Discipline problems down at MCMS

The school reported that out-of-school suspensions dropped from 231 in 2006-2007 to just 62 this year through February.

As for in-school suspensions, that number dropped from 476 in 2006-2007 to 219 this year.

“We’ve had pretty significant decreases in discipline instances and severe discipline instances,” Madison County Schools Superintendent Mitch McGhee said.

McGhee credits the more close-knit atmosphere of the house concept utilized in the new MCMS building that opened during the 2008-2009 school year.

“One of the reasons we wanted to go to the house concept is that we felt that discipline would improve, creating that school-within-school,” he said. “The smaller climate, the more identification with teachers.”

McGhee shared these stats with the Madison County Board of Education (BOE) at its March 9 meeting.

“We don’t just want to say we’re doing good things,” McGhee said. “We want to collect the data to show that and find out if we’re on the right track.”