Bee bucks create buzz around good behavior

by Emily Canning-Dean

Thanks to the Bee Bucks program at Brecksville-Broadview Heights Middle School, students have learned that good behavior can really pay off.

Under this school-wide initiative, which has been in place for the last several years, teachers, administrators and other staff can award students with Bee Bucks when they are seen exhibiting positive behavior.

Bee Bucks act as currency for the Bee Bucks “store” which is available during lunch time at the school every other Friday.

“Bee Bucks can be given to a student as recognition for a positive act,” School Counselor Jane Ciuni said. “This might be for a student who helped a classmate pick up their books if they dropped them in a hallway or who was quiet and respectful during a presentation by a speaker.”

Ciuni explained that Ohio public schools are mandated by the state to have positive behavioral interventions and supports in place and the Bee Bucks program serves as just that.

“The purpose is to create a culture that also focuses on the positive,” Ciuni said. “School doesn’t need to be a scary place where it’s just about getting a detention if you misbehave. You will also be rewarded for positive behavior.”

Ciuni said the store boasts a wide variety of items. She said merchandise such as pens or a piece of candy cost just one Bee Buck while other items might cost as many as 20 Bee Bucks.

“Our parent support organization is a big help with running the store for us and helping us to stock the store with multiple things,” she said. “Some of the items are more of a coupon style, like erasing a night of homework, a coupon for a free ice cream in the lunchroom or a positive telephone call in which your teacher will call up your parents and say something nice. There are also stickers and other fun items.”

Ciuni said the positive reinforcements are something that students seem to respond well to.

“This is especially true for our sixth-graders because this is new to them,” she said. “There are PBIS initiatives at the elementary level, but the Bee Bucks store is completely new for them.”

In the future, Ciuni said she would like to add more items to keep eighth-graders engaged.

“It’s possible we might consider something like adding different types of gift cards to the store,” she said. ∞