Signal Hill Elementary ‘Husky PRIDE’ program discussed at BOE meeting

This school year, the term “Husky PRIDE” means something a little different for the students at Signal Hill Elementary School and their mascot the Husky.

As detailed at the Jan. 27 meeting of the Voorhees Board of Education, Husky PRIDE is the school’s new character building education program all students can take an active part in every day.

With a P for patience, R for respect, I for inclusion, D for determination and E for excellence, the PRIDE acronym showcases the key character building areas staff and school officials found to have been successful at other schools and wished to replicate at Signal Hill.

“We wanted to focus on the parts of character education that we felt were most appropriate for our students, ones we felt could help our students grow into better students and citizens,” fifth-grade teacher Shawn Seppanen said. Yet, rather than working as just general themes, Signal Hill staff wanted the five pillars of PRIDE to translate to specific languages that can be used throughout the building and school day so students could better understand what was expected of them.

Based off the five key pillars, Husky PRIDE posters were developed and placed throughout the building in areas such as the all-purpose room for assemblies and lunch, outside bathrooms, in the hallways, near exits where children go outside for recess and near front exits for when students get on their buses.

The posters then have their own PRIDE acronyms for that specific area, such as the all-purpose room poster for school assemblies telling students to Pay attention, Respect others, use Indoors voices and so forth.

Desk cards were also developed for students with PRIDE acronyms detailing actions students should be doing every day, such as exhibiting Patience and self-control, Respecting themselves and others, Including all, having Determination to do well and achieving Excellence in all they do.

Third through fifth graders at the school also received cards detailing how they could show Husky PRIDE on social media platforms.

“We wanted the children in every area of the school, in every component of their day, to be exposed to these Husky PRIDE behaviors so we can have a positive school climate,” school counselor Paula Long said.

To help roll out the program, school staff members were asked to attend a short training session at the beginning of the school year where they learned about the common language so kids would hear a consistent message from classroom to classroom.

Staff also enlisted the help of parents by asking them to sign forms indicating they had read what Husky PRIDE was about and they would try to have students follow the language in their home setting as well.

School staff members have also been making an effort to focus on a different pillar of Husky PRIDE for two-month long intervals, followed by assemblies where that particular pillar is reviewed before introducing the next pillar and the expectations for adhering to that pillar.

“The program truly has improved the overall climate of our school,” Principal Sharon Stallings said. “Discipline referrals are down, hopefully they’ll stay down. The kids have bought into it, and I thank the parents for buying into it, and especially our staff.”