Starting this year, Parkway North High School is implementing a new reward system called “Viking Vouchers” to reward positive behavior at North.

“Our goal is that students take pride in Parkway North. Our characteristics are being self-directed, being caring, going out of their way to support their teachers and their classmates, and taking pride in their education. I think more kids will join that fight,” 9th-grade principal Dr. Mike Rizzo said.

Parkway North is currently ranked 49th in Missouri according to U.S. News and World Report. Ranking are based on a number of criteria including college readiness, state test scores, graduation rate, etc. Vouchers are being introduced to reward good behavior among students and encourage students to behave better and take school more seriously. 

“We spend a lot of time looking at data and where we can improve behavior. We spend a lot of our time focusing on the kids who are misbehaving and not the kids who are doing the right thing. So we decided to implement some positive behavior reward system,” Rizzo said.

While other behavior reward systems were already in place before this such as free donuts available for citizenship grades or chips for GPA, this is one of the more recent ones to focus on rewarding already good students for what they do every day.

Every week, vouchers are drawn for a small prize and every month a drawing is held for a larger prize. Students can receive a voucher for various things, some even as simple as participation in class, being kind to others, or following the school’s values.

“It said that I’m polite and always participating. It was for a tech class. So mostly just answering questions and being polite about it,” freshman Eleanore Casagrand, who received a voucher, said.

Viking Vouchers aren’t just being created to reward already good students at North, but to make kids who may behave worse to see someone getting recognized for their positivity and think “Hey, maybe I’ll try to get one of those.”

“It was surprising because I did not expect to get it but at the same time, it was still nice because, you know, getting recognized for things is good; it’s always nice,” Casagrand said.