The Amboy School District is working toward reducing exclusionary discipline, with its school board voting this month to accept a district-wide discipline improvement plan.

The district has been on a state list of schools that are in the top 20% of all Illinois public schools using exclusionary discipline over a three-year period. The state bases the list on the percentage of suspension cases among a district’s student body population and not the number of suspensions per district in any given year.

“They take the number of suspensions you have and they divide it by the number of students we have. That puts us at a certain percent. If you are in the top 20 percent, you have to fill out a plan. If you are a really big school and you have only a few suspensions, then your percentage goes down,” Joshua Nichols, Amboy CUSD No. 272 school superintendent, told the board.

The list is the result of Illinois Senate Bill 100, which became effective Sept. 15, 2016. The bill requires districts to limit suspensions and expulsions, prohibits zero-tolerance policies and requires schools to have restorative justice measures.

The Illinois State Board of Education requires schools in the top 20% for suspensions to create and implement a plan to reduce suspensions.

“We have made improvements. Suspensions are down from 123 to 79 last year. We are steadily improving,” Nichols told the board. “The plan includes how we are working on reducing exclusionary discipline, whether it’s through restorative practices, which we have implemented. Are we using more in-schools? Are we using different types of discipline?”

He said the district uses a policy of progressive discipline and uses suspensions as a last resort but there are behaviors that elevate more quickly to suspensions.

“We do have some things like possession of drugs, second possession of drugs, vaping in the bathrooms, blatant insubordination, fighting, things along those lines, that elevate to that,” Nichols said.

He said vaping, with tobacco and marijuana, was driving the number of suspensions but has gone down.

“We really started clamping down on it because it doesn’t need to be in the school,” Nichols said.

In other business:

• The board heard an update on possible expansion of Amboy’s co-op agreement with LaMoille-Ohio. The three schools have been in a co-op for football and an expansion of the co-op agreement could add opportunities for students. Nichols said discussions are in early stages and that numbers will decide whether to expand the co-op agreement. Some benefits to an expansion would be access for Amboy students to sports like disc golf and bass fishing, which LaMoille offers, as well as access to a third gymnasium facility for sports or practices and additional coaches and activity sponsors.
• The board approved a quote from Southern Bleacher Company to replace bleachers at the football field with ADA-compliant bleachers. The bleachers will cost $269,420 and the concrete work an additional $110,000. Nichols said the bleachers will be purchased through the TIPS purchasing cooperative and the district plans to use sales tax revenue to cover the majority of the project, with the rest of the funds coming from the district Operations and Maintenance fund.