St. Paul’s announces changes to its degree system

PR Log (Press Release) – Sep 24, 2009 – In the past, St. Paul’s Order of the Knighthood was a degree system based on character education.  Students earn more privileges as they learn about and demonstrate the virtues of the Knighthood.  As we took a serious look at the Knighthood, we realized that we wanted the students to learn and demonstrate these virtues because of their intrinsic value, not because they would earn more privileges.  The old system encouraged superficial changes for the wrong reasons.  Additionally, we realized that the students were not buying into the system because it was primarily run by the staff.  Therefore, in order to provide top notch services to meet the needs of your clients, our families, and our students, St. Paul’s Academy is taking the following action:

·   We are separating the current degree system into two separate systems:  The Order of the Knighthood of St. Paul’s Academy and St. Paul’s Academy Citizenship.

·   The Order of the Knighthood will serve as a level system for our program component.  We will keep all of the history and tradition of the Knighthood as we make this change.  Students will move up levels as they learn and demonstrate the virtues of the Knighthood.  Additionally, there will be other requirements to move up the levels, like:  students must achieve certain goals in their individual growth plans, successful completion of certain character education seminars, completion of community service, completion of 12 step requirements, and completion of other seminars that focus on topics like leadership, self-awareness, etc.  The Knighthood will completely be run by the staff, and will not have privileges attached to it.  Students must become a Squire in the Order of the Knighthood before they qualify to graduate from the program component of St. Paul’s.  To become a Squire, students must successfully complete the following levels:  Orientation, Page Lieutenant, Page Captain, and then Squire.  Becoming a Knight is still the highest honor at St. Paul’s Academy, and is reserved for the most exemplary students.

·   The St. Paul’s Academy Citizenship system will govern student privileges.  Citizenship must be earned by completing certain requirements:  completing an orientation workbook, learning and following the 10 Basic Responsibilities, completing community service, petitioning for citizenship, receiving feedback from the community in our weekly community meeting, and gaining approval from the student-run St. Paul’s Code of Conduct Council.  Once obtaining Citizenship, student can move up to become a Level 2 Citizen by completing additional requirements.  Students must also complete certain requirements to maintain their Citizenship, or they can be demoted to non-Citizen status.  Citizenship will be completely run by the student body, thereby empowering them and helping us to gain student buy-in.

As always, if you have any questions or feedback, please call us at 602-956-9090, or visit us online at http://www.stpaulsacademy.com