Campaign Connect

An event called Campaign Connect took place on May 24, 2016. Campaign Connect is where stakeholders teams of different schools came together in one location to discuss their progress in the six-step process.

Six-Step Process

1. Register or Renew Registration to participate - Register for Campaign Connect
2. Establish or Re-Establish Stakeholder Team - Gather members for Stakeholders Team
3. Collect and Analyze Data - Collect data to get opinions of staff, students, parents, and others
4. Develop Climate & Culture Strategy - Develop ways to solve problems in the school and create new concepts to improve school experience for everyone
5. Implement Action Plan and Track Progress - Carry out solutions and new plans in the school
6. Apply for Certification and/or Badges and restart the process - When the team has made a lot of progress, apply for certification and start the process again

Campaign Connect and stakeholders teams are all about improving the experience of all parts of the school- whether it is the staff, the students, or the parents- which is why the stakeholders invited some members of NuYu to participate in their last meeting of the year. Proper representation of all parts of the school is important, right? This year, Community Middle School was certified as a Campaign Connect school. CmPS, specifically the NuYu team has had an important effect on CMS’s certification and the school’s completion of the first round of the six step process.
NuYu mainly affected step five of the Six-Step Process, by taking action against a huge problem in the West Windsor-Plainsboro School District. NuYu’s main goal is to help kids cope with stress - ultimately improving the school climate.

Reflection of Our Experience at Campaign Connect
It was very interesting to see how students and teachers interact with each other outside of the school setting. Students were giving ideas to teachers, and teachers giving ideas to students, with everyone being seen equally. The main goal of this meeting was to formulate questions to ask staff, parents, and teachers to see their opinions on the school’s climate and culture. We students gave another perspective to the event, helping create questions that the staff may not have themselves.
It really is an amazing thing how there is a place where students, teachers, and parents can discuss ideas and progress as equals. From a student’s perspective, building trust and friendship with a teacher is something that can’t be done in classrooms, but can be done at Campaign Connect. If this sort of thing can somehow be implemented in classrooms, then Community Middle School can become a better place for everyone!

By Jonathan Solomon and Marilyn Zhang