the student body. Less than 20% of students at Bacon qualify for free or reduced lunch. Bacon Elementary School is in the top 50% of Colorado elementary schools based on how its student body has performed on the state reading and math assessments.
Community Culture
The art room at Bacon Elementary is fairly large and colorfully organized. Each wall is labeled with its direction, North, South, East, and West. Cabinets line part of the West wall and the North wall; under the north cabinets are sinks. Above the cabinets is a rainbow of boxes with class names on them to store graded students artwork. There are eight tables spread out in the room, table eight is the teacher table, and table seven is mostly for supplies. In the South West corner of the room is a door to the outside and the teacher desk. Bookshelves line the entire south wall. In the North West corner of the room is a small kiln room.
School wide policies for management
Bacon Elementary is a Positive Behavior Interventions and Support School. Common expectations have been developed for all students in all areas of the building and are shared during the morning news and reinforced in each classroom.
The school also has a MTSS (Multi-Tiered System of Support) team with a system for recording minor problem behaviors (managed by staff members) and major problem behaviors that will result in a visit to the office. It is the schools hope that by teaching, practicing, and reinforcing expected behaviors; problem behaviors will be kept to a minimum.
School wide policies for Safe Schools
Bacon strongly follows the Safe Schools principles, including:
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Targeted violence is the end result of an understandable, and oftentimes discernible process of thinking and behavior.
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Targeted violence stems from an interaction among the individual(s), the situation, the setting and the target.
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An investigative, skeptical, inquisitive mind set is critical to successful threat assessment.
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Effective threat assessment is based upon facts rather than on characteristics or “traits.”
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An “integrated systems approach” should guide threat assessment inquiries and investigations.
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The central question in threat assessment inquiry or investigation is whether a student poses a threat, not whether the student has made a threat.
The goals of Safe Schools are:
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Developing the capacity to pick up on and evaluate available or knowable information that might indicate that there is a risk of targeted school attack; and,
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Employing the results of risk evaluations, or “threat assessments,” in developing strategies to prevent potential school attacks from occurring.
School wide policies for Students with Special Needs
Bacon elementary school has an entire Integrated Services wing for students to come and work in when they need it, they also have many paras that work in class with students, and a therapy dog.
All members of Bacon staff are trained in Response to Intervention strategies to support students with emotional, academic, or physical disabilities. This school-wide system includes staff, school community, the student, and their family to give the student the best support possible. RtI includes providing strategies for differentiation and modifications according to each students need, often-included on IEP’s or 504 plans. At Bacon students are encouraged to advocate for their own needs.