• Category 2

    Selected in 2019

  • Grades: pre k - pre k
    School Setting: urban
    Town Population: 4,613
    Student Enrollment: 440
    Student Demographics:

    Black/African American: 45%
    White/Caucasian: 45%
    Hispanic: 4%
    Hawaiian/Pacific Islander: 0%
    Asian: 3%
    Native American: 1%
    Other: 2%

    Teacher/Student Ratio: 1:13
    % Reduced Lunch: 75%
    % ELL Learners: 3.4%
    Founded: 1887
  • PRINCIPAL:
    Haleigh Cuevas
  • CONTACT:
    270 West Second Street
    Pass Christian, MS 39571
    228-452-5200
    hcuevas@pc.k12.ms.us
Pass Christian Elementary School
Pass Christian, MS
Change is not easy, yet it is inevitable.
Describe specific programs in place to ensure that families are involved in the success of your school and students.
The most successful program our school has implemented is the House System. In June of 2019, we started planning to promote a sense of community within our school to ensure all students feel accepted, valued and safe. We understand that there is a range of academic and social needs among our students and we wanted to close the gap. The House System is a school-wide initiative that promotes a sense of community and belonging among all students and staff. Students across all grade levels are assigned a House and remain in that House their entire time at PCES. Each House has a name, characteristic, hand signal, chant, and animal to represent them to promote pride and camaraderie. These House names were chosen to represent character traits we believe are of value to become a contributing citizen. Research has proven that when students are happier at school, they are more likely to retain information and learn. Positive behavior, showing kindness toward others, and meeting academic goals are among the ways that students can earn points for their Houses. The House System aims to provide each student with a sense of identity as they work to achieve individual goals. The addition of the House System has greatly improved a sense of community and friendly competition, while keeping academics in the forefront for our students, teachers and parents alike. The best part of the implementation of the House System is the impact on our families.
Describe the most successful activity your school has initiated to strengthen ties to your community.
We have a core belief that learning is a shared responsibility and our mission is to partner with our families and community to empower all students to be college-career ready learners, critical thinkers, and contributing citizens. We have tremendous support from our parents and community. At Pass Christian Elementary we have initiated a myriad of activities to strengthen the ties to our community. Some of the many events include PCES Family Night at different local businesses, PCES Mentor Program, PCES Winter Extravaganza, PCES Reads One Book, Walk to School with your Child Day, which our town mayor regularly participates, and Bring Your Parent to PE. The one event that has had the most impact with ties to the community is our mentor program. We have business leaders, doctors, retired teachers and many other volunteers come in our school to support our students during many activities and events here at PCES.
Describe your philosophy of school change or improvement.
Change is not easy, yet it is inevitable; it is the one thing that is consistent. Students change, teachers and leaders change, curriculum changes. The one thing that must not change is our unwavering desire to empower our students in ways that allow them to reach their full potential. If we can plant that acorn and foster its growth into a mighty oak tree, we are changing our community in a way that impacts our future in a very positive way. We believe at PCES that all of our Pirate Learners possess the potential to change our world. Our job is to nurture a love of learning within our students by holding them accountable to clearly defined high expectations while utilizing a curriculum that is challenging and progressive. Our commitment to excellence requires that we actively engage our students in the learning process. When all have an equal opportunity to belong, they will exceed our expectations.
What are your school’s top two goals for the next year?
We want to continue to implement and grow our co-teaching model in an effort to increase academic achievement in literacy and writing at all levels; and decrease loss of Tier 1 instructional time for all students.
What is the single most important factor in the success of your school that others could replicate?
Our core beliefs are that students excel when:
● Curriculum is challenging and progressive
● Actively engaged in the learning process
● All have an equal opportunity to learn
● Learning is a shared responsibility
● Held to clearly defined, high expectations; and
● All are accepted, valued, and safe.

