Schools on offensive against offensive behavior

The number of fights at secondary schools is down 50 percent compared to this time last year and bullying is down more than 50 percent, but the West Allis-West Milwaukee School Board tonight reviewed plans to bring down misbehavior even more.

Superintendent of Schools Kurt Wachholz outlined a plan to systematically employ methods to deal with behavior problems. Through a standardized tracking system, teachers, counselors and principals will be able to determine whether an intervention method is working to eliminate a student's misbehavior or whether another approach should be tried.

The tracking system that is within days of being fully implemented also should give what Wachholz called real time data" that will be more meaningful than the data now available. It also will be more detailed so that severity of offenses is indicated.