"We have been receiving a number of emails that parents have sent ... about bullying, and we've looked into those that were alleged to have occurred to separate fact from rumor," Pedersen said Friday. "And we have identified some general direction or at least areas that the administration needs to work on prior to the reopening of school in August."

The areas that Phillips will be looking at improving are prevention, response and communication, he said.

Pedersen said in all the cases he reviewed at Phillips there were consequences for the aggressor. Still, he said bullying is perceived to be a problem in many schools and the problems at Phillips are no greater than at any other schools.

According to a Phillips School Improvement Team (SIT) survey, 25 percent of 193 parents that took the survey thought bullying was a problem at Phillips.

Greg Bell, former SIT chairman for the last two years, sees communication as the bigger problem at Phillips. The team had posted the survey online to get data to present to the school about communication related to school safety, students' academic progress and the overall school environment.

"We started talking about communication, and then bullying emerged as a concern for a small but significant number of families," he said.

Bell's three children all attended Phillips and had no issues with bullying, he said.

Principal Cicily McCrimmon referred questions about the recent bullying complaints to Pedersen.

In a letter to parents May 20, she wrote in part:

"As we look to the last few weeks of this school year, please be assured that our students and staff are safe in spite of challenges. There is a commitment to learning for our students, rigorous teaching from our staff; and finally, the continuation of strong relationships with our extended stakeholders to address concerns related to processes involving student discipline, school safety, and clear and consistent communication."

Phillips Middle School, like every school in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro district, uses Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports to deal with incidents of bullying and misbehavior in school, according to Nancy Kueffer, PBIS coordinator and lead behavior specialist.

PBIS creates a system for tracking and addressing misbehavior and positively reinforcing good behavior.

Phillips is just two years into this program and still in the implementation stage, which can take three to five years. However in a situation where there has been an administration change, like the change in principals at Phillips about two years ago, it could take a while for them to catch up, according to Kueffer.

"I know that there have been some incidents and the parents have been frustrated with it, but I don't have the data that supports [that bullying is an issue] right now," Kueffer said.