Restorative Practices & Paycheck System

Positive Behavior Incentives

Young Scholars prides itself on upholding a highly structured environment intended to maximize instructional time while also promoting a school culture that is joyous and supportive. Over the last several years, students and staff have built a safe and predictable school environment where students take pride in their community and are regularly rewarded for their good choices. Each year, students have experienced a wide range of trips, events and community building activities to incentivize their modeling of the core values, along with comprehensive behavioral supports during times of struggle. The school is shifting to more student ownership, student leadership, restorative practices and civic engagement as a next phase in its progress.

It is our mission at Young Scholars that every student leaves equipped with the skills necessary to succeed in high school and beyond. Accordingly, students are encouraged to make good choices and then earn rewards or consequences based on their choices. Students are “paid” Scholar Dollars for meeting their weekly requirements as a student. The PRIDE school behavior framework, as taught and reinforced in Community meetings throughout the year, is tracked in the Paycheck System. Students can also lose Scholar Dollars from their weekly Paycheck for not fulfilling their essential duties as a Scholar, for example: tardiness, out of uniform, disruptive, disrespectful or being unprepared. Students’ Paycheck balances are tied directly to their eligibility to attend school-wide trips and events and paycheck data is used to assign consequences and plan behavioral interventions.