Homer Flex High School – KPBSD Communications Field Notes

Chris Brown, 2020 Principal of the Year in AASSP Region III, personifies flexibility

Soldotna, June 11, 2020—Rising like a Phoenix, Chris Brown consistently greets his own inquisitive single-digit age children with delight. At Homer Flex High School, his smile and twinkling eyes offer a welcoming presence to each teen who walks through the door and pauses to remove shoes in the foyer to enter a new day of learning. Principal Brown says, “They are genuinely excited to be here and a part of our community. They show up having overcome obstacles and barriers beyond anything I have experienced.”

Students at “Flex” awaken to personal responsibility, and land into a sense of family and belonging supported by Principal Brown and the Homer Flex team. Restorative practices, social and emotional learning, teacher support, and group time accompany their academics to graduation. School becomes a classroom for life.

Named the 2020 Region III Principal of the Year, the Association of Secondary School Principals (AASSP) recognize Brown for his pivotal role in student success. He stepped into leadership at Flex five years ago, following five years of teaching in the school. He focuses on professional development opportunities to keep staff engaged—and his attention to staff needs and policy changes equates to an impressive 100 percent staff retention spanning more than four years.

“Homer Flex High School respects student choice to live an adult life; therefore, we require that they accept the responsibilities required to be a successful adult,” says Brown. “It is our mission to facilitate students’ academic, vocational, and social and emotional skills toward success in their postsecondary lives. We encourage self-motivation and self-direction, respect for self, respect for others, and respect for the world in which we live.”

Principal Brown worked with the National Council and the Southern Kenai Peninsula Resiliency Coalition to implement Trauma Informed Practices in school, and is a strong advocate for small schools and underserved populations. He focuses on incorporating and prioritizing mental health in schools and is a Youth Mental Health First Aid trainer.

He is instrumental in introducing Restorative Practices to the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District, and Superintendent John O’Brien says, “I applaud the leadership Principal Brown has shown in the area of restorative justice—his leadership has positively transformed the culture of Homer Flex. He is the epitome of a student centered educational leader and a tireless advocate for his students. Regional Principals of The Year are eligible to be in the running for the statewide Alaska Principal of The Year, and I wholeheartedly hope this additional recognition is awarded to Principal Brown—he would be an excellent choice.”

High School Flexibility in Homer

“For many reasons, Homer Flex High School is the kind of school I wish I could have attended. At Flex, teachers encourage students to be self-motivated and tailor their education to their learning style, while still providing enough structure and support that students aren’t lost in an ocean of options. It is also one of the most accepting places I’ve had the pleasure of spending my time. And that’s what I’d like to celebrate: Flex’s ability to accept a range of quirky characters and find a way for them all to fit.

Roughly 35 students attend Flex, and each of them has their own way of making themselves known. Where one student might wear a fedora, another will come in with a cape. On any given day there will be pinks, blues, and purples scattered throughout the brown, black, blonde, and red hair of Flex’s population. Students who might inhabit opposing cliques in a different school will work together to create a rap defining and exemplifying literary terms (with a little social commentary in there, too). And then you realize that one student’s shirt is covered in kittens all silently judging the world in their cat-like way.

But those kittens are the only ones judging. Students and staff alike accept those who walk in ready to learn. “It wouldn’t be the same without them,” can be heard from one student about a peer they routinely find annoying. This recognition of the importance of each other’s different personalities is fostered in a myriad of ways, one of which is the school’s small size which allows for close relationships between students. In one exercise students were assigned to different groups and asked, over the following few days, to write notecards about each of the others in their group naming positive characteristics, and then present them to each other in front of the group. Because of the school’s size, most students have enough exposure to each other that they could easily find responses. Even students who were absent the day of the assignment were able to step into their group upon returning and name positive aspects of everyone else’s personalities.

This isn’t to say Flex is a magical school where everyone gets along and only sees the best in each other. Like in all schools, drama rears its ugly head, but Flex’s “leave drama at the door” mantra reminds students that the school strives to be a comfortable, safe place and every person who walks through its doors is responsible for maintaining that environment. And they do.

Flex changes a lot every year, every semester, as students come and go, but their level of acceptance remains a constant.”

Story contributed by Deb Meadows, a local skill provider from The Center, in Homer, Alaska

Links

Video: The Face of Flex
Facebook: Homer Flex
Website: Homer Flex