Brunswick City Schools reveals life skills Brunswick students should have before graduation

BRUNSWICK — Brunswick City Schools' "Journey of a Blue Devil" plan, which states the top five characteristics Brunswick students should have before they graduate, was announced during the board of education meeting Tuesday night. Brunswick High School Assistant Principal Halle Schmidt said over the past few months, committees consisting of adults and students were put together to determine what skills and traits students need to learn at Brunswick schools to be successful in school and after high school. "Question No. 1 was what are the hopes, dreams and aspirations that our community has for our young people?" Schmidt said. "What are the skills and mindsets that our children need for success in this rapidly changing and complex world? Then what are the implications for the design of the learning experiences and equitable access to those experiences we provide in our school systems?" Members of the committees and students in grades six through 12 had the opportunity to fill out a survey and pick their top seven traits that Brunswick City Schools should focus on out of a list of 30 options, Schmidt said. Over 2,000 people responded to this survey. "What do our students need?" she said. "What do we want to make sure that we recognize as the district?" The top five skills that were chosen were responsibility, communication, adaptability, empathy and critical thinking. After these traits were established, definitions were added to make the meaning of these competencies clearer. Other top words such as integrity, leadership and problem solving were implemented into these definitions. "What does this look like in a classroom?" she said. "What does this look like in our district? We tried to make it actionable. Instead of just putting communication, when we describe it, we're saying communicating effectively." The work from this project will be implemented in the creation of Brunswick's next strategic plan, Brunswick Superintendent Jason Niedermeyer said. "It's driving these skills through a world-class, rigorous curriculum," he said. "Those two things joined together are going to create students who will be successful in the world." Contact reporter Madisyn Woodring at (330) 721-4049 or mwoodring@medina-gazette.com.