Ashoka
Coral Canyon Elementary understands the value in helping students develop leadership and relationship skills. Coral Canyon’s motto is, “Racing to success,” and their mascot, COLTS, is used as an acronym to illustrate beliefs for a healthy school environment: Communication, Optimism, Life-long learning, Try our best, Safe. Coral Canyon has a system of engagement for teachers, parents, administration, and community members, but they believe that their most important resource is their students. The school holds yearly “Olympics” to encourage students to set goals and follow a plan for academic improvement. Coral Canyon recently earned the National Title 1 Distinguished School for the State of Utah.
Jennifer Eggleston
Over the last ten years, Jennifer has been privileged to earn her Associate, Bachelor, and Master’s degree, along with becoming a National Board Certified Teacher. Four years ago, Coral Canyon Elementary went into School Improvement and the Coral Canyon Team was devastated. They thought they were working hard, but Coral Canyon Elementary’s scores were not reflecting as positively as the team needed them to. Carol Canyon Elementary created a School Improvement Team that helped perform assessments on our school, staff, students, and parents. The School Improvement Team discovered there was a line drawn between the “lower income” and “higher income” parents, each placing blame on the other. The School Improvement Team also discovered that the Tier 1 instruction was not as strong as it should have been. Over a two-year period, the team was able to increase morale, as well as scores, to earn National Title 1 Distinguished School for the State of Utah for 2012-2013. Throughout this process, Jennifer wore four different hats. She was a 5th grade classroom teacher at the school, a reading specialist the year that Coral Canyon Elementary went into school improvement, the Title 1 Site Coordinator, and then principal for the last 1.5 years. Jennifer tries to stress the following things to her staff: 1. Work smarter, not harder, 2 Encourage teams to work collaboratively together, 3. Help develop leadership in grade level team leaders and, 4. Explain the reasons why we do things and reflect on what we do.