Battle Creek Times

Battle Creek Public Schools issued the following announcement on Dec 17.

Dear Battle Creek Community,

Earlier this week, we heard a few of our teachers share their concerns about student behavior at a few of our schools. Leaders at BCPS have spent this week diving in deep on these comments and meeting with teachers. We are pleased to report that we have heard excellent results from these collaborative sessions. The BCPS leadership team is already moving forward productively in partnership with teachers and staff.

As a Board of Education, we heard our teachers, and we understand and acknowledge that staff is struggling. The impacts on students of such a long gap in in-person education are being felt here in Battle Creek and across the nation, and this time of high stress is creating challenging work environments for our devoted staff members.

We were glad to hear that district leaders have spent most of this week meeting with teachers to learn more about their concerns and that more of these conversations are being planned for the future. While the district has rolled out many new supports over the past few years to prevent and address student behavior challenges, it’s clear that there’s more work to do to ensure all staff members know about the resources that are available to them and feel supported every day.

Superintendent Carter and district leaders have reported that the action plan created in partnership with teachers includes plans to:

• Ensure that the BCPS code of conduct is being fully and consistently reinforced at every school
• Ensure that teachers and staff have access to and know how to deploy to all of the social-emotional, behavioral, and health supports put in place through the transformation
• Proceed in ensuring safe and positive school environments while upholding our values of equity and success for every Bearcat

We’re glad these conversations have already been productive and that teachers and building and district leaders are on the same page and working collaboratively to come up with action plans that ensure our staff members feel supported and that our students keep learning.

The BCPS Board of Education is incredibly proud of all the progress that’s been made throughout the transformation process, and we see this as one stop along the path of further success that lies ahead. Great things are happening at BCPS because we believe in our employees, we want them to be safe and feel supported, and we want our students to be learning and thriving. The board is more committed than ever and looks forward to continued collaboration with district leaders, building leaders, staff members, and teachers on the road ahead.

Thank you,

BCPS Board President Catherine LaValley

BCPS Board Vice President Kyra Wallace

Original source can be found here.