Right. Let's share what you know.
I think many of you, probably all of you
probably know students who have attended
or do attend or may attend in the future
at Dakota Ridge.
And um, no two students as you know,
have are nothing, nothing
is just textbook or fits in a box. Right?
So that's what we really pride ourselves on
here at Dakota Ridge is when I meet
families for the first time and we're
trying to help them understand what this
might do for them or how help their
child, we are an intervention.
And in the world of federal setting for sites,
we are unique in that we are part
of this large District.
We are not an Intermediate.
We aren't somewhere you send your kids
to that do their own thing,
but we are aligned to district 196
in everything we do and our goal
is to be an intervention,
to be that step in between
to help students figure out what
is getting in the way for them
of being successful, intervene, teach skills
and for many students that means move on
to your next goal.
Whether that's back to your home school,
whether that's out in the community,
whether it's just making
your world a little broader.
Um, I think we're we're fortunately
pretty successful at that.
So um, I'll just talk a little bit
and like oh that's not my screen. Yours.
Um, so I'll just share kind of just
where we've been, how we got here
who I am and then I think I'll ask those
of you who have lived in this world
to kind of fill in where I, cuz I don't live
your role every day.
I live the right, the perspective
of outside of it.
Um, so I prior to my position here I was
I've had many hats in the district.
I was a Center-Based Autism Teacher
at Dakota Hills for many years.
Um, I was an Autism Specialist
and then I came over here
as a Lead Teacher
and then when I left here,
I was an Elementary Coordinator
and came back because once I was here,
I knew this is where I belonged
and I couldn't wait to come back
and I get the opportunity
to lead this building.
And one of the first things we did
when I came back
was we created a shared vision
mission statement as a building.
So this is a statement co-constructed
by staff and what we believe we do here
at Dakota Ridge.
And it's a community engaged
in developing the unique skills
of individual students through creative
programming and collaboration.
And to take that a step further,
what we truly believe is these starred items
and every student who walks in our door,
school has failed them.
And I don't mean a person
has failed them, I just our system
and the way we've gone about things
has not met their needs
and we get this unique opportunity
to rewrite their story.
And so we walk in this door,
I truly believe those of us who we have
very low staff turnover in our building
because this is a place that it it calls to you.
It speaks to you.
Um, and we get
this opportunity to take students who
have no joy at school and to find their joy.
To find school is a place - I'll never forget
Matthew and I went out to Gideon Pond
when he was at Gideon and observed him
and was part of meetings, and all he said
that first day when he came for a tour,
I don't know if any of you were with that day,
he walked through the hallway
and kept saying, "Friends. I'm going to have friends".
That is all he cared and to this day
that is probably what brings him to school every day.
He gets excited.
He never, the kid has impeccable attendance.
He is never gone.
We have behaviors when he has to leave early.
Yes.
Truthfully, because school has never been
an experience like that before.
So for Matthew for you know,
that's a child you can all identify with
because you work with,
but every student here,
no matter how they show us
things aren't going well and how they
communicate that to us um,
we get the opportunity
to figure out how school
can be a place for them to be successful
and there's nothing more rewarding than that.
And it's it's tough in between there.
Right? There's some things to work through.
Um, high quality, effective instruction
we believe that in order to do that
and help school be a successful place,
we have to believe they can
and classrooms are set up to teach.
They are classrooms we are school first.
You can hear a pin drop
in our hallway most days.
Um and when you walk in classrooms,
they're learning.
They're engaged.
They're using all the same curriculum
they're using throughout the district.
The same tools, the same textbooks,
the same everything
and we might modify and adjust,
but I would say we probably
modify and adjust less than
a Setting Three classroom
in a Traditional School.
What age kids are here?
Everybody.
Kindergarten through age 22
down our main hallway.
Everybody - and we do not, go ahead.
The word can, that is that word means so much.
It's such a small word word but,
that word even Martha, Martha is the one
who brought it to Matthew's plate.
I'm going to give you credit for this one
because she said you know what we should
start using the word before when he's
having a behavior to cut it off.
You can do that, you can, you can
and it changed.
You could see it in his head this change.
