Smith’s Section
Mr. Smith spending a rare moment in the main office hallways. In between classes he’s easy to spot greeting and conversing with students. Credit to Kendra McGary
Mr. Steve Smith is a man on a mission. Smith is spreading positivity campus wide, including all stakeholders.
For the first issue of The Laker Review, Smith wants to give a shoutout to Mrs. Mary Price, the new athletic director. "Mary Price has stepped into the athletic director position this year and is doing a great job. She is great with coaches, parents, and kids and is just doing an awesome job inside and outside of the classroom. Everything she does is greatly appreciated by everyone up here in the office."
The inclusion of teacher shoutouts is just another way for Smith to implement the new BE RED initiative. A huge component of the initiative is incorporating direct instruction in soft skills and asking everyone to have some humanity. According to Smith, “I've said for years that a lot of our students need soft skills.” Soft skills like cleaning up after meals in the cafeteria or leaving the bathrooms clean make a difference in school. For example, prior to the execution of Be Red, people were leaving trash and not picking up after themselves. Now, though, according to Smith, students are showing vast improvement. The next area of concern this year is the hallways. “We have a lot of tardy students, so we need to see how to improve. The next part of this initiative involves looking at the data and crunching the number of tardies to see just how many we get.” Per Smith, if we “get the number down for, let’s say the next two weeks,” we get another reward. In the words of Smith, “Make it a schoolwide initiative and make everybody take ownership. Even if that kid that's always late cuts his tardies in half, that's still a positive thing. So, I would just like to see things like that improve. "
The Be RED initiative is part of the state-level PBIS system. According to Mr. Smith, "P.B.I.S. is kind of a national thing.” Rather than just penalizing bad behavior, Smith’s idea is to focus on good behavior too. Per Smith, “That’s not my idea, it’s the whole premise behind PBIS.” While the rewards being given are minor, to students they are significant. It’s all a learning experience.
When asked what reflections he has after these first fifty days of school, Mr. Smith responded, "I think we're off to a good start. Culture and the environment are good overall. Maintaining focus and maintaining enthusiasm is difficult, but I feel like if I can do it then everybody else should be able to too. Like I said before, I'm liking what I'm seeing. We've had more participation in spirit days and more kids signed up for clubs. We sold nearly four hundred tickets to the homecoming dance. I want kids involved and I'm seeing involvement. If they [students] can find their niche and find their reason to be here, then everyone can be happy."
