September students of the month from Jack Barnes Elementary School and Gateway Polytechnic Academy were recently honored by the Queen Creek Unified School District Governing Board.

The students were recognized at the Sept. 10 meeting “for embodying the core values of PBIS: kindness, respect and integrity,” according to a QCUSD Facebook post.

Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports, or PBIS, is a three-tiered program designed to promote students’ behavioral, academic, social, emotional and mental health well-being.

“These remarkable students stand out for their positive attitudes, leadership and dedication to their school communities,” the post continued.

Gateway Polytechnic Academy students honored, plus comments from their teachers, are:

 Harper G.
"Harper is eager to learn, and comes to school each day with a smile on her face. Harper is a friend to all of the students here at Gateway Polytechnic Academy. Overall, Harper is doing a great job at GPA and lives our motto of ‘Engineering Tomorrow's Leaders Today.’"

Tali'ilagi K.
"Li’i is a leader in her classroom and is willing to jump in and help others with their learning. Over the course of the first quarter, she racked up 134 aviator points for showing her great PBIS characteristics. We are very lucky here at GPA to have Li’i showing the way and helping us ‘Engineer Tomorrow’s Leaders Today.’"

Jack Barnes Elementary School students honored, as well as comments from their teachers, are

Riley R.
"Riley treats other students with fairness and understanding and has compassion for others. She is an extremely motivated student and is always applying her best effort into all of her classroom assignments. She participates actively in classroom discussions and expresses her ideas clearly. Riley is a valued member of the class."

Calvin H.
"Calvin has done a great job adjusting and adapting to a new school year and new schedule. Calvin has had to do some hard things and make some changes that pushed him out of his comfort zone, and he handled them amazingly."

Recently, students at Faith Mather Sossaman Elementary were rewarded for their commitment to the PBIS values with a special treat from one of QCUSD’s business partners, Kona Ice.

A teacher at FMSE, Andrew Pioske, emphasized the power of positive reinforcement.

"Kids are best motivated when they know what to do and are rewarded for doing it the right way," he stated in a district release. "It's always better to have someone encouraging you than to try to instill consequences."

Students also learn that everyday actions help create a respectful and responsible school community.

"Integrity is just doing the right thing when nobody's watching," an FMSE student stated in the release.