FRANKFORD ALUMNI
HOME OF CHAMPIONS!
Leigh Pesko, Asst. Vice Principal
Building Wellness and
Community at Frankford
Part One
"I'm building a community around health and wellness through changing the mindsets on what it means to be a pioneer."
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What is being a Pioneer?
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"It's pioneering change, championing for one another. Philly schools get a bad rap. To me it means, building a foundation of support and respect for students and staff. "
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"Pioneer is a champion of each other, not as separate componenets but tying it all together from the ground up."
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First, for a school community built around wellness to work, there must be builders to create a strong foundation. She and her staff team spent last year designing this innovative program and rolled it out in Sept--(CR-PBIS) What is CR-PBIS? - Let's Take a Look Inside...​​​​​​​​​​
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(CR-PBIS)
Culturally Responsive
Positive Behavioral Intervention and Supports
CR-PBIS is a decision-making framework for school systems to implement in order to improve student academic and behavioral outcomes by using universal language and norms, consistent behavioral teaching practices, consistent behavioral response guidelines, and data to guide procedural and policy decisions.
Research suggests that by having consistent norms across the school, explicitly teaching behavioral norms, acknowledging positive, prosocial behaviors, and handling behavioral concerns consistently, the school environment can be positively impacted.
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CR-PBIS is not a curriculum or a single intervention – it is a change in the school system’s climate.
The overall goal is to use culturally responsive practices within CR-PBIS implementation to enhance relationships between student-teacher, school-family and community, decrease disproportionality, and improve educational equity.
Connecting CR-PBIS to Social Emotional Learning and Relationships First/Restorative Justice Practices
CR-PBIS is aligned with other Tier 1 Frameworks, including Social Emotional Learning (SEL) and Relationships First (Restorative Justice Practices). Both frameworks provide a foundation for teaching and applying all CR-PBIS components.
Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) is an integral part of education and human development. SEL is the process through which all young people and adults acquire and apply the knowledge, skills, and attitudes to develop healthy identities, manage emotions and achieve personal and collective goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain supportive relationships, and make responsible and caring decisions (CASEL, 2021).
SEL advances educational equity and excellence through authentic school-family-community partnerships to establish learning environments and experiences that feature trusting and collaborative relationships, rigorous and meaningful curriculum and instruction, and ongoing evaluation. SEL can help address various forms of inequity and empower young people and adults to co-create thriving schools and contribute to safe, healthy, and just communities (CASEL, 2021).
RF(Relationships First) is a human-centered philosophy and prevention/intervention strategy aligned to the MTSS framework aimed at building strong, safe, loving relationships, disrupting and dismantling the school-to-prison pipeline, and increasing positive academic outcomes through community-building, healing, and restoration.
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WE'LL LOOK AT STUDENT-TEACHER MONTHLY TOWN HALL AWARDS IN PART TWO... STAY TUNED​