FMS Principal, Casey Loafman, said originally the campus leadership team was looking at what they could do to reward students for good deeds.

“We tried it a little bit at the end of last year and it was successful,” Loafman said. “Now we have continued it this year, watched it grow, and now we are rewarding students and rewarding staff for doing good.”

Loafman said the “Fruits of our Labor” system is all about celebrating the good deeds people are doing and relating those good deeds to the SERVE model. Once a student is nominated, they get their name displayed on a hanging piece of fruit in the front foyer, they are recognized in front of their peers, and they are featured in the campus newsletter.

Rebecca Whipkey, FMS Assistant Principal, said when a teacher sees a student, or fellow staff member, doing something positive, they will let her, and Mr. Loafman know. She said they will then bring the students to the principal’s office.

“A lot of kids are thinking ‘what did I do?’” Whipkey said. “We sit with them and I get out our visual of the Frenship SERVE model, and we go over it and I let them pick what they think their behavior exemplified. Then we give them a little treat and send them back to class. We also call their parent to brag on them a little bit.”

Whipkey said that talking to the parents is the most rewarding part because it is fun to just call and talk about the positive things the student has been doing.

“Several kids have turned in cell phones and money that they have found,” Whipkey said. “A few of our teachers have raised money for the school book fair as well, to donate books to kids who wouldn’t be able to purchase them.”

Loafman and Whipkey both explained that it is exciting to see students take pride in their good deeds. Loafman said it is exciting for him to see students names hanging that he did not expect.

“We called one student down who has never been to the office for something positive – it has always been negative,” Loafman said. “We talked to him about the positive thing he had done, and then called home to tell his parents.”

Whipkey said the students father answered the phone and was pleasantly surprised.

“His dad said that this was the first phone call that he has ever had about his kid at school that was a positive call,” Whipkey said. “The student helped clean up a spill in the hallway, he just volunteered to help clean it up without being asked. It was just such a good moment all around. It honestly made me tear up a little bit.”

Loafman said that this program is something that FMS plans to keep around all school year long and that it will definitely be a program that he continues. He said that right now, students are mainly recognized for doing good in the common areas of the school, the library, the hallways, and the cafeteria. He said that he hopes the program grows to be something that each teacher can utilize in their individual classrooms as well.

“I have always thought that it takes a village to raise a kid,” Whipkey said. “I feel like school plays a big part in raising our kids, and I think that the SERVE model is a way to communicate to the parents and families the principles and morals we are trying to instill in their kids. We are literally helping raise their kids, and we are reinforcing  those principles that will in turn SERVE them for the rest of their lives.”