At Beechwood Elementary School, good behavior isn’t just a goal — it’s the standard for which the school operates.
Thanks to a program implemented called Positive Behavior Interventions and Support, Beechwood has molded itself into a beacon of positive reinforcement that has influenced its discipline, test scores and environment for the better, principal Tamikia Billings said.
“It is a program that uses positive behavior to influence students in a positive manner to increase great behavior and decrease any behavior that might cause a disruption of some sort,” Billings said. “It is a program that just instills in students our motto, which is  ‘Be ready, be respectful, be responsible.’”
The PBIS program, which is utilized by more than 19,000 schools across the United States, aims to curb negative behavior by rewarding the positive kind. According to the program’s official website, PBIS puts “an emphasis on school-wide systems of support that include proactive strategies for defining, teaching and supporting appropriate student behaviors to create positive school environments.”
Beechwood uses a faux currency called “honey money” that can be turned in for class-created rewards as a way to inspire students to strive to follow the rules. At the end each 9-week period, those students who don’t have any write-ups are able to participate in the school’s PBIS Big Event, which in the past has included a color run and winter carnival.
“(The students) want to be recognized for doing something good, and they ultimately want to be leaders,” Billings said. “They want to be told, OK, this is not what I’m supposed to do, what do I need to do to correct it?”
Beechwood has been a PBIS model site for three consecutive years and remains the only model site school in the Vicksburg Warren School District. That lofty accomplishment was helped spearheaded by assistant principal Devona Dew, who tweaked the former PBIS system at Beechwood to match that of Pelahatchie Elementary School — the first school in Rankin County to be designated a PBIS model site and Dew’s old place of work.
“What we were doing was not quite in alignment with what PBIS was supposed to do, so we worked together as a team and got them fixed,” she said. “Once we got all that fixed, it just really blossomed.  I just brought the knowledge that I had with me to help guide them with that.”
Dew said the goal of the program is to make good behavior an internal and conscious choice by students, who are then able to understand its importance on their education. Using positive reinforcement like “honey money” to bring out that good behavior has worked wonders in places like the classroom and lunch line according to Dew and Billings.
“It’s amazing to watch these kids do it,” Dew said of their behavior changes. “We don’t even have to waste our breath talking to kids who aren’t acting right. They just get it together.”
Billings agreed, citing the program for Beechwood’s current across-the-board success.
“It takes a village. Everyone is involved. It takes a big buy-in from everybody,” she said. “I’m a firm believer that if you have great behavior, you’ll have a great school.”