South Metro Newsletter
Fall 2022
A Letter From the Director
Parents and Stakeholders,
The beginning of a new school year reminds us all that the future holds infinite possibilities. Our opening to the school year has been very successful thanks to the support of our parents and dedication of our staff. We are excited to launch a few new initiatives this school year and to continue progress on past endeavors.
This fall select students at the Ash St. Center will have the opportunity to participate in Equine Therapy in collaboration with the Calvin Center; additionally, we are working through the details of adding our newest staff member “Popcorn” the therapy dog. Our focus as always this school year is on providing therapeutic supports to enhance academic and social emotional performance.
The staff at South Metro looks forward to working with all of our families in providing individualized support to not only address student deficits but to also provide support to families. Our wraparound program has grown to be fully integrated into our menu of supports and services which means we are able to offer even more intensive support in the wraparound model. (See more about wraparound below.)
Additionally, we have deployed instructional support paras who will begin working intensively with small groups of students focusing on academic skills and performance. Students will be able to receive intensive one-to-one support focusing on basic skills in an effort to reduce gaps in performance levels.
The Ash Street Center is excited to work with and support all of our students and families in need of clinical and therapeutic services during the 2022 – 2023 school year.
Best regards,
Derrick Gilchrist
GNETS Kicks Into Full Gear w/ LSCI training!
Ten staff members from Ash Street and JBH came together for 4 days to learn about Life Space Crisis Intervention (LSCI), an interviewing process to determine characteristics of behaviors, feelings, conflicts, circumstances, responses and resolutions. Through the combination of LSCI and NME (Neurosequential Model in Education), GNETS' staff is able to turn prevent and/or de-escalate undesired behaviors as well as turn them into teachable, sustainable life skills.
Behavior team gears up!
This year's behavioral team will focus on a caring and preventive approach. Members of the team are now trained in LSCI (Life Space Crisis Intervention) and are in the final stages of becoming RBT’s (Registered Behavior Technician), which has provided the needed preemptive skills to identify behavior root causes. Teaching, modeling and positive reinforcing will be utilized in an effort to encourage appropriate behaviors while decreasing misbehaviors.
Meeting preparations for staff, students and caregivers are underway to determine behavior source and establish new targeted replacement behaviors. Finally, we will work to develop and implement a plan that will foster the students' success in the school environment.
We would like to welcome you to join us in this endeavor for a successful 2022-23 school year!
GNETS will be utilizing PBIS again for 2022-23 school year!
Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) is an evidence-based three-tiered framework to improve and integrate all of the data, systems, and practices affecting student outcomes every day. We have made many changes and we are excited as we roll out our PBIS program this year. Although we encourage and praise our students for positive behavior daily, PBIS allows us to reward them on a wider scale. With PBIS, we recognize our students individually, classroom-wide, and school-wide. During our 21-22 school year, we integrated NME (Neurosequential Model in Education) practices into our PBIS program. These connections gave students time to reflect on their own behaviors (positive and negative) from previous weeks, while also building a stronger rapport with the staff. Students have grown to love these conferences as well as our school-wide activities.
For the 22-23 school year, we look forward to a successful and amazing year!
