It's a simple change — adjusting the duties of the assistant principals at Helena High — but one Helena School District administrators said is making a big difference.

This year instead of each of the three assistant principals taking on various duties of academics, attendance and discipline, they're all sharing the load by breaking up the school's 1,600 students according to the alphabet.

They see the same group of students and their parents for everything from schedule changes to attendance and discipline.

"With this model, I'll have students for four years and families for even longer," HHS Assistant Principal Brian Cummings said.

Once a week, the assistant principals meet with the school counselors to discuss student behavior issues and any conflicts that may be bubbling below the surface. The team approach has benefited students, administrators say, because it doesn't isolate discipline referrals from a student's social or emotional challenges, which they might share with a guidance counselor.

"I feel things have been decreased so far as bullying and harassment because we've been able to jump on it sooner and work on developing those connections n those relationships with students." Cummings added.

The new system at Helena High is just one of dozens of small changes school administrators are making across the district to improve school communities, bolster adult-child contact and help build relationships with parents.

For the past several weeks, both middle schools have gone through training to bully-proof their schools. Every student in all three grades has been through the course, and teachers have plans in place to support the training with additional lessons in their classrooms.

"We're teaching kids how to take a stand, how to help each other, support each other and when to get adult help," said Casey Molloy, the safe and drug free schools coordinator at Helena Middle School.

But the training isn't just for the students. Teachers, administrators and paraprofessionals have also been trained to recognize and deal with threats, harassment and bullying.

The training focuses on fostering respectful relationships and arresting stereotypes.

In another effort to build a caring school community, a team of friendly volunteers converge on Helena Middle School as part of the Greeters Program. They're parents, business partners, members of service organizations, local clergy, college students, retired folks and administrators from the district's central administration office. Their job: to make eye contact and say hello to the students as they enter the building in the morning and to mingle among them in the halls.

"The message we're sending to the students is that we care and that the community cares," Molloy said.

The project is in its second year, and Molloy said she's yet to have a problem finding volunteers willing to commit to half an hour a day n from 7:35 to 8:05 a.m n once a week or once a month. The experience is as satisfying for greeters as it has been for students.

"Sometimes the little things make a big difference," said greeter Rick Grieve. "Sometimes just a smile can turn their day around."

Across town, many C.R. Anderson Middle School students arrive on busses. In fact, C.R. Anderson is serviced by the most busses of any Helena school, and in past years conflicts, bullying and harassment have been a problem as children travel to and from school.

A recent grant from the Montana Board of Crime Control has afforded the district the opportunity to pilot a program that provides a stipend for bus monitors on every bus. The program has curtailed the number of conflicts on busses, said Helen Chrest, C.R. Anderson's safe -and-drug-free schools coordinator.

"The whole idea behind it is to create a caring community where every kid feels comfortable coming to school and wants to come to school," Chrest added.