So I just want to that word can, can.
And to your question, we serve all disability categories.
Um, our building is laid out
in, I think, probably the next slide.
Um, I'll I'll get so this will stack on that.
This doesn't probably mean
a whole lot just the way it's laid out,
but, and this was a snapshot taken months ago
but, we have a total of 22 classrooms
in the building and eight of them are
classrooms that we serve four students
in that classroom environment.
So that the max we put in there is four
and then the others
are what we call large group
is six to eight students.
Um, and within that environment,
there are paraprofessionals supporting.
Um, in small group our goal
we start at for that one teacher
there's usually
two paraprofessionals ideally
and um, those four students.
Sometimes it takes up to five
because right, the reality of just we
have to serve everybody.
Um, and Lorna is part of one
of those small group environments.
So we, that factors in.
So it's um in that classroom there are
actually two paraprofessionals assigned
in addition to Lorna.
One is out on leave right now.
Um, but just not always.
So like the room Matthew's in, it is one other
paraprofessional with Charlotte.
So we we adjust based on what the needs
of that environment is.
Um, we don't necessarily just group
students by age.
So I don't, one we don't
have a full classroom of fourth graders.
Right? We don't have a full classroom
of fifth graders, but we also know
that students learn best with certain
peers and not with others.
So we spend a lot
of time building those class lists
and we create classrooms that we believe
will learn together best, not based
on their age, grade, all those things.
So we might have a eighth grader mixed
in with 10th and 11th graders
because they need some role models.
They need, they need
something different.
Um, we don't always get it right
and we sometimes have to adjust,
but that is just what we do here.
We we reflect and we figure it out and
we adjust.
Um, so we we we joke that we're
a big family here and it really you have to
kind of have that mentality to be here.
We're all in this together.
Um, if you if
everybody carries a radio and if you
say on that radio I need help,
like more than you wished.
I usually follow behind like I think we're good.
I think we're good.
Um, and not because it's so big scary.
I mean we we have evolved in the,
I think what Dakota Ridge was maybe 15 years ago,
our population has evolved and changed.
One because I believe
our setting two and three
within our Traditional School settings has
grown in their capacity to serve students.
So they may have been sent
to Dakota Ridge years ago,
but we don't need to serve
that population anymore.
We also have growing needs
of individuals who maybe just
weren't served in schools before because
they were so extreme.
Um, there are fewer facilities
for them to go to.
Just so many reasons why
that the complexity of learners
has changed here
and we have bad days
just like every school in the district.
I would say it's
not every day and it's not every week.
Um, and the support that one big family
we're in together, you just
there we had we had a major incident
last week, oh this week, it was Tuesday.
Um, but the reality is 90% of the school
had no idea what was going on
because we have systems and routines and
people trained to support those situations
so that we have a practice we follow
and usually it's a hold.
That particular day we went on a secure
and so people just knew.
We got to stay in the building.
We know that the staff
are call the leadership is calling this
because it's going to keep us safe.
We can go about our business and again,
to this day, 90% of people
probably don't know what happened.
And we just went on with our day.
You go on with your day,
You trust and you know
that people have got your back
and we're in this together and
we do everything we can
to keep people safe.
I mean I'm sure if you're at the DSC,
you see things. Right?
You see police cars, you see ambulances.
90% of those situations
are mental health issues
and we are responding
to a student and getting them help.
It is not a risk.
Sometimes the the behavior
that leads up to them meeting
that level of intervention
looks scary, but it looks
more scary because it's not typical to see.
It's not because we're in danger.
It's because we're scared how are we
going to keep you safe?
How are we going to meet your needs?
And we take that responsibility
really seriously.
