This school year brought many changes to Curtis. The PRIDE posters, which can be found throughout the school, are designed to promote good behavior instead of punishing bad behavior. “PRIDE” is an acronym for “Punctuality, Respect, Integrity, Discipline, and Effort” which were the major focal points when creating the signs.

The hallways, stairwells and classrooms were chosen as key locations for the PRIDE signs. These places were chosen because they needed specific attention. “We created the PRIDE ‘matrix’ for each of those areas and put them on posters so that everyone in our school could see and be reminded of those positive behaviors. We feel that promoting PRIDE in the building will improve and maintain a positive school tone,” said Mr. Burbano. The posters were brought to life with the help of a committee who worked alongside Dr. Helen Murray, a consultant from Australia. Each category focuses on behavior that is considered satisfactory for the time and place.

With the newly introduced criteria comes positive reinforcement. Mr. Burbano said, “We decided we would plan to reward positive behavior on a monthly basis via staff nominations.” These students are going to be chosen by members of the staff who notice constant or improved behavior from a student. The objective of the PRIDE initiative is to get more students involved in showing their Curtis pride.