Driving Home the Dream Award: Presented by Keffer Hyundai   

"Helping to build and sustain healthy school relationships"

• "It's relationships, not programs that change children…Young people thrive when adults care about them on a one-to-one level, and when they also have a sense of belonging to a caring community." Bill Milliken   

• "Positive greetings at the classroom door increased students' academic engagement by 20% and decreased disruptive classroom behavior by 9%, according to a study published in The Journal of Positive Behavior, and potentially adds an extra hour of learning per day." 

 
If this is so – imagine the impact of positive interactions throughout a student's day like While getting on and off the school bus, going through the breakfast or lunch line, reporting to the front office or nurses' office, or simply walking past a custodian in the hallway.

Do you work with someone at your school (i.e. café worker, bus driver, custodian.) who exemplifies this powerful tool in their everyday interactions with our students and staff; a person who works hard at building positive relationships with students and staff; a person who goes above and beyond to create a caring culture for students; an individual that helps students grow academically and socially?  

If you do, tell us. Nominate your fellow employee for the Driving Home the Dream Award. Thanks to a partnership with Keffer Hyundai and CMS' Student Discipline Behavior Support Department, one non-instructional staff member will be chosen each month, during the school year, by an SDBS panel. The winner's nomination will be placed on the list of final nominees from which one winner will be selected for the Driving Home the Dream Award presented by Keffer Hyundai at the end of the school year. Monthly nominees who are not selected as the monthly winner will automatically be placed back in the pool for the remaining monthly selections for that school year.    The winners will be recognized and announced each month on the SDBS webpage. 

You can nominate your outstanding co-worker by writing an essay explaining specifically how your nominee exemplifies relationship-building skills, be specific. You must also provide signed, handwritten statements from at least three students supporting what you have written about this staff person.