We are committed to our core beliefs and keep them at the forefront of all decisions. In our commitment to excellence, we understand that excellence does not just happen, it is a conscious decision that has to be made every day. We understand that relationships are vital. We involve all stakeholders in the planning process because we value our entire team. These ideas all may seem very practical, but the glue that holds all of this together is that we are empowering kids to participate in designing their education. Our Pirate Learners actually have opinions about what they want their school experience to be and we listen!
Describe the program or initiative that has had the greatest positive effect on student achievement, including closing achievement or opportunity gaps, if applicable.
Professional Learning for our teachers has been the cornerstone to closing achievement gaps. Aligning great teachers with resources like Ready Reading and Math gave us both guidance and opportunity to teach the curriculum with rigor and depth while still allowing room for teachers to be themselves and incorporate relevance for learners. Adequate training has empowered our staff to implement grade-level instruction with fidelity. We have designed learning opportunities for our teachers both at the building and district level to share ideas, or even clarify best practice questions. We have rejuvenated our professional learning on campus and created a Lead Literacy Team PLC comprised of teachers to promote teacher voice in making decisions about professional development. We also have a district Pirate Learning Network that is teacher-facilitated just as any learning conference they attend outside of our district.
Explain how ESEA federal funds are used to support your improvement efforts.
Title I funds at PCES have been used for instructional activities, resources for all students on campus, parent and family engagement, & improvement of instruction. We have been able to purchase a book for every child in our school that they can take home to their families for our PCES Reads One Book event. We also have used Title I funds to provide more access to technology and blended learning,as well as a well-rounded educational experience through purchases of chrome books, active panels, musical instructions, and more.
Title I plays a supporting role in the school’s efforts to level the playing field for all students by allowing PCES to provide both extended day and extended year learning opportunities that include transportation for all that participate. We are implementing summer engineering, robotics, literacy camps as well as providing coding and programming opportunities for our students.
Identify the critical professional development activities you use to improve teaching and student learning.
We provide personalized professional learning through needs- based assessments for our entire instructional team. We use our student data to make decisions about high quality instructional practices. Our teachers are eager to continuously improve their practice and are more than willing to share what they learn with peers. Our Leadership Team has developed a Professional Learning Plan (PLP) in collaboration with all stakeholders to support our students, teachers and community. This team meets monthly to collaborate on curriculum needs, technology support, attendance and discipline concerns, or any other topic brought to the table by members. Specific and critical professional development activities have included phonics instruction (Phonics for Reading and Phonics First) training, student data analysis (Data Chats), Individual Reading Plan (IRP) development, PBIS (House System-Ron Clark) implementation, behavior management training, classroom management training.
Describe how data is used to improve student achievement and inform decision making.
We believe that students excel when all have an equal opportunity to learn. We use data to ensure we address the needs of each and every student on our campus. We want our students to understand both their strengths and weaknesses to ensure they are aware of the relevance to their learning paths. We hold data chats with both our teachers and students to identify trends and promote ownership of accountability.
Describe your school culture and explain changes you’ve taken to improve it.
Our school culture is based on relationships. We foster a family atmosphere because our students truly care about and take ownership in regard to their education at Pass Christian Elementary. Our community trusts when their child attends our school, they will be treated with respect and valued for who they are as an individual. We strive to make our school innovative and a place that our students love to come to each day. We are a Positive Behavior Interventions and Support (PBIS) Model Site. We have recently achieved Level 2 status. In August of 2019, we implemented the House System to foster an environment in which all students feel accepted, valued, and safe. We are working diligently to ensure our students have clearly defined high expectations by looking at curriculum standards and aligning our instruction and task demands to application of knowledge
Stats
  • Category 2

    Selected in 2019

  • Grades: pre k - pre k
    School Setting: urban
    Town Population: 4,613
    Student Enrollment: 440
    Student Demographics:

    Black/African American: 45%
    White/Caucasian: 45%
    Hispanic: 4%
    Hawaiian/Pacific Islander: 0%
    Asian: 3%
    Native American: 1%
    Other: 2%

    Teacher/Student Ratio: 1:13
    % Reduced Lunch: 75%
    % ELL Learners: 3.4%
    Founded: 1887
  • PRINCIPAL:
    Haleigh Cuevas
  • CONTACT:
    270 West Second Street
    Pass Christian, MS 39571
    228-452-5200
    hcuevas@pc.k12.ms.us