Um, every two class so, in our small group
environments we got a redesign of those
spaces last year so those spaces all
have three break spaces in them because
that population of students just need
less noise they need some time alone
some sometimes isolation we have swings
in every one of those every one of those
classrooms has one room with a swing
Mount and then down the main hallway as
we get into what we call large group in
between every two classrooms we have a
break space and within that break space
we our hope is that students learn use
that space proactively so that they can
request a break because when they think
about going back to a home school and
their environment grows drastically they
need to know when to say I need to break
where to take that break what tools they
need to take that break um and then
there are times when students don't have
that skill yet that as adults we help
them to learn that by supporting them
and getting to that break space and we
baby steps to Growing to where they can
do that
independently um like I said all support
all staff carry radios we have a
building leadership team that's made up
of myself Mr Wilson is the assistant
administrator and then there are six
additional people that make up our our
school psychologist our we have a
full-time School social worker we have
uh a lead interventionist so academic
interventions who is a behavior also has
deep background of behavior we have a
curriculum interventionist or core
intervention
who has a strong background in behavior
and then we have a behavior lead
interventionist um all who have been
teachers in the building and believe in
this um we have a float staff which is
made up primarily of prayer
professionals who work really hard
we back when Staffing was a different
story right they were two or three
individuals who truly their job all day
was just Flo and be in places now they
are individuals we have identified who
they are part of teams but they they
have flexibility um and they build
relationships throughout the building so
they're our go-to when we have uh a
couple of Staff down here in small group
who they have we have a new Elementary
learner
who is really struggling um and they are
the right people they have built a
relationship with him and so we just
have flexibility that that float staff
are the people that come down and
intervene sometimes they just need a new
face sometimes they just need somebody
they know they can trust who wasn't in
that moment with them um and we have a
deep shared understanding of students we
do a lot to communicate with each other
um based on a need to know right there's
that fine line between
confidentiality um but we do a lot we
send out emails hey just a heads up this
student's plan is this or we have an all
staff meeting once a month and we might
bring a picture of a student if you see
this person in the hallway please don't
say this we have a young lady right now
who is exploring work she's a transition
age learner um and what we have learned
is when she wears her sweatshirt that
announces her employer that is probably
something went wrong today at her job
and what's your go-to if you see her
walking through the building that says
K's across it it's like oh I was work
today right well we have figured out as
a team that we have to coach everybody
not to engage about her job because that
is her like way of letting us know I
can't talk about my job today um but not
what our first reaction as adults is so
we do a lot of working with each other
just sending building wide emails like
hey if you see so and so in the hallway
heads up don't ask
her so um
yeah so this is more information that we
met with um staff here in the building
just to talk about what does it feel
like to work here and what are supports
are in place so these may be SL yeah
perfect and can I just name I Martha was
involved in this too I didn't say your
name earlier but Martha spend the
sizeable amount of time here and help
plan just from the flow perspective too
around maybe not um kind of coming and
going to so
make so I would just I guess I would
wonder what things are you wondering
about and what things do you hear that
make you um
uncertain that's the question I that's
one of the first questions i' I've
always wanted to know is what are your
concerns of why you don't want to come
here you know I find it a wonderful to
work but other people don't see that and
I'm like I don't I don't understand
understand I mean you're so well
supported um it is like a family here
you have a ton of information and it's
always being given to you in many
different ways so I just yeah that's a
hard one for me to and I would say I
think we've worked together a long time
right and there are times that there are
decisions Dan and I might make or that
as a building and Charlotte I don't this
why are we doing this and we want that
that is how we that's how we can only do
better so if people come in and they're
like this makes no sense why is someone
doing this maybe we're going to learn a
better way so we welcome those questions
or whoa there's so many layers here
nobody shared with you let me share with
you so you understand why we do um and
that's really how we operate I I spend a
lot of my day
just talking about what we
do I think the other thing to know is
that um it's a big decision when a
student ends up coming here right so um
it is a significant decision when an IEP
team is considering a setting change for
a student for a lot of reasons right
like statute wise but also we are making
a decision that that student should be
leaving their home building for a period
of time always our goal is to have them
come back um and sometimes we find this
is the right setting for them um so I
think sometimes we hear questions and
buildings around how those decisions are
made and why um and I think just know
