Metro East Sun

Harmony Emge School District 175 issued the following announcement on May 30.

Ellis Elementary School in the Harmony-Emge School District is pleased to announce that Character.org, a national advocate and leader for character in collaboration Illinois, named Ellis Elementary School a 2018 National School of Character. The program recognized Ellis Elementary as a school that has demonstrated its use of character development to drive a positive impact on academics, student behavior and Ellis’s climate.

Ellis Elementary School in Belleville, serves students in Pre-K through 3rd grade. Principal Terri Kraemer, teachers, students and staff serve as models of excellence for best practice in character education.

Being named a National School of Character has been the most outstanding award for our students, staff, and community to receive. Character education has changed the climate in our building, increased our academic scores, and is helping shape the future of our students. Utilizing components of character education is a large part of our student and staff’s daily routines. We are grateful for Character.org and Illinois for their efforts to create a state and national discussion on the importance of character in education. We are eager to carry this distinction for years to come and are hopeful our example will lead other schools in Illinois to participate in this program in order to enhance student’s lives statewide.

Our focus as a building has been geared towards our character education program in conjunction with our community for many years. We are a part of the Belleville Achieves Strength In Character (BASIC) Initiative which promotes character through positive relationships and services to the community. As part of BASIC, Ellis adopted the community’s Lifeskills for Character which include our monthly character traits. Upon realizing the importance of good character and the need to practice good character life skills, we have incorporated a more intensive character education program. Knowing students spend many hours at school, we believe it is our responsibility to teach moral values. In today’s society, many of our students face everyday challenges and we want to give them the tools they need to deal with them properly and to become upstanding citizens. At Ellis, we have created a positive moral culture and have developed a caring school community that promotes our school values. Our character program will have lasting effects on our students, school, and community.

Original source can be found here.

Source: Harmony Emge School District 175