At Stewart Elementary School in Stevensville, PRIDE is an acronym that stands for five traits – Perseverance, Respect, Integrity, Dedication and Empathy.
The Stewart Family Synergy Teams, represented by six 5th graders and eight faculty members Monday at the Lakeshore School Board meeting, presented to board members what they’ve learned about PRIDE, initiatives the teams have started, and even the challenges of demonstrating all aspects of PRIDE.
While Lantis said the PRIDE concept has been around for a few years, a new concept this year is the POP [Points of PRIDE] store. By demonstrating one of the elements of PRIDE, students can earn POP tickets and use them to purchase fun prizes and other bigger treats like McDonalds or Dairy Queen.
“It’s a constant reminder of the behaviors that we want to see, not only from our students, but from our staff members as well,” said Stewart Principal Samantha Lantis, of the Synergy teams and PRIDE concept. “It’s really cool to see the students and to see our staff members take on such great leadership opportunities. The Synergy teams are truly leading the initiatives that you see. This is not led by the building principal. It’s led by what they see as a priority, which is really cool.”
During the meeting, students explained in more detail what PRIDE means.
Student presentation
Representing the Student Synergy Team were Sakti Patel, Ethan Ankli, Vivaan Devlekar, Sahith Kona and Morgan Hughes. Each student took their turn telling the board more about the team and its initiatives.
“Our role in Stewart is to make PRIDE more visible for students,” Hughes said. “We show our school and community that doing the right thing matters.”
One of the student-led initiatives is the creation of their own video announcements to limit interruptions throughout the school day. They also ran a coat drive, Halloween costume drive, Caring Cupboard food drive and Thanksgiving feast give back to help students and families in need.
According to Devlekar, the Synergy teams created a system of “shoutout slips” where students can recognize other students. The shoutouts are featured on the student announcements.
“Student Synergy helps me help others,” said Ankli. “Then, that will make other people want to help even more people.”
During the meeting, the students handed out POP tickets to board and audience members who displayed elements of PRIDE, and showed the board how the store works.
Accompanying the students were the teacher and faculty Synergy team, represented by Lantis, 2nd grade teacher Karen Keesler, counselor Dayna Galloway, kindergarten teacher Jillian Crockett, 5th grade teacher Meredith Lane, paraprofessional Ashley Norris, 4th grade teacher Tessa Lee and Paraprofessional Connie Gunkel.
Most of the staff expressed how the Synergy teams helped them feel a closer connection to both students and staff.
PRIDE
Board member Rachel Wade posed a two-part question to each student: Of the elements of PRIDE, which are the easiest and hardest to display?
“The easiest for me is respect,” Devlekar said. “I don’t normally see people going around messing up the school. Then the hardest for me is probably perseverance, because … I always get into really tough situations where I can’t do anything, and my brain is dead. Like a Monday test – I can’t do anything, but I just have to power through.”
Patel said the easiest for her to display was empathy.
“I don’t really want to hurt the people next to me,” she said, gesturing toward classmates. “Then perseverance is kind of hard because if you’re doing something like the PACER test, you can tire really easily if you’re not pacing yourself. … You just have to keep going until your legs give out.”
Most of the other students picked integrity as the easiest to display.
“When a teacher walks out of the room, I’m not going to go throw my book across the room,” Kona said.
Hughes said students shouldn’t change their behavior based on who is there and who isn’t, and Ankli agreed.
“I gotta agree with Sahith and Morgan on that one,” he said. “It’s not like when the teacher is out of the room, it’s not like it’s a war … and then also perseverance is definitely the hardest, because if you get mad at something you might like want to throw whatever you’re holding.”
Board members expressed their amazement at how well-spoken the students were in their presentation.
“I just wanted to add how impressive it is to me that at this age, there were no nerves,” he said. “Future leaders amongst the school there. When we all retire, you guys can come on up here. You’re already ready.”
By Ryan Yuenger
ryany@wsjm.com
