Wirt County Middle School was named a 2026 West Virginia PBIS Tier 1 Model School by the West Virginia Behavior/Mental Health Technical Assistance Center (WVBMHTAC). In collaboration with the WV Autism Training Center at Marshall University and the WV Department of Education, the WVBMHTAC oversees, in addition to other initiatives, the state’s school-wide Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) project.
For the 2025-2026 school year, the WV PBIS Leadership Team began searching for West Virginia PBIS Tier 1 Model Schools in January. The process involves the schools submitting evidence of their work and participating in a site visit for interviews with their PBIS teams, administrators, and students. The evidence of their work can be found in their school and classroom expectations, how they utilize their data, in examples of their positive feedback systems, their planning of how to respond to challenging behaviors, and how they build relationships with all their stakeholders. The leadership is looking for ongoing evidence of a multi-tiered, problem-solving framework that produces positive outcomes.
WV PBIS Coordinator, Alicia Ziman, says, “The Model Schools initiative is an integral part of our project. Identifying Model Schools gives us the opportunity to showcase the work these schools have found to be effective. We also have the ability to share their experiences with schools across the state and with outside stakeholders. Model Schools can instill an excitement in others through their passion and dedication to the PBIS Framework that is hard to capture in any training alone.”
Wirt County Middle School, along with principal Ms. Gayle Hickman and her PBIS team, exceeded our standards to be awarded this recognition. Their fidelity to PBIS implementation and focus on student needs is a shining example of the Model Schools initiative. With a strong leadership team and dedicated staff members guiding the way, the students at Wirt County Middle are taught behavior expectations and the skills needed to succeed each day. Their implementation of best practices, commitment to a multi-tiered system of support, and data-driven decision-making has made them a true model for PBIS Tier 1 practices.
The WVBMHTAC is so appreciative of Wirt County Middle’s dedication to the PBIS framework, and we look forward to how this recognition as a Model School can help support other schools across the state.