Who Do We Choose To Be at Eastside Catholic?

A team effort helped define updated student behavior expectations for the 2022-23 school year 

By High School Assistant Principal Soonja Larsen

Who are we at Eastside Catholic? Who do we aspire to be? How do we want to be seen? These questions pop up for us when we think about school culture and school spirit.

Last spring, I met with students and teachers to review schoolwide behavior expectations. With our Handbook as a guide, we wanted to create a list of "do" rather than "do not" statements that would be relatable, memorable and accessible that met the following criteria:

1. Relatable and accessible to students
2. Positive 
3. Connected to the expectations outlined in the Student and Family Handbook
4. Related to our Mission and Touchstones

A Group Effort
Together with Middle School Assistant Principal Erin Vickers, we shared a draft version with faculty to ensure these expectations met our outlined goals - valuable, easily communicated and relatable to students. We also met with our ASB Cabinet for their honest input and ideas for implementation.

Did these statements resonate with them? Did they see these being reasonable and realistic in getting all students on board? What was missing or a potential issue?

What daily choices make us proud
to say that we are Crusaders?

The ASB cabinet members' provided incredibly insightful feedback, and can be credited with helping to launch these updated student behavior expectations to begin the school year.

The Final Version
The final version of Who We Choose To Be statements was shared and displayed in the schoolhouse across a variety of mediums and continues to be a daily reminder that at Eastside Catholic, we choose to be:

• The best version of ourselves
• Caring
• Compassionate
• A person of integrity
• Open-minded
• A role model
• Thankful
   

High School Assistant Principal Soonja Larsen can be reached at slarsen@eastsidecatholic.org.