Cedar Valley Catholic Schools and Leader Valley are excited to announce that Saint Edward Elementary School has been recognized as a Leader in Me Lighthouse School. This milestone designation is awarded to schools that demonstrate discerning results in the areas of leadership, culture and academics. As a Catholic school, Saint Edward Elementary has also layered faith into all of these areas of the Leader in Me framework. Mrs. Wendy Sweeney, third grade teacher at Saint Edward shared, “The biggest impact on my students, that I have seen through Leader in Me, is the growth in social emotional skills. Watching students interact with each other to problem solve, set goals, and celebrate each other’s success has made a positive impact on the development of our students.” Of the 5,000 Leader in Me schools in 55 countries, only 12% have received the distinction of LighthouseSchool. Saint Edward Elementary is the 6th Leader Valley School to receive this prestigious honor.
Saint Edward Elementary School became a Leader in Me School on May 10, 2013. Over the past 8 years, the students, staff and families of Saint Edward Elementary have put forth rigorous effort to demonstrate growth and results in their work to develop highly effective practices in the core areas of leadership, culture and academics. In August 2019, three elementary schools consolidated into one at Saint Edward Elementary site. This restructuring brought three school cultures together creating a new opportunity for the staff and students as they continued to develop and implement the Leader in Me program. Saint Edward Elementary principal, Mr. Aaron Becker commented, “When we consolidated our elementary programming our staff knew creating a new school culture would be critical for our success. The efforts of our teachers and students to live the 7 Habits and embed the Leader in Me framework truly helped shape the school we would become through this consolidation. This is just a great testament to the commitment of our team as we seek to empower all of our students to find their voice.” On March 1st, an on-site assessment was conducted by the Franklin Covey Foundation team using an 18 rubric evaluation.
Congratulations to the newest Lighthouse School in the Cedar Valley, Saint Edward Elementary. With this distinction comes a great responsibility to shine the light for other schools as they embark on the journey to unleash greatness in students, educators and their school community. Leader Valley Director, Melissa Reade shared, “We are beyond excited for Saint Edward to achieve this Lighthouse milestone. It has been an incredible effort on the part of the adults and students to create a strengthened leadership culture after the merging of the three elementary schools. As the 6th Leader in Me Lighthouse school in the Cedar Valley, the Leader Valley team is incredibly hopeful of the light the Saint Edward team will shine on leadership to all of our schools.”
Cedar Valley Catholic Schools serves students from 6 weeks old to grade 12. If you have questions about the admission process, tuition assistance or general questions about Cedar Valley Catholic Schools, please contact Sarah Smith, Cedar Valley Catholic Schools Advancement Director, at 319-232-1422 or ssmith@cvcatholic.org.
