When it was Quinn Elementary School’s turn to spotlight itself, Principal Kyle Grandfield turned to his school’s peer leaders to do it instead.

At the January 8 School Committee meeting, 25 of 37 members of Quinn’s Peer Leaders group highlighted the school’s initiatives in encouraging positive behavior, a respectful school culture, and themselves through videos, skits, and speeches the group worked after school and during time off from the blizzard.

“For Peer Leaders we look for students who are responsible and take the initiative,” Grandfield said of the students in the program, which began last year.

Students showed School Committee members how their teachers encourage positive behavior using coins and special “grade rockets.” Students receive coins for when they're caught following Quinn's expectations, which are deposited into a model rocket for their respective grade.

It’s part of the school’s positive behavioral intervention and support program to encourage positive behavior. Students can cash in their coins for special themed days - pajama days, extra recess, a class time movie - or school-wide events like PBIS rallies.

As part of the presentation, students presented a video they made in which members of the Peer Leaders group were asked “what does respect mean."

Each student took turns answering the question, with answers ranging from “respect is beautiful because kids do good things and respect everything they see around them” to “respect is raising your hand and waiting to be called on.”

Students also highlighted the school’s vertical integration meetings for students, in which students from each grade level meet every few months to learn from each other.