Expanded family program intends to foster mentoring
The first day of school on Aug. 14 held an extra surprise for elementary students at Hampton Public School. They learned which of the four HAWK Families they will be a part of starting this year. Students in grades 7-12 at Hampton were formed into family groups about three years ago, but this summer, school leadership decided to bring the grade school kids into the families as a way of creating a better social environment within the building that houses all 12 grades plus kindergarten.
High School Principal Carson Klute, who is also the father of two elementary students in the school, is a member of the leadership team of staff members who put the expanded program together over the summer months. He says the idea of bringing younger students into the family system was birthed out of a field trip the elementary school took to Palmer Public School last year. During that visit, Elementary Principal Angie Arndt observed a group of students at a park that included both high school and elementary kids. In asking questions she learned that Palmer has been putting students from every grade in house or family groups for over 10 years and brought the idea back to Hampton. Over the summer months Klute says a team of administrators and teachers worked to adapt the program to Hampton’s unique school culture.
“We always talk about how we’re one building,” Klute said. “We have the same expectations when it comes to behavior. We have the same expectations when it comes to teaching. Why not take advantage of being under one roof? And as good as anybody’s culture is, there’s always room for improvement. So (we did this) to give our older kids an opportunity to mentor and be leaders, and the opportunity for our younger kids to learn from them, as well as full school buy-in.”
Klute says while the 7-12 family program built around a homeroom concept has been positive, he believes bringing in the elementary students will have an even bigger impact.
“We did some leadership building things and it was good,” he said. “There was definitely a connectedness but nothing quantifiable, though, where we could put a number on it. Like, we increased participation or a sense of belonging by a certain percentage. However, a couple of years ago, we did a survey with kids and a couple of the lowest things were some culture issues that we needed to work on. So we’re hoping that in the future, whether it’s the same survey or a different survey, we can hopefully show some growth in that, making sure all kids feel connected.”
Klute says on the first day of school the entire student body was randomly divided into one of four groups, each named for one of the letters in the word “Hawk.” The groups are Honorable, Achieve, Wisdom and Keeper and Klute says each has different characteristics. For instance, he said the characteristics emphasized in the Honorable group are courage, accountability, respect and integrity. Those character traits will be highlighted by the groups during a monthly all-school HAWK Family Day.
“So in September the Honorable Family will be in charge of coming up with activities that relate to the word honorable and the characteristics underneath that,” he said. So the adults in charge of that particular family will come up with lessons for the whole school so and then we’ll just go month by month. So each family will present twice in a year, and hopefully deepen the knowledge and understanding of what it means to be honorable, or what it means to achieve, or what it means to have wisdom. So the activities will vary depending on what that family chooses to do.”
Klute said a point system is also being implemented that will bring a sense of friendly competition between the family groups. For instance, he said points will be awarded to each family for individual participation.
“So the other night we had a pep rally and we encouraged everybody to be there, and then everybody who was in attendance got a point for their family,” he said. “At the end of the year, the family with the biggest point total will go somewhere off campus. We’ll try and make it meaningful for the kids.”
The program is also designed to help combat negativity, which Klute said easily spreads, especially on social media.
“So we want to highlight the good things our kids do, because they do a lot of great things,” he said.
Forming the families
In keeping with the theme of the school’s mascot, Klute says on the first day of school plastic eggs placed in a nest were used as a completely random way of dividing students into the four groups.
“It’s pretty easy to say, ‘Well, I think this kid should be there and this kid should be there,’ but from the adults on down, nobody knew before Wednesday, at 2 o’clock on the first day of school what family they were going to be in,” he said, noting that was done to add to the excitement.
“Although I do think Wisdom is the best family – that’s mine – we do want to highlight all kids, so it’s a healthy competition,” he said. “But we’re also there to celebrate each other’s success. So even if somebody in another family does well, we want to highlight them, and we think that’s awesome, but it gives some structure to it as well... The eggs were in a nest and they cracked the egg, and it says what family they were part of. So each kid and adult got an armband with the name of their family on it, and our booster club bought shirts for all of the students that will say their family’s name on it as well. So once a month when we have those HAWK Family days, they’ll wear that t-shirt to help represent what family they’re in.”
Family goals
Asked what his ultimate goals and dreams for the HAWK Family program in the coming years would be, Klute said he hopes it becomes something that is part of the culture of the school.
“So as soon as you come here – whether you’re a ninth grader transferring in from somewhere else, or whether you’re kindergartner and it’s your first day – you get placed in that family and that family helps guide you,” he said. “First, what is Hampton about? What is our community about? Because we’re just a reflection of our community. So what can we help instill into every kid that when they leave Hampton, they have these characteristics that are going to help them be successful, whether they return to Hampton or whether they go out and into the world so they’re the best human being that they can be. And I also want it for our culture in our building, as I talked about earlier, negativity is pretty easily spread, and we live in a negative world. Not that we’re going to be perfect here, but I hope it has that positive impact from K through 12.”
Presented with the same question, other members of the leadership team were also optimistic about the program’s potential.
Arndt commented, “My personal goal for the HAWK Family program is to not only build relationships between our older and young students but to also instill in all of our students and staff a sense of pride in their actions both at school and in the community. We often use the phrase “Once a Hawk, Always a Hawk,” so I hope the lessons the students learn during HAWK Family activities will carry over into their lives once they leave HPS.”
“I think this program has a great deal of potential to help create meaningful relationships between our students, especially between our elementary and secondary students,” said business teacher Jereme Jones. “My hope is that it will allow the older kids to see themselves as role models and become intentional about how they act and treat others. I also hope it will give the younger kids older students who they can emulate. If that happens, we will be able to create not only a great culture here at Hampton Public Schools, but also in the Hampton community and in the other communities our students end up in after graduation. I think if we look around at the world today, we can all agree that treating others with respect, looking out for our neighbors and helping them to succeed are all qualities we can use more of. As educators, it is our job to teach those skills and I think the HAWK Families program can do just that.”
Fourth grade teacher at Hampton, Margo LaBrie, another member of the HAWK Families leadership committee, also has high hopes for the family groups.
“When the leadership committee met for the first time this summer our overall goal for doing this was to foster a positive school culture,” she said. “We felt this needed to be school-wide by incorporating kindergartners through seniors. Through a lot of discussion the group decided that randomly placing everyone into four families would be best. What we are hoping to come from mixing age groups is it will help build a strong sense of community within the school. Putting the older students in with the younger students will hopefully provide mentorship and contribute to a more caring and positive school environment, which we feel will positively impact everyone in school.”
Hampton School Counselor Katelyn Goertzen commented, “My hope with this program is that there is a strong focus on all of the positive aspects that are going on around us -- that we notice those things! When people focus on the positives, it changes mindsets, creating positive mental health.”
“Being the high school principal, I cannot tell you how I love to look at not just the kids in my HAWK Family, but when I look and I see our starting running back – somebody who’s on the all-state watch list – he’s talking to a 5-year-old, and that 5-year-old looks at him in just wonder in amazement,” Klute continued. “And you know that kid has the opportunity to really shape the next generation of people coming through Hampton. In talking with my own two children who are in HAWK Families, they’re talking about the big kids they got to be with and sit with, and how exciting that was. It was a pretty special day for us and I can’t wait – this is just year one – I can’t wait to see where we go from here!”