School district rebrands itself as ‘The Field’

Brookfield school officials have created a brand for the school district, and they hope the community will embrace the identity of “The Field.”
Officials have started hanging “The Field” banners at the school, and released a video on the school’s web site and Facebook page explaining the effort.
“The Field” is a representation of the school’s PBIS initiative, PBIS standing for Positive Behavior Intervention and Supports, a program required by the state to be in place in November 2021. Brookfield officials plan to launch the initiative more than a year early.
Under PBIS, officials have created standard expectations of behavior in the classroom, lunchroom, bathroom, parking lot and at recess and school activities, all stated positively, said Adam Lewis, director of teaching, learning and accountability. There even will be expectations for virtual learning, presuming that will be resumed in the fall, Lewis said.
“It is a data-driven, evidence-based, three-tier framework,” said PBIS committee member Chris Marsco, an instructional aide, in an April 24 Zoom meeting including members of the PBIS committee and the school board.
“We’re able to look at behavioral data, academic data, attendance data and make sure that we’re assigning the appropriate supports for those students,” Lewis said.
The tiers refer to labeling students as at-risk, most at-risk and on-track, Lewis said.
“It is geared at identifying and improving student outcomes, both academically and behaviorally,” Marsco said. “Presents almost a road map for us to move upon.”
The concept of “The Field,” which high school teacher Jim Haywood noted has been used sporadically to refer to Brookfield at least since he attended the school as a student in the late ’80s, is not just a shortened form of “Brookfield.” Each letter in “field” refers to a pillar of the PBIS mission statement: F is for family, I is for innovation, E is for engagement, L is for leadership and D is for dedication.
The pillars are “things that we were really already doing in most of our classes,” Haywood said. “We maybe just didn’t have a name for it, didn’t call it engagement, or didn’t call it innovation or whatever it was. It’s been something that we really worked towards, trying to make sure that everybody is gonna be able to look at this piece and (say), hey, this is what we need to be doing because this is gonna benefit everyone.”
The committee is working on creating procedures and incentives for students.
“We also are going to be completing a PBIS handbook for next school year that we will be able to use to follow and refer to,” said middle school physical education and health teacher Lynn Pegg.
“Hopefully, by the time the doors open next year, all these banners will be done and in place and, when the kids walk in, they’re gonna be inundated with ‘The Field,’” Haywood said. “They’re gonna see it everywhere. They’re gonna see it in the halls; they’re gonna see it in the classroom; and we’re gonna do everything we can to really make it a part of our culture.”
In terms of seeing it everywhere, school board member Melissa Sydlowski said she would like to be able to walk into a local business and see a “The Field” banner posted on a wall, letting students know the expectations do not end when they leave school at the dismissal bell.
“If I was at a restaurant or I was at a business here in Brookfield and I saw Brookfield kids and I thought they were not behaving correctly, just throwing it out there, it would be helpful to say, ‘We’re part of a community. You’re better than that. You’re Brookfield. You’re ‘The Field,’” said board member Sarah Kurpe. “I love the messaging, particularly, the offsite, when you’re at events. We never want to see our students not representing themselves well.”
“That’s part of the plan,” school Supt. Toby Gibson said of trying to make “The Field” a community brand. “Even the idea of putting some of these banners up, like, in the (Brookfield) center, and things like that.”
“This is an excellent selling point of what we have here in Brookfield,” said board member George Economides. “We gotta sell this thing hard.”