Creekview Elementary was highlighted on this week’s Carbon School District weekly update so Principal Keith Palmer stopped by Castle Country Radio to discuss the school’s new mascot and their new reward system.

The school’s Chief mascot was changed by students to Coyotes at the beginning of the year.  “This kind of built all through last year, really a lot of the push was from teachers on the inside that didn’t know how to comfortably use it, they didn’t want to offend anyone so it built and built, and we had kids submit mascots and those were screened by a committee, and finally voted on by the students. So that was a fun process that finally came about,” said Principal Palmer. The school was hoping to hold a big assembly to make the announcement of the new mascot but because of COVID the announcement was made via a video that was sent out to the student body.

With a new mascot comes a new reward system to recognized outstanding students. “We’ve used the old mascot in the past and with this shift we’ve changed the way we’ve do our reward system for positive behaviors and also tying into our reading. We chose five behaviors that we think if kids exhibit those, the school is going to be a better place,” said Principal Palmer. Those behaviors are integrity, respect, responsibility, perseverance, and kindness.

When students are recognized for these behaviors, they are given a paw card acknowledging them. “But as they earn those, they get a little card that looks like a coyote paw and we do drawings with those. But the bigger thing is we want to recognize all kids so if they earn a paw for all five areas that we recognized then they automatically get the bigger award that we call the Alpha Award, everyone gets that its not a drawing, that’s a big deal that we make that they have exhibited all five behaviors areas we want and that’s been fun,” said Principal Palmer. The new reward system has been enjoyed by both students and faculty/staff.

The new reward system has also been a great incentive for students who are working on improving reading levels. “Now we’re working hard on it, it’s a little different to gauge where we are at this year with the amount of time we missed at the end of last year. But we’re really focusing. We give away Coyote Reader Cards every time they level up on our reading A to Z reading system, and they love to get those, and that’s a lot of fun and so there’s still a lot of focus on that but there’s a lot of work to be done this year with that missed time,” stated Principal Palmer. The school will continue to push the importance of reading with the entire school.

To keep posted on the happenings taking place at Creekview Elementary visit their Facebook page.