First things first: It's a brand new school year with brand new rules! Many programs either do not carry over or are discarded at the end of the school year. You can re-vamp the program over the summer with your executive board and present it for approval at your first meeting. I had a similar problem with my vice president this last year. Our Principal's List (All A's All Subjects) quarterly awards were these really cool pencils that said Principal's Award and were very sparkly (not overly because boys get them too), and the Honor Roll pencils said "Honor Roll", and they were cool, but not sparkly. Her daughter wanted a sparkly pencil, but earned an Honor Roll pencil instead. I told her mother (my vice prez) that she would have to work a bit harder because Honor Roll students should want the next up pencil, not Principal's List wanting the one down. She ended up being my worst enemy because of this pencil issue. HOWEVER, her daughter did work harder and did get the Principal's List one the next quarter. So, it did work the way it should, except mom is still ticked at me...lol...
Each class has a "Most Improved" student, along with a "Most Books Read" and a "Citizenship" award. For the first two, we give a "Star Student" pencil and a very cool red, white and blue sparkly pencil with a star eraser on top for the citizenship.
As you can see, each award is the very same thing, only the designs are different. Our real difference comes at the end of the year. Our students who have been Principal's List ALL YEAR receive a license plate (our state only requires a state plate on the back, so the front can be any other kind of plate) that says "My Child Had All A's All Subjects All Year at Manzanita Elementary School". The Honor Roll reads "My Child Was An Honor Student All Year At Manzanita Elementary School". Our most improved gets a Star Student pencil. Ta Da!
For our Special Ed classes, they get special certificates that are the equivilant of the Honor and Principal's List ones that the school gives, as these students, while doing their best, may not receive all A's or A's and B's. They also get a Star Student pencil. The first time we did this, we had a couple students receive them. The following quarter, entire classes got them. It was the first reward they had ever gotten at our school, besides citizenship and most improved. It turned out to be a great incentive for them.
So you see, we keep the same 'prize', but each step is a better, more wanted style. The cost for this program (covered this year and next)? $900. That comes to $450 a year and it definately worked for our kids. Besides, can you put a price on encouragement? No. Can you put a cap on prize/reward spending? Definately.
Good Luck!
