Coppinville brings British tradition to Enterprise

Coppinville Junior High School is bringing a British tradition to Enterprise City Schools: the introduction of “houses.”

For the 2016-17 school year, students in both seventh and eighth grade at Coppinville will be a member of a “house,” which is meant to help all students feel involved in the school, according to Principal David West.

“We had about five teachers go and visit the Ron Clarke Academy in Atlanta,” West said. “It's a charter school, and they actually have houses. So, we decided to use that concept so everybody here belongs to something, and there's a sense of community because not every student is an athlete or in the band. Now, every student will belong.”

Carrie Heninger, instructional partner at CJHS, is one of the educators that brought the idea in to the school.

“It's just a way to create a family within a school where every student will belong,” Heninger said. “So, even if you're not a football player, or a cheerleader or a choir member, you are a member of a house.”

Heninger said Coppinville's motto, Eagle Pride, is the inspiration for each house.

P represents the House of Positivity; R represents the House of Responsibility; I represents the House of Integrity; D represents the House of Determination; and, E represents the House of Excellence.

According to Heninger, a “mixture” of seventh and eighth graders will be members of each house. She said every faculty and staff member, from the principal to custodians, are also members of each house.

At the end of the 2015-16 school year, incoming eighth graders were separated into each house. On Tuesday, Aug. 9, seventh graders and new students took part in a “sorting ceremony” and were placed in a house.

Heninger said each house will compete for points throughout the year.

“Some of it will be for academics,” Heninger said. “(For example), maybe for growth on certain tests. Some of it could be related to athletics, such as when we do field days.

“At the very end of the year, we will have an end-of-the-year house party. The winning house will have the party decorated in their honor.”

Each house will be separated into several student advocate groups that will choose a representative for the House of Representatives, Heninger said. Each House will also choose one eighth grader to represent the group in the Senate, she said.

She said there would be five senators and about 30 members of the House of Representatives.

“We want to give our students a voice in what happens, how we compete for points, and any other ideas,” Heninger said. “I pretty much set this up, and I told the faculty that I've created a skeleton of the houses concept. I want the students to really flesh it out so they have ownership in it.”

Heninger said she hopes this event becomes a tradition.

“We want it to become something that in 10 or 20 years from now, the students will still remember,” Heninger said.