School STARS program aims to catch kids being good

The Odessa School District staff is continuing a behavior intervention system put in place two years ago called Positive Behavior Intervention Systems (P.B.I.S.). Throughout the first year of implementation and beyond, the Odessa staff has focused on “catching students being good.” The idea is to catch students doing positive things as a way to eliminate negative and disruptive behavior.

The staff came up with the idea of handing out tickets to students throughout the school (in the hallway, cafeteria, playground, classroom, etc.) doing positive things. These are called S.T.A.R.S. tickets:

S = safe behavior, T = trustworthy and responsible, A = active learner, R = respectful and civil and S = strives for success.

At the end of each week, tickets are taken out of the S.T.A.R.S. ticket basket. They are sorted by grade level, and a winner from each group is randomly chosen to pick a reward from an already created list.

Now we are asking Odessa’s business owners to catch our S.T.A.R.S. doing positive things in the community. A bundle of S.T.A.R.S. tickets will be offered to local businesses to fill out and distribute to students caught being respectful, civil, trustworthy and responsible in a given place of business. Students will then bring the ticket to school and place it in the S.T.A.R.S. ticket box for the weekly drawing.

At this time, it is our hope that the tickets will have been handed out to each business. Businesses that have not received tickets are requested to let the school principal’s office (982-2111) know, and they will be supplied as soon as possible. We apologize for any delay or oversight.

The district thanks you for your support with this program! We believe positive and proper behavior should not stop when students walk out of the school building. Our hope is the behaviors will be practiced in everything our students do and everywhere they go.