Ashoka
Cunningham Elementary School
Cunningham Elementary School is built on three pillars: sustainability, social and emotional learning, dual Spanish/English language. These three pillars are brought together through Cunningham’s unique implementation of the MicroSociety framework: an approach, in which students create their own campus society, including businesses, government, and other public services. This has been a great avenue for students to develop agency and voice. For example, one student was struggling in math class, but when she became the entrepreneur behind the school snack store, she had to use math to make her venture successful. She organized other students to conduct market surveys of what treats her schoolmates would want to eat on Fridays, and she had to know how much to pay her employees so they would continue to work with her. Becoming the school store manager coincided with her math grades drastically improving.
Amy Lloyd
Both Amy’s teaching career and volunteer opportunities have allowed her to grow many skills needed in this current leadership role. Amy has always been a quiet leader, reveling in other’s successes and helping others to succeed. She leads with relationships and quickly follows with organizational psychology. Amy’s background in teaching Special Needs children and young adults has flavored all that she does. It has trained Amy to work incrementally to reach goals and then to reset goals even higher for the next big thing. It has trained her to see the love in all people and honor their worth in our society. It has also trained Amy to arm herself with perseverance, and that love is a deeper win. As an advocate for our next generation’s evolution, Amy feels as though she is an important small part of that growth as a change agent and a school leader in elementary school. While Amy has worked in high schools and middle schools, she feels that the foundational work in elementary school is the key to successful, productive and innovative adults. Amy feels lucky to be a part of this community and she feels a deep, strong need to promote and progress for these children. Amy can see and feel their potential success. She just needs to help pave the way for it. When parents and teachers asked Amy to find resources for their struggling little school, she searched. When asked to consider the potential of changing into a magnet or charter school, she searched. The community appeared to feel disempowered and disenchanted. Their systems had them working hard to meet the needs of the state, district, faculty, families yet it seemed that they were not leading with the real needs of the kids. They chose not to move into the charter or magnet model as it would only have been the model du jour without the right reasons. Cunningham Elementary School chose the MicroSociety framework because it allows them to build the road our way, which is right for the kids.