Week one is in the books at Guthrie Center Elementary and things have been great thus far for new principal Diane Flanery.

She’s not a total newcomer to the area having served as a teacher at the school for 16 years, and her transition to the new title has been a smooth one.

“The kids have been wonderful and the staff, it helps that they knew who I was and I know them so we were ready to jump in right with all the initiatives we needed to get started with this fall.”

One such initiative is PBIS, which stands for Positive Behavior Intervention and Support.

“The essence of that is that we’re just creating great citizens at Guthrie Center.  This PBIS… we have a theme of ‘construction’ because we’re building great citizens.  G-C, Guthrie Center. G-C, Great Citizens.”

To promote this ‘construction’ theme, Flanery and her staff surprised the students at Guthrie Center Elementary last Friday with some popsicles and fun in the front circle drive.

“We had the help of Josh Sebern, our County Engineer this week, and he and his crew brought in a dump truck today, and a loader and a road grader.  The kids were able to look at the equipment, ask questions about it.  Most of them were able to get in the road grader and honk the horn and they were having a great time.”

Flanery says the only thing that could have made the day better–cooler temperatures.  But, she adds, a fun time was had by all.