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GATEWAY SCHOOL DISTRICT
Taking the Lead: Elementary PBIS / Student Leadership Teams Help Shape Gateway School District Culture
Every other Friday, Mike Matteo and Dr. Montaire Taylor meet with their student leadership team and carefully listen.
One by one, each of the nine 4th graders share their ideas and input with Evergreen Elementary’ s principal and counselor, ideas which are carefully considered and implemented.
Meetings like these are commonplace across the district’ s schools. Gateway High School and Middle School both have their leadership teams, but so too do all four of the district’ s elementary schools, giving students a stake in their school experience as early as possible.
“ You definitely want to create a space where students feel heard. It doesn’ t mean you’ re going to get everything.
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But you want them to be a part of the process and I feel like that culture has been embedded here for a while,” said Dr. Taylor, Evergreen’ s counselor.
“ This is like their second home and safe space,” added Dr. Cleveland Steward Elementary counselor Rebecca Clemens.“ Their input is valuable and we want them to help build the culture, have input in the environment, and feel like they belong.”
Each year, new teams are constructed, some voted on by students and others picked by teachers and school leaders. Teams differ from school to school. Evergreen’ s, for example, is composed of all 4th grade students, while Dr. Cleveland Steward’ s has two 2nd graders, three 3rd graders, and seven fourth graders. At Ramsey Elementary, teachers nominate students for their Ramsey Role Models club based on who has best exemplified the month’ s character trait, like respect or compassion.
Duties for these leadership teams are wide-ranging. Most notably, students are empowered to share their input through regular meetings with their principals and counselors, and even through meetings with the superintendent and assistant superintendent.
At Evergreen, student leaders have come up with ten ideas, from dress like a teacher day to a scavenger hunt. Many of these ideas then are tied into PBIS( Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports), as students need to earn enough Gator Pride tickets— rewarded based on following schoolwide expectations— to participate.
“ My favorite idea is the scavenger hunt, where we would go to the park and find different types of leaves and stuff like that,” said Evergreen 4th grader, Ryle Bostwick.
“ We came up with a Gator Party idea. I’ m excited for that,” added Evergreen 4th grader Levi Manigault.“ It’ s where the Gateway Gator comes to our school and we