PORT BYRON - Leslie B. Lehn Middle School didn't wait until Wednesday to usher in the new school year.

Tuesday evening, the middle school in the Port Byron Central School District opened its doors to students and especially parents for the first Welcome Back to School Night, a social gathering to facilitate parent involvement in children's educational lives and increase and strengthen communication between the school and homes while making students from fifth to eighth grade more comfortable with their school year, from meeting their teachers to getting their locker combinations.

“Middle school students need family involvement as much as when they were in elementary school but in a different way,” said Principal Sally Feinburg to a packed gymnasium. “Our goal is to create a culture where parents have opportunities to engage in school activities so they feel more comfortable working together with the staff to make sound educational decisions for our children. With more parental involvement, teachers have more resources and everyone has more information to make informed decisions.”

That sentiment was shared by many parents, who want to have a bigger part in their child's education.

“Teachers know that they can depend on parents to be involved with their children's education,” said Robin Herrington of Weedsport, whose daughter, Jessica, will enter the school as a fifth grader.

“I think (parent involvement) is so important so parents and kids can stay together,” said Lynette Taylor of Throop, whose 10-year-old son, Zack, is joining the district this year from Weedsport.

She pointed to increased communication as the result of this partnership.

“And they'll all help together to keep people off the streets, off drugs, and keep them away from tobacco,” Zack said.

Zack said that he is excited to start a new school in a new district.

“It's just a bigger opportunity to have a fresh, new start,” he elaborated.

Administrators and team leaders spoke briefly to parents and students before an ice cream social Tuesday evening. Then students and parents met with teachers by grade level for a brief orientation, during which time students received the combinations to their lockers, learned their schedules, and for school newcomers, mapped out the school.

Earlier this year, Leslie B. Lehn Middle School was accepted by the Onondaga Cortland Madison Board of Cooperative Educational Services as a fifth cohort in Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports, a systems approach to preventing and responding to school and classroom discipline problems through the teaching and promotion of positive behavior in all students.

OCM BOCES is one of six regional centers in the state awarded a five-year grant through the New York State Department of Education and Vocational and Educational Services for Individuals with Disabilities for training and implementation of PBIS.

The national PBIS program, National Technical Assistance Center on Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports, funded by the Office of Special Education Programs in the U.S. Department of Education, provided training in the state so New York could build its own system.

In this system, students, teachers, administrators and staff are engaged to foster a positive and safe environment.

“It is a research-based, proven effective model for systems change,” said Lee Beals, coordinator for Students Support Services Network at OCM BOCES.

“It's important because it includes all parts of the system in a building. It's everyone in the building.”

Beals said that you can't ignore the staff - the bus drivers, janitors and cafeteria staff.

“You've got to include the bus and the cafeteria, all areas in the school where staff and students are. It's a consistent approach for a positive environment for all kids,” she said.

Beals noted that different measures of acceptability and expectations exist in many systems; PBIS makes those measures consistent, so students know what is expected of them, she said.

PBIS alerts school staff as well as families if any interventions are necessary so that the needs of students are addressed.

“The point is to be able to provide positive interventions for students by engaging families and keeping track of student data - academic data and discipline data - in order to intervene as soon as possible on a student's behalf,” Feinberg said.

Welcome Back to School Night is one event of many that the middle school is holding as part of PBIS. Through parent breakfasts, community celebrations, a career day when parents can present their careers to students and a Veterans Day Celebration, Feinberg is hoping to close the gap between the school and homes.

“All of those types of events have been done to give parents more opportunities to come to school, thereby making them feel more involved and more comfortable when they come for parent conferences,” she said. “They know the teachers better and are more likely to contact teachers. There aren't as many barriers for teachers in contacting parents as there might be because they now know the families better. So there's a lot better communication when we are talking about academics and interventions for students.”

And John Bell couldn't agree more.

“It gets parents involved,” said the Port Byron man and grandfather to fifth grader Sophia Yurco. “It'll get kids off the street and get parents to be parents so the school doesn't have to do that.”

Staff writer Alyssa Sunkin can be reached at alyssa.sunkin@lee.net or 253-5311 ext. 239