FOR ISDs
“Discipline isn’t a dirty word. Far from it. Discipline is the one thing that separates us from chaos and anarchy. Discipline implies timing. It’s the precursor to good behavior, and it never comes from bad behavior. People who associate discipline with punishment are wrong: with discipline, punishment is unnecessary.”
- Buck Brannaman, The Faraway Horses
When he’s not practicing law, Matthew enjoys working with high school administrators and teachers who are looking for a better approach to classroom management.
In 2018, he began working on a program specifically designed to help teachers adapt and refine their classroom management practices to reduce office referrals and improve teacher-student relationships. At the same time, he became the associate principal of Grapevine-Colleyville ISD’s early college high school, Collegiate Academy.
This new role was a great opportunity to test the ideas he had been working on, and in his first year at Collegiate Academy (2018-19), CA reduced office referrals by 63% from its previous two-year average and continued to perform at that rate for the next two years.
Along with eliminating the need for office referrals in the first place, Matthew is also passionate about what school administrators do with the disciplinary referrals that still come to them, and he enjoys collaborating with administrators who are looking for effective alternatives to exclusionary disciplinary practices like ISS and OSS.
Matthew currently offers consulting services and staff trainings for free to public high schools in the DFW area provided they are willing to 1) devote the necessary time for trainings and implementation and 2) share some campus disciplinary data (nothing identifying specific students).
The first step to this process is a relatively short meeting with the campus administrative team or campus principal to determine whether this program aligns with campus disciplinary goals and practices.