that they're not taken light and this is
like the very you have what 120 students
right now in a district of
29,000 um so it is truly like a small
number of students who truly need this
setting and that's also why it's
effective right um so if you hear
questions in the buildings always know
that that is the case and we can help
with those conversations because if
people don't spend time here I don't
think they always understand and they
the program the PE the students who do
move here are at their worst when they
come here so what the perception of that
individual child when they leave
somewhere else is much different than
the perception we get to have because we
get a fresh start we get to take that
worst and it's we we truly believe as a
building we there's nowhere else for
them to go we're not we're not
intervening to figure out where else
we're going to send you we're
intervening to get in it with you we're
intervening to figure out what's in the
way and how are we going to fix it and
not fix it we can't fix anything that's
the wrong word just to help you grow and
do better and
so I think a lot of times people think
of the kids they have seen come here and
the story they have is the story of that
child at their worst and we're really
lucky because we get to celebrate those
small wins and change that story
um
so I when kids come here you almost see
them Blossom right for some kids like
the environment is the right environment
for them with the structures and
routines that are in place and the
supports and just the connections with
staff and some kids just absolutely I
would say lots of kids not some
absolutely just loss them in this
setting and I would imagine that people
some hesitation about like supporting
hair and I I don't know that that's
necessarily any of you is a like maybe I
don't have the skills to support with
that particular student or I don't I
don't know that I'm capable of that and
I think the realization of the team
right like you're not alone but I I I
would say that that's a lot of times
more of a fear and of the
unknown and to be that off of that like
that's I I
I been here um I know that um in
chatting with coworkers you know I talk
like got over
um you're going to giggle you're GNA
laugh and you're going to leave with a
smile usually I mean that's my
experience you I think a lot of the
times that I've in communication with
some coworkers is and I'm not trying to
over separate things it's like they have
that uncomfortable feeling that like you
know the unknown or the big the PCM
training piece and the part that I like
to say much what you guys have always
just said here too is that you have that
support in the room that will always be
there right away for you if you need it
you know and that's even a culture thing
we hear of Staff here when people are on
their back wheels or just having a bad
day of nobody in my room is PM train
well the reality is we don't use PM
every day like I
mean it's not this magic wand right we
don't use it that often but it is that
something when people are feeling right
we all go to what do I not have how am I
not equi to do this um but really it's
about coming here and helping kids be
successful and we got we've got a lot of
ways to get creative to do that in
interventions we try and tools we use we
are resource Rich yeah I feel it's
endless it's endless you just have to
identify what you need or what they need
and then and we'll try it and we'll try
it let give it a can't work yeah try
something else right so it's thinking
that lens and all fa all behavior is a
form of communication so behavior isn't
personal it's a child trying to
communicate something and they don't
have the skills to tell you what that is
in that moment so thinking through all
the tools that you have here at Dakota
Rich to support kids and there is no
tool here we use that we don't have in
other buildings or that we can't get in
other buildings so I think that's the
other layer to know it's not like we're
tool Rich because we've got it at all
here it's out there it's using a rocking
chair instead of a regular chair it's
putting a roller ball at their feet it's
giving them a fidget in their class room
it's using a body stck those aren't
magic wands those are things we have
everywhere we might have more of
them um but we are very very aware to
make sure it's a functional tool that
can go somewhere like that so and there
he is there's
MJ
you
big good good
job
and there is
my and he has
relationships with everybody he's like
Royal to you when he walks in in the
morning might take him five to 10
minutes to get to the classroom because
everyone's got to stop and chat myself
included um and he's got things with
each person we have subar who's here two
days a week who I got watch their
interaction yesterday and I
just and he has grown so much because
when when he first started here he was
in a room by himself so to see him do
that of that oh so so awesome like I
said I watched him sign 20 some words
last night and I was just amazed that he
just kept going I'm
like wow and then he'll tell the story
again and he know add a word to his
story and I'm like yes yes just keep
adding and adding and
add what was on the screen um it was
actually Shelby was teaching ASL class
and there were
chips
and he just thought it was the funniest
thing and then he would describe
the do you guys want to take over this
part these are just all the things you
shared and I kind of captured them on a
slide when we met of thinking of like
what is it like to support hair subing
and stepping
in
um okay
so just in this just in this now in this
week um we have our safe spaces for them
I have watched Matthew on his own walk
in just walk in instead of taking us
seven years y y but we got
there
just keep going try something different
um
so a positive happy demeanor when I walk
into that break room