Park Magnet, an IB World School, and Main Street Visual and Performing Arts Magnet School have been named Capturing Kids' Hearts National Showcase Schools.
For Kristen Gordon, Main Street Magnet principal, the recognition is a sign that the work they have been putting in the last three years is finally coming to fruition.
"It just means that we are living and breathing relationships with our students and making sure that our students come first," Gordon said.
"We've seen a real growth in our school community in terms of relationships," said Sarah Oatsvall, Park Magnet principal.
"Capturing Kids' Hearts is all about building relationships. Relationships between adults and students, adults and other adults and then students to students.
"We've spent the last three years focusing on that relationship, and everything in the building seems to run smoother and better when solid relationships are in place," Oatsvall said.
There were 555 schools across the country nominated for Capturing Kids' Hearts, but only 325 schools were awarded. The nomination for both Park Magnet and Main Street Magnet came from Sean Dunphy, the district's consultant.
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"Dr. Sean Dunphy has been with us every step of the way and has been on campus several times a year meeting with the staff, meeting with the leadership, meeting with leadership at the central office," Oatsvall said.
"He was very helpful in helping us determine what our next steps needed to be in terms of continued implementation of capturing hearts and all that means," she said.
"I think, ultimately, the nomination comes from being able to see evidence of its success in the school, both Park and Main Street, in terms of decreasing numbers of student referrals from behavior issues and more support for school-based mental health issues in terms of relationship building," Oatsvall said.
The selection process included interviews with parents and students and all the staff members at both schools.
"During that nomination process, those individuals at Capturing Kids' Hearts were able to get a feel for what Capturing Kids' Hearts look like in our schools by talking to each of those stakeholder groups," Oatsvall said.
Oatsvall said she thinks students feeling safe and connected and eager to learn comes from the environment, the school and the classrooms.
"That comes from the teachers creating classroom environments where the students want to come to school where they feel valued, where they feel that they are worthy and where they feel that they're safe," Oatsvall said.
"I think Capturing Kids' Hearts is all about making sure that our students feel valued in the classroom and seen as humans before they're seen as just simply students who need to learn content," she said.
"If you have a child's heart, you have a child's mind," Gordon said. "We know by building those relationships with our students it's going to open up so many doors for them educationally."
Oatsvall said educators need to have that important role in the students' life because if it doesn't come from school, then the schools have to rely on just the families and community to do it, which is not enough.
"Family is important, our community is critical. Schools are the bedrock of our modern society. We have that responsibility, good, bad or otherwise that weighs on us," Oatsvall said.
"We as schools have an enormous responsibility to provide that environment where our students can be successful, and then ensure that they are successful, and not settle for anything less than that, and that's hard," she said.
"That's the work that we signed up for, and that's the role that schools play in our society. It wouldn't be fair to assume that families or other community organizations could do that. It takes everybody," Oatsvall said.
Gordon said students spend the majority of their week at school.
"It's imperative that we build those relationships, so they feel that they're valued and trusted and that their voice matters," she said.
National Showcase Schools are chosen through a rigorous selection process that includes measuring key performance indicators, gathering campus data, and surveying staff and students, according to the National Showcase Schools' website.
"Capturing Kids' Hearts celebrates campuses where educators are exceeding expectations and creating an environment where students feel safe, connected, and eager to learn," it said.