By:Anne Marie Allocca
"Each year the NSBA sends out a request for proposals for presentations at their national conference," said Dr. Edward Fale, District 24 superintendent of schools. "We gave the request to Diana [Pirrone, former William L. Buck principal and assistant superintendent) and she developed the proposal based on the program. [Then] we heard we were chosen to make a presentation. School board members and superintendents from virtually every part of the country will be in attendance."
Diana Pirrone and Maureen Florio, a conflict resolution consultant, developed the program for Buck in the late 1990s. Pirrone said she found the subject of character education and anti-bullying interesting. She, in conjunction with the Buck PTA, applied for a grant from the Long Island Fund for Women and Girls to develop a program dealing with character education. Then Florio created the Peaceful Peers program for the Buck school.
"It had a focus on gender equity, leadership skills and essentially anti-bullying and harassment prevention," Pirrone said. "Then we expanded it to the other schools in the district. Maureen presented it because she was the one who developed the program."
Pirrone and Florio then expanded their Peaceful Peers program by developing a character education manual with several District 24 teachers. The lessons deal with subjects including acceptance( not tolerance), kindness, diversity, personal responsibility, anti-bullying and resolving conflict. The facilitators from each grade expanded on those themes in the manual so that children could be taught conflict resolution.
"I think one of the mistakes that schools often make is saying, 'We don't have a need for a conflict resolution program. We can deal with our kids and bullying in the classroom without a special program,'" Fale said. "That's a major mistake. Recognizing that there is a need for a program like this in any school, regardless of the community, regardless of the wealth behind each student is of critical importance."
According to Florio, what makes this program special is that it is proactive. "We use life skills - this is not just for the years the children spend in District 24," Florio said. "It is for the rest of their lives - right through college, careers, and their lives. And we expanded more by involving parents with parent workshops. We were doing this before the S.A.V.E. (Schools Against Violence in Education) School legislation began in New York state. It's a real takes the village program. It had input from so many people. It had vision. What's important is that when we say children first, we've now highlighted that children are first in our community."
Fale agreed. "This is something that is very unique for any school district," he said. "Diana and Maureen guided the teachers to develop a program for District 24. While Diana and Maureen still work with us, and they do the parent presentations and some of the staff development, it's really now a program developed by the teachers. The facilitators are members of our teaching staff in each of the schools on each of the grade levels. That's significant. That is the piece that I think really stood out with the proposal for the NSBA."
This year the Character Education program was implemented in the CDEP (Comprehensive District Educational Plan) by the Board of Education. "There are goals for math, English, character education and also a scheme for presenting it in the classroom," explained Fale. "The fact that it's in the CDEP and the board adopted the CDEP makes it required."
Florio notes one aspect of the character education plan is the three jobs that children have daily. First, give someone different a compliment each day. Second, talk to everyone at your lunch table and third, include everyone at play. She is also very appreciative of the teachers who have embraced the program.
"People support what they help to create and it helps the teachers to work together always on a positive level," Florio said. "It integrates them more with being concerned about what the children have learned the year before and what's coming up next. If a teacher has questions with the lessons or needs more input the names of the teachers who created the lessons are in front of the manual so they can speak with them."
Next April, Fale will join Florio and Pirrone at the San Diego Convention Center for the presentation. "This is the first time, I'm going to say in recent history, but I believe in the entire history of the district, that the district has ever been invited to present a program that it developed in district on its own at a national conference."
