For the first time ever, three Cherry Hill schools received a National School of Character honor in the same year.
Schools in Cherry Hill have made a name for themselves over the past decade as outstanding schools of character.
Each year, Character.org selects schools dedicated to character development as a National School of Character. Since 2011, Cherry Hill Public Schools has had at least one school honored as a National School of Character.
However, the school district has never had a year quite like 2017.
Last Tuesday, Cherry Hill Public Schools announced Charcater.org had named three of its schools as a 2017 National School of Character — Rosa International Middle School, Richard Stockton Elementary School and A. Russell Knight Elementary School. It is the first time the school district has had three schools receive the designation in the same year. Only 83 schools in the United States received the honor in 2017.
Each school has its own character programming and embarked on a different journey to reach their designation. However, the values they share and the lessons the students learn remain the same across the three school communities.
Cherry Hill’s first National School of Character receives second honor
Two of the schools named a 2017 National School of Character previously had received the designation. Rosa International Middle School was the first Cherry Hill school ever to be named a National School of Character in 2008. This year, Rosa received the recognition for a second time.
“We are constantly looking at things that intrinsically motivate this age group,” Rosa assistant principal Lynne Vosbikian said. “Getting students to look at their own control and their own sense of responsibility, it’s not always an easy thing.”
Character education is woven into every facet of the Rosa community. Classes focus on lessons about character, especially in English and humanities.
“We use it almost every single day with the novels that we teach and with the units we study,” English teacher Jennifer Aristone said.
“In the humanities course, I do stress that we study the exception in society, the greatest, the people who stood out a lot,” humanities teacher Carolyn Grossi added.
Outside of classes, Rosa administrators and staff take a lot of stock in the feedback they receive from students. From student surveys to feedback from the students’ town hall meetings with Superintendent Joe Meloche and administrators, the staff gets a good feel for how students are feeling.
“It’s becoming more self aware throughout the years about the needs of the students allows us to tweak every year,” Grossi said.
Service is also a huge part of the culture at Rosa. English teacher Lillian Halden talked of how some Rosa students volunteer with a Jewish Federation of South Jersey program called Bookmates. The students visit a school in Camden and read to first and second graders.
“The big kids read their books to the little kids,” Halden said. “They present the kids with the book. They also become teachers for the morning. They prepare activities to go with the book.”
Halden believes the service aspect and the character lessons taught in class help create a warm atmosphere in the Rosa community.
“There’s a culture of kindness,” she said. “There’s an expectation of good character because we consciously make the effort.”
New changes boost Stockton to National School of Character
Richard Stockton Elementary School first received the designation in 2012. With Cherry Hill Public Schools applying to be a district of character this year, each school was asked to contribute to the district’s application. This work led Stockton to apply as an individual school.
“Just in gathering and reflecting and recognizing the things we were doing together, we decided to put in an application,” Stockton principal Eloisa DeJesus-Woodroof said.
Following Stockton’s initial designation in 2012, the school went through several changes. DeJesus-Woodroof spent a period of time on maternity leave during the 2014–15 school year. During this time, the School Leadership Council, an integral part of the school’s original National School of Character application, did not meet.
When DeJesus-Woodroof returned, she helped establish a new vision to get Stockton back to being a National School of Character.
The school has implemented two major changes since its first designation. The first was the creation of the League of Kindness Heroes. This program asks students to engage in kind acts toward their peers, staff members and people at home.
The school also participated in a kindness challenge in January, where students were tasked with performing kind acts throughout the day.
“Depending on your grade level, you were asked to do 25 to 50 acts of kindness, from smiling to thanking a bus driver,” guidance counselor Alicia Lomba said.
This year, the school also came up with a motto called “Be the Change.” Students were challenged to make a difference in the school community.
In addition, the school has re-convened its Leadership Council, allowing members of the school community to come together and share ideas on how to make Stockton a better school.
“It’s a place where you have the principals, teachers, support staff and parents who all meet together and handle important issues,” fourth-grade teacher Nicholas Baldoni said.
DeJesus-Woodruff said a lot of the credit for the designation goes to the staff members on the school’s application team, saying they helped lead the push to improve character education at Stockton.
“They empowered the students, and the family members all came together,” she said. “I couldn’t do what I do without the incredible support.”
A. Russell Knight Elementary earns first National School of Character designation
For students at A. Russell Knight Elementary School, receiving the National School of Character designation was an incredibly proud moment. Knight received the designation for the first time this year, becoming the eighth Cherry Hill school to ever receive it.
“We have implemented a lot of new things, but on our end, we want to celebrate the things we’re doing and honor our parents, our students, our staff, and this is a way to do that,” Knight principal Eugene Park said.
There are a number of virtues Knight students are asked to make a big part of their lives. A big one is having empathy for others.
“We met as a staff and gave examples of what empathy is and how can we teach it,” first-grade teacher Sandy Sparber said. “Once it was part of our vocabulary, it became a part of their vocabulary.”
Knight students are encouraged to serve others, and Park, in his third year as principal, allows the students to come forward to the administration and pitch ideas for service projects.
“I’ve been here for about 15 years and I’ve never seen so many students involved and wanting to go to Mr. Park for service learning projects,” fifth-grade teacher Andreanna Katsikis said.
“Ever since Mr. Park and (school guidance director Jane Rickansrud) came along, I just feel like we went in a new direction where they really motivated us,” Katsikis added. “We felt ready, but they helped us incorporate so much more.”
Acts of kindness are also rewarded at Knight. The school has a Shining Knights program where students are recognized for kind acts during a weekly announcement.
Like Stockton, the school also participated in a Kindness Challenge in January.
“They had to complete as many kind acts as possible,” Rickansrud said. “I think we completed several thousand kind acts.”
Knight’s character education was best at work when representatives from Character.org visited the school as part of the application process.
“Besides the fact that we just have awesome students here, they participated in interviews with the committee that visited,” Rickansrud said. “Our students were so articulate and genuine and amazing in the interview how they were able to define the core values and explain the core values.
To view a full list of the 2017 National Schools of Character, visit www.character.org.
