Mackinac Island School Marks Year End with Positive Behavior Celebration

This story first appeared in the June 23, 2023, Mackinac Island Town Crier print edition

Mackinac Island students celebrated the end of the year with the chicken dance, balloon popping, and pies in the face at a Positive Behavior Intervention and Support (PBIS) assembly June 8, the day before the last day of school. As part of the program, students collected tickets throughout the year for positive behavior and positive academic achievement, which then went into buckets where they could be selected for prizes. The school has PBIS assemblies four times a year, and this last assembly was also Superintendent Amy Peterson’s last assembly with the school, as she is leaving her position in July. It was a bittersweet moment, she told the students, as she recounted memories of how they have changed from when she first arrived at the school to now.

Mrs. Peterson surveyed the kids and asked what kind of rewards they wanted, resulting in a prize table full of candy, gift cards, Legos, jars of pickles, and a signed photograph of teacher Robert Klco. She talked to the students about having and sharing their voices, which, in this case, would reward them with the prize of pieing the superintendent. The students who pied her in the face, Mia St. Onge and Kizzie Soderquist, earned the coveted prize since they were on honor roll all year.

Mia St. Onge (right) was the first student selected to pie Superintendent Amy Peterson in the face during the last assembly of the year Thursday, June 8. It was also Mrs. Peterson’s last assembly at Mackinac Island Public School.

“We have this message that when you do the right thing at school, sometimes good things and fun things can happen to you,” Mrs. Peterson said.

As she prepares to leave the school superintendent’s position, Mrs. Peterson thanked the community, parents, staff, and the students.

“I wish them all the best. I’m hoping to continue to follow some of the sporting events, and, of course, the social media pages,” she said, “so I can continue to watch the kids grow.” ¦

One of the first activities of the assembly was the chicken dance.

Teacher Justin Badik focusing on the Cha-Cha Slide, one of the many group dances students participated in at the assembly.

Two students played rock, paper, scissors during the last school assembly of the year Thursday, June 8.

Another game played at the assembly was called humans, tigers, or traps, which is a rock, paper, scissors style game where students stood back-to-back then turned around at the same time and either made a human, tiger, or trap shape with their bodies.