Pat Henry leaders tell Lawton board about ‘JAG Life’ incentives, student awards and community grants

Lana Welch, the kindergarten-through-second-grade head principal at Pat Henry Elementary School, and Amy Wilcox, the third-through-fifth-grade principal, told the Lawton Public Schools Board of Education that the school has used a behavior-and-achievement framework called “JAG Life” and community grants to boost attendance and celebrate academic growth.

The principals described a mix of classroom incentives, reading and math programs, student competitions and local philanthropy that school leaders say have supported attendance, literacy goals and extracurricular success.

Welch said Pat Henry uses JAG Life—an acronym she defined as “just achieve greatness”—to set daily expectations around pride, attitude, wise choices and safety and to award “golden tickets” that can be exchanged at a monthly JAG store. “JAG stands for just achieve greatness, and we call it JAG life,” Welch said. She provided the school’s staffing and enrollment figures as part of the overview, saying Pat Henry serves about 514 students with roughly 44 certified staff members and 38 support staff members (figures reported by the principal during the presentation).

Wilcox and Welch described academic incentives tied to the district’s intervention and acceleration tools. According to the presentation, classes that reach cumulative milestones on Exact Path and Lexia receive celebrations such as ice cream parties, pizza parties and class outings; the principals said classes had hit thresholds cited as 500 and 800 “trophies,” and some classes had accumulated about 1,500 trophies. The presentation said Lexia units are expected at a minimum of 12 units per week, with many students completing 16 units; the principals said eight students had completed the Lexia program to date.

The principals also highlighted extracurricular competitions and partner support. Pat Henry won the district elementary Battle of the Books for a second consecutive year, fielded a LEGO robotics team that competed beyond elementary opponents, and entered students in a Future Chef competition. The Stanley Bruce Davis Foundation provided bicycles as attendance incentives; the principals said the foundation enabled the school to give away 132 bicycles to students meeting a perfect-attendance threshold with no more than one tardy. The Lawton Public School Foundation awarded three grants to Pat Henry totaling nearly $4,000, and a school “change challenge” raised $547, the presentation said. The school’s PTA organized events and fundraising that supported activities and staff grants.

Welch and Wilcox emphasized that trophies and rewards are tied to measurable performance: the presentation said students must show at least 70 percent mastery to earn many incentives and the school targets 80 percent accuracy for certain measures. The principals described the programs as balancing academic and social-emotional development and closing by introducing a student showcase performance for the board.

The presentation was given during the board’s regular meeting; after the principals’ overview, they turned the program over to staff members leading the student performance.