Mission Statement
Kernan’s Core Beliefs:
- We believe all students can learn.
- We believe all students must have a rigorous curriculum.
- We believe all students need to be prepared for high school and beyond.
- We are creating a positive and caring environment to enable the success of all learners.
- Within our small learning communities, we are building safe environments and strong relationships.
What's a House?
Our house system here at Kernan helps us achieve the great success that we have had over the last 8 years. To understand houses, it is important to look at school size. Statistics have shown that smaller schools generate a more comfortable atmosphere than larger ones. Students know a large majority of the student body, and teacher also know more about their students.
To maintain the positive attributes of a small school environment but to still keep the benefits of larger schools, Kernan divides students into three houses. Each house acts as a separate school and students stay in their house until the end of their stay here at Kernan. House A, B, and C each have three grade levels, a house administrator, and an office assistant. The goal is to encourage the development of a close knit group of teachers and students, once only found in smaller schools.
Expectations from CHAMPs
Voice level 1! Movement none! Attention signal!- What does it all mean? If you are not a student at Kernan, this may seem like a secret military code. In fact, these phrases are all part of CHAMPs. CHAMPs is a school wide behavior management system, which sets expectations in the classroom.
| C | Conversation (Voice levels 1[silent], 2[whisper], 3[conversation] 4[presentation]) |
| H | Help (How students get help [raise hand]) |
| A | Activity (What students are doing) |
| M | Movement (How students move during the activity [walk quietly, remain seated]) |
| P | Participation (What proper participation looks like [eyes on teacher, taking notes]) |
Riiiing, Where'd the Bells Go?
To insure safety and maximize class time, there are no bells at Kernan Middle School. We use a system called Foundations. Class changes are facilitated by teachers, leaving students supervised at all times.
Often visitors will see the lines of students walking to and from classes, entering class as a whole. This reduces the amount of class time used for class changes. Most importantly though, this system makes strangers to the school easily identifiable, because it removes their ability to blend in with the crowd when students move between classes.
Together with CHAMPs, Foundations provides the foundation on which to build a truly thriving educational community.
