2018 Winter Five Star Journal

More than a name
District ‘Name, Strength and Need’ initiative puts focus
on students’ social-emotional needs
The corridor walls of Cherry Drive Elementary in Thornton are lined this school year with
photos of each of the schools’ 340 students. The black, cardboard matted frames of smiling
student faces complete with their first names printed in large letters are visible outside each set
of classrooms.
But, behind those smiling faces, are hopes, dreams, anticipations and challenges. The pictures
are part of a school-wide staff promise to take the time to understand each of their students in
a new way.
One of the goals identified in Adams 12 Five Star Schools’ recently-adopted strategic plan,
ELEVATE, is to know every student by their name, strength and need. The importance of school
staff reaching beyond student academic needs to know and understand them on a personal
level was driven home by Five Star Schools Superintendent Chris Gdowski at the start of the
2018-2019 school year. Superintendent Gdowski welcomed all building principals back to a
new school year and encouraged them to work with their staff on knowing each student in
their building by their name as well as their greatest strength and need.
The message immediately struck a chord
with Cherry Drive Principal Tina Hepp who
considers supporting the social-emotional
needs of students “a passion”. When she
welcomed her school staff back from the
summer, she was ready to launch the initiative
on a building-wide level.
Hepp recruited her own nephews to model
name, strength and need responses in short
video clips and asked her staff to complete
the same exercise with each other.
Hepp explains that, while teachers hold a
mastery of knowing where students are at
academically, the pressures of academic
standards and testing means they can
sometimes miss the opportunity to know
students on a more personal level.
Her message to teachers was simple: listen,
take the time to talk to each student and give
them the opportunity to “share who they are”.
“Taking the time to truly talk with them makes
the difference,” Hepp said.
The student pictures on hallway walls are
joined by inspirational messages such as
“You Matter” and “We All Matter”.
It is about creating a school culture not only
focused on high academic performance but
also care and compassion.
“My goal for students when they walk into the
building is it’s their safe place, it’s their happy
place and that they know we care about
them,” Hepp said.
She added that a focus on students’ socialemotional
needs doesn’t mean pursuing high
academic performance has to take a backseat.
“My goal for students
when they walk
into the building is
it’s their safe place,
it’s their happy place
and that they know
we care about them.”
- Tina Hepp,
Cherry Drive Elementary Principal
Becoming a state-rated performance school
remains the goal. She believes by engaging
students on a personal level, knowing their
strengths and needs, will guide them down
a pathway of learning and future academic
success.
Hepp said she has organized checkpoints
with teachers throughout the year to help
track their progress on connecting with
students as part of the initiative.
The social-emotional focus area of the
ELEVATE plan includes expanded supports
and interventions for students who struggle
socially, emotionally and behaviorally;
development of a P-12 social-emotional
learning curriculum; investments in new
staff training; and increases in school-based
support staff such as counselors and social
workers. Learn more at www.adams12.org/
elevate/plan. •
6 | Elementary School Feature
Five Star Journal, Winter 2018 | 7