(Atlantic) The Atlantic Schuler Elementary received the Ray Center/Character Counts School Character 2022 award. The honor is presented to one Iowa School annually passionate about teaching and modeling good character. Officials said they believe in the school’s work in Atlantic and enjoy seeing the students recognized for demonstrating the Pillars each month.
Schuler Elementary Principal and Curriculum Director James Northwick said when he started around six years ago, he talked with staff about a good character being essential for the students. He says it’s important to them and it’s important to everybody.
Mr. Northwick gathered a character committee, and the committee chose “Character Counts” as an obvious choice. Teachers attended training the following summer and have been practicing other pieces of character counts for the past five-or-six years. The five pillars are responsibility, trustworthiness, fairness, caring, respect, and citizenship.
Northwick says the beauty of the entire program is the district has good kids. He’s seen positive responses from students over the years from practicing the character count pillars.
The Ray Center Character Counts organization will recognize the Schuler Elementary staff at the Iowa Character Awards dinner on Friday, July 29, 2022, at Prairie Meadows Event Center in Altoona. The Ray Center team will schedule a hometown visit to honor each award recipient in their community. Fox 17 in Des Moines will work with each recipient to create a video that will air during a one-hour primetime television special in the summer/fall of 2022.
