First PBIS Students of Month chosen
September’s Students of the Month are Sergio Quintana and Paige Nickless.
Sergio is a CCS sophomore, and the son of Sergio Quintana and Angelica Vega.
Sergio is great example of what positive behavior in action looks like. Carl Zuege, social studies teacher and CCS coach, said, “Sergio is one of the most consistently positive and dependable students in our entire student body.
“I see him routinely stopping to greet teachers and he talks to all kinds of different people in the halls. He seems to always be encouraging to others and the way he carries himself makes him a very good role model to other students.”
Commitment and servant leader were two other words used to describe Sergio. Nathan Gaswick said, “Sergio possesses a positive attitude and works hard to positively impact other students. He has demonstrated strong commitment to his team and his academics.
“He was witnessed multiple times going out of his way to help others this month and also volunteered to help his community by helping coach and encourage CCS youth flag football players on Saturday mornings after his own game the night before. To me, Sergio epitomizes the positivity and servant mindset that help our school and community thrive.”
Sergio has participated in one-act play, spring play, the musical, and is a member of the football, basketball and track teams.
Paige, a freshman at CCS, is the daughter of Jon and Tammy Nickless.
Art teacher Emma McConnell has witnessed several positive characteristics in Paige.
“Paige helped with the concession stand for the freshman class and did a fantastic job. She also stayed after the game and was picking up trash in the stands without being asked. In class, she is always giving her best effort and is full of positivity.
“She is creative and isn’t afraid of a challenge. Paige is always giving compliments and has a smile on her face.”
Business teacher Sandy O’Neil also cited Paige’s efforts of picking up trash without being asked to do so.
A sense of responsibility and gratitude stood out to ag teacher Jeremy Vlasin.
“Paige consistently comes to class and walks our hallways with a positive attitude. As a student, she always takes responsibility in cases when she is going to be absent and makes sure she finds out what she is going to miss or what she has missed. But most of all, the thing that impresses me most is at the end of almost every class, before she leaves, she says, ‘Thank you! Have a good rest of your day.’
“She doesn’t have to say thank you and yet she consistently does. It’s such a small gesture, but an impactful one. Someone once said, ‘It’s not joy that makes you grateful, it’s gratitude that makes you joyful.’ I would say this perfectly sums up Paige!”
Paige is a member of the cross country team and plans to compete in track and the one-act play later in the school year.
Committee saw need to spotlight positive action
PBIS stands for Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports.
According to Jeremy Vlasin, a PBIS committee member, they chose to start a monthly Student of the Month recognition for several reasons.
When the independent school improvement team visited last year, he said one of their comments/recommendations included how they were impressed with the PBIS program in K-4 and felt it needed to be carried over into grades 7-12.
When CCS initially started PBIS, it was implemented K-12, but later included only grades K-4, Vlasin said. Last year when the PBIS team started having conversations about including grades 7-12 again, the team knew the system had to be age-appropriate for it to be effective in the upper grades.
K-4 students receive tickets for good behavior and then turn those tickets in for a weekly and monthly drawing. Junior high and high school students do not respond as well to tickets, he noted, so the goal was to create a recognition/reward system for positive behavior the 7-8 and 9-12 students would be on board with.
In the past, CCS participated in a Student of the Month program, but it had not been done for a year or two and the PBIS committee felt that type of recognition was something that staff and students would be familiar with and would be a natural fit for the PBIS team to take on and reimplement, he said.
The PBIS team also wanted some effective incentives to be a part of the Student of the Month recognition so along with being selected, students also receive two front row parking spots in the east student parking lot for a month, are featured in The Imperial Republican and receive a CCS Longhorn stainless steel water bottle with gift cards.
In addition, over the school year, names of the 16 students selected Student of the Month will be put into a bucket and two names will be drawn at the end of the school year, each receiving a $500 scholarship that can be applied to college.
Vlasin said grade 7-8 students have an entirely different reward system for PBIS.