To help students, parents and community members feel more welcome in this time of heightened vigilance, Bowie Middle School Principal Amy Russell has begun FROGs.
FROGs stands for Friendly, Resourceful, On-Campus, Guardians.
When Russell came to middle school from elementary, she wanted to engage more parents and adults in the community to come on to campus — to be there to welcome kids.
“I want kids in the building to see adult volunteers throughout their day, maybe at lunchtime, passing in the hallway; see a friendly face,” Russell said.
A community member created the acronym FROGs.
Russell said she had seen a story on the news a while ago where dads were brought to an inner city school. The fathers were coming in during passing periods just to say hi to the kids, wish them a good day, ask how their day is going and just to let the students see that they were involved and engaged on the campus.
“It really helped with behavior. It really helped with school morale,” and it helped students knowing that the dads were there, Russell said.
In Bowie’s case, she wanted students to see men and women from all walks of life so that they realize the community believes in them, is hopeful about their future and that school is not something separate from life.
“I don’t think it’s too early to impact their future at this age,” Russell said.
Every FROG would go through the Ector County ISD VIPs process so their backgrounds are checked.
Ultimately, Russell said she’s hoping to get enough volunteers to cover 20 hours a week on campus.
“They’ll be in common areas. They’ll be in hallways, (the) cafeteria. They can get their volunteer hours,” she said.
Her thinking is that if businesses could ask their entire staff to give one hour a month, they could fill that 20 hours a week.
“… We could tell them when we would like to have them. … So far, I have three medium-sized companies committed and I do have three other companies that are willing to sponsor the shirts” to identify them as FROGs, Russell said.
Kristen Roe, an assistant principal at Bowie, said the program will help students who may not have good parental role models in their lives.
“Having people from the community come in that they’re not familiar with and can show support; whether it’s just saying good morning, just giving them a pep talk … let’s them know that it’s not just us that care about them, it’s the community. It’s all my stakeholders,” Roe said.
Mary Gorman, also an assistant principal, said the most important part is starting students’ day off on a positive note.
“We want them to know that they’re supported and they’re loved every day. That’s the key component to this. They need to be loved and supported every single day,” Gorman said.
Russell said it’s a fresh start for students because community members won’t be judging them.
“I think this is a difficult age for kids. They’re trying to find out where they belong. They’re meeting new friends. They’ve come from elementary, so they’re starting kind of brand new on who their friend(s) and community group is going to be, so I think having that adult person to stop and say hey how’s your day going, is there anything you need, and then modeling how to just talk, how to greet someone is important,” Russell said.
“And of course, we want that to happen for seventh and eighth grade as well,” she added. “So all these grade levels, these people would be here to be positive, to make a positive impact on their day. Their day might not have started good, or they might have had an interaction with a teacher because of something they did. But when they see this adult, the adult’s going to know nothing about that, so just a smile, or maybe a handshake or have a good day,” Russell said.
FROGs
- F is for Friendly. Bowie wants to ensure that every student feels welcome and sees a friendly face.
- R is for Resourceful, ensuring that every student has what they need for a successful day. So the adult would check on them, ask how their day is going, whether they need anything for class such as a pen, book or even clothing. The adult could tell teachers and tell them what the student needs.
- O is for On Campus. Principal Amy Russell said they want to engage and welcome the community to the school.
- G is for Guardians, ensuring that our students feel safe and secure.
