Even as the faculty and staff of the newly constructed Burgess Elementary came together in 2007 from many different schools, we agreed that in order for our school to provide an exemplary academic program we would focus on the importance of meeting children’s basic psychological needs for physical and emotional safety. We knew that in meeting those needs, we were creating strong bonds with our students that would impact their well-being, their achievement and their commitment to our school community. A team of representative factions from the school met to decide on the core values that we would use to frame our work and chose a group of lifeskills and lifelong guidelines that we knew would benefit our students throughout their school career and into life. Later, as we were crafting our mission statement, we determined that our ultimate goal was to collaborate with our community, to create a nurturing, caring environment, and to develop lifelong leaders and learners who would become responsible members of society. Embedding lifeskills and lifelong guidelines into our curriculum has guided our journey well. Over the six years of our existence, this philosophy has served us well garnering along the way statewide recognition for service learning and academic excellence. We have made lasting changes in the norms that shape our students’ lives and have created a nurturing school environment in which children thrive.

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