Woodland MS Honored For Creating Positive Environment

EAST MEADOW, NY - From East Meadow Union Free School District: As a school committed to the development of a positive learning environment, Woodland Middle School, in the East Meadow School District has received the Silver Fidelity Award from the International Alliance for Invitational Education.

In 2016, Woodland earned the Inviting School award from the IAIE for its extraordinary teachers, administrators and faculty who create a sense of family and respect within the school community. Through character education initiatives, team building events, and collaboration among staff, students and parents throughout the school year, the school creates an environment that encourages both staff and students to realize their valued potential.

The Fidelity Award recognizes Woodland’s continued efforts to build upon and sustain the Inviting School principles two years after earning the designation. The IAIE offers five types of Fidelity Awards, with the top Gold Fidelity Award bestowed upon schools that dedicate more than 10 years to Invitational Education
practices.

In late January, IAIE’s then-Executive Director Joan Fretz presented the school’s administrators and staff with a commemorative plaque and banner for the honor.

“Congratulations to you for being a lighthouse district in this work,” said Fretz. “As an Inviting School, you are giving your students and colleagues everything they want and need so they can figure out who they are and where they’re going in this world.”

The middle school will also be featured in a book co-authored by Fretz, Dr. William Watson Purkey and Dr. John Michael Novak. Drs. Purkey and Novak have authored several books on Invitational Theory, including “Inviting School Success” and “Fundamentals of Invitational Education.”

Photo courtesy of the East Meadow Union Free School District