Belleville District #118 was teaching Character Education more than 15 years ago. As a district, we have taught and modeled monthly lifeskills, participated in Peaceball activities and services projects and taught character programs such as Second Step. Six years ago, a new Principal was hired into our building, who had just finished the Leadership Academy in Character Education (LACE). Under her direction we formed our Leadership Team (LT). It was this collaborative group that identified our core values, mission/vision, and school pledge. As our program strengthened with focus on core values, we began looking for other ways to enhance our school environment. Three years ago with the support of our LT and staff we implemented Caring School Community (CSC). Through surveys and discussions, our main goal became to ensure all members of our school community felt a strong sense of belonging. We agreed at that time to also completely eliminate extrinsic rewards and to begin focusing instead on teamwork and intrinsic recognition. Instead we now hold “celebrations” in individual classrooms and at times for our whole school. We celebrate after the fact and everyone is included, no child is left out of the celebration. Through the implementation of CSC we have successfully increased that sense of belonging for all stakeholders in our school community. Our Core Values and Team Work are the focus of each day.

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