At the Stratford Community School, faculty and staff focus on the basics plus plenty of technology, as well as helping their students learn to be genuine, good people and to care about others. A program called PBIS (Positive Behavior Intervention Supports), an effort to make the school a community where kids care about each other and go out of their way to show it, is in place to help that happen.

To Stratford Superintendent Sarah Binder, PBIS is another way to prepare young students to succeed in school and beyond. “This is something we do that I think is unique,” the veteran educator states. “That’s as strong a skill and just as important as math and science. If you want kids to be kind-hearted, you have to support that as youngsters.”

PBIS, a state-wide initiative, takes many forms at the school, where students from preschool through sixth grade are enrolled. One example is Thankful Thursdays, a day when each student writes a letter to anyone to whom they are thankful. “It can be someone on staff, other kids, community members, family,” Binder says, holding two such letters written in pencil on lined paper that she received recently from younger students. “This gets kids to think about what others do for us and what we can do for them.”

Binder is the advisor for the eight-member student council, where ideas for PBIS activities often originate before they are approved by the staff to be put into place. The student council, made up of all the sixth graders in the school, “gives them lots of leadership experience,” as Binder sees it, adding that council members are very serious about their responsibilities. “Student council is not an option for sixth graders, but I’ve never heard anyone say they didn’t want to do it.”

-Photo by Billie Shelton Students tackle an assignment.

Through the efforts of the student council, the school got behind Operation Christmas Child for a 2016 holiday project. The goal was to fill 100 shoeboxes with small gifts for poor children in other countries. With items donated by students in all the grades at Stratford, some 117 boxes were filled, taken to a pick-up point to be shipped, and distributed overseas.

The student council also recommended participation in the Angel Tree, an effort to make the holidays better for local families. From that, donated gifts and toys went to 29 Stratford families. That effort was aided by a Joy Makers grant that was awarded to the school. There were 108 toys to be shared that came in from that grant.

Such grants are important to fund some of the PBIS activities. Often they are written by Binder, but other staff members also apply from time to time. “We apply for several grants for materials and to fund activities. We’re always looking for grant dollars,” Binder says.

While some of the PBIS programs have been in place at the Stratford school for as long as ten years, Maker Space is quite new. “This is a space or a block of time where kids are encouraged to create things that speak to them especially. They do it because they want to do it,” Binder explains the concept that she says also provides opportunities for leadership. “We’ve provided more time for Maker Space, and kids can do it during recess.”

There are building materials provided for Maker Space, as well as opportunities for simple computer coding. So that leads to more ideas and more leadership opportunities, according to the superintendent.

Not all PBIS activities require funding or fundraising, though. One such activity that’s popular this school year is Spotted Being A Leader. It’s a simple concept: just notice when a student is doing something good during the school day. Recently, two fourth-grade were seen walking several preschoolers out to their building after their bus arrived on a school day. “This is designed to keep kids on track,” Binder says of the program. “It’s amazing how valued that can make kids feel.”

Catching students doing something good results in very few office referrals because of behavior, Binder noted.

It also reinforces the 3 B’s that are the school motto: Be your best. Be respectful. Be responsible. “Instead of saying ‘just be nice,’ we do it by recognizing what’s going on and getting kids to be nice,” Binder comments.

“That’s believing in the goodness of people,” she points out. “And kids are the best people there are.