A District-Wide P2 Success Story: Clovis USD
Strategic Culture Change Through The Positivity Project
In response to rising concerns about empathy and student connection, 40 schools throughout Clovis Unified School District (CUSD) implemented The Positivity Project (P2) to create a unified, character-driven culture. District leaders selected a program that could seamlessly integrate into existing behavior frameworks while offering consistent language and values across classrooms, grade levels, and communities.
The result: improved student behavior, better attendance, and more connected school communities — all grounded in a Tier 1 approach to character development. Explore how CUSD strategically implemented P2 district-wide — and the cultural shifts that followed.
What we discovered through P2 was more than we could have hoped… It’s one of the most amazing things I’ve seen in 25 years in education.
– Erin Waer, Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum, Instruction, and Accountability
The Challenge: Strengthening Culture and Behavior Systems
CUSD leaders were concerned by research showing a rise in narcissism and a decline in empathy among youth—trends that Clovis teachers were witnessing firsthand through growing challenges in relationship-building and self-awareness. While systems like PBIS were in place to guide behavior, they lacked the depth needed to address these growing concerns.
District staff were also looking for a consistent, district-wide approach to character education that could integrate with existing systems and work across all student demographics. With over 40,000 students and 53 languages spoken, any new program had to be accessible, adaptable, and easy to implement at the site level under Clovis’s site-based leadership model.
Educators were not interested in surface-level, reactive solutions. They wanted something practical, proactive, and sustainable—something that could be embedded into daily routines, provide a shared vocabulary across campuses, and support both students and staff in building a strong, positive school culture.
The goal was clear: find a program that helped students understand and apply character strengths in real-life situations, while giving teachers effective tools to reinforce those values across the school day.
The Results
The following outcomes were observed at Clovis Unified schools that implemented The Positivity Project with fidelity:
Behavior Improvements
Students began managing peer conflict independently and taking ownership of their actions. Staff reported more peer-to-peer problem-solving and reduced need for adult intervention on playgrounds and classrooms.
Attendance Boost
Parents reported children were more eager to attend school—even when sick—indicating a strong emotional connection to their learning environment.
Common Vocabulary
Character vocabulary began appearing in student writing and discussions, even in early grades. A common language around character strengths unified staff, students, and families across campus environments.
Community Engagement
Parent involvement and student-led service initiatives surged, strengthening school-community ties.
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Feeling inspired? Let’s talk about how your district can achieve similar results. Schedule a free consultation with our team to explore how The Positivity Project can align with your district’s goals, support your site leaders, and transform your school culture.
Clovis Unified School District at a Glance
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43,291 Students
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34 Elementary Schools
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5 Middle Schools
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5 High Schools
Empowering Schools with Site-Based Leadership
Unlike top-down mandates, CUSD empowers each school principal to select and implement programs that best meet the needs of their students and community with site-based leadership. This autonomy ensures that school culture initiatives are not only adopted with genuine buy-in but are also aligned with each site’s unique identity.
Principals across the district recognized the alignment between P2’s character strengths framework and the values they were already working to instill. Leaders like Erin Waer at Boris Elementary and Donelle Kellom at Clovis Elementary sought out P2 specifically to strengthen the relationships, character, and culture on their campuses. As more sites saw the positive outcomes, interest grew organically across the district.
To support each site’s individual journey, the district provided professional development, financial resources, and regular opportunities for school leaders to share implementation strategies. This balance of autonomy and support allowed P2 to take root in different ways at different schools, while still reinforcing a common language and shared values district-wide. The result is a scalable yet personalized approach to character education that honors local leadership and drives consistent cultural growth across CUSD.
The Implementation
40 campuses tailored P2 to fit its own culture while adhering to shared district-wide goals: consistent character vocabulary, daily exposure to key character strengths, and integration into all parts of the school day. Schools used the same character strength focus each week across all grades, enabling conversations to extend into playgrounds, after-school programs, and extracurricular activities.
One of the greatest strengths noted by CUSD administrators was the ease of implementation. The program’s turnkey resources, including daily slide decks, lesson plans, and videos, allowed even brand-new teachers to adopt the framework effortlessly. Whether a school had seasoned staff or several new hires, all were able to begin immediately using P2’s daily slide decks and materials.
“We had four brand-new teachers… none of them skipped a beat.”
– Donelle Kellom, Clovis Elementary Principal
This ease of use helped maintain fidelity across classrooms and campuses, while empowering educators to take ownership of how they presented and reinforced the content.
Today, every elementary site in CUSD uses P2 in a way that reflects its local needs—while still contributing to a cohesive, values-based culture across the district.
Behavior Improvements
One of the most significant impacts of P2 across CUSD has been the improvement in student behavior. Rather than relying solely on external discipline, schools now foster internal accountability by helping students understand and apply character strengths in real time.
As Clovis Elementary Principal Donelle Kellom explained, the shift has been proactive rather than reactive:
We’re not waiting for a situation to arise to have a teachable moment. We’re teaching concepts like integrity before problems happen. It’s woven throughout the school year.
This approach gives students a framework to recognize right from wrong before making decisions—not just after a mistake has occurred.
The outcome? Fewer office referrals, reduced suspensions, and a culture where students increasingly take ownership of their actions.
CUSD Learning Director of EL Services Lisa Vuola saw a shift not only in behavior but in student autonomy:
When a child can have a conversation with another child instead of running to get an adult, they really started to own the relationships that they were building… and that’s what starts to change the culture on the playground and the culture in the classroom.
This type of peer-led conflict resolution where students use empathy, perspective, and respect has become increasingly common across campuses. As the district teaches character strengths proactively, they prevent problems before they start, reducing disruptions and building stronger learning environments.
Attendance Boost
CUSD saw improvements in student attendance after implementing P2—not through enforcement or incentives, but by creating a school environment students genuinely wanted to be part of.
Donelle Kellom described a noticeable shift in student motivation at Clovis Elementary:
There were several comments from parents that my student begs to come to school—even when they’re sick. They don’t want to miss class time. They don’t want to miss being with their friends.
For students, school became more than a place for academics—it became a community. One parent, Irma Roach, shared:
My son… doesn’t like weekends very much. He cannot wait for it to be Monday. He loves to learn. He loves to be with his friends. He adores his teachers.
These relationships between students, and between students and staff, became a driving force behind daily attendance. Students didn’t attend school out of obligation, they showed up because they felt connected, valued, and excited to learn.
District-Wide Consistency Through Shared Vocabulary
A key outcome of CUSD’s implementation of P2 has been the establishment of a common, district-wide strengths-based vocabulary that is shared across grade levels, classrooms, and even non-instructional spaces.
By teaching the same character strengths on the same schedule across all elementary sites, students gain repeated exposure to words like integrity, gratitude, perseverance, and kindness.
Leslie Avila, a leader at Tarpey Elementary, shared how easily character vocabulary becomes part of everyday interactions:
I can walk outside at recess and I can say something, ‘Oh, that showed integrity.’ And they’ll know exactly what we’re talking about because we just did it.(…) In fact, this morning, a little guy from third grade, he found money on the playground. And right away, I made it a big deal. And I told him, “’Well, that showed a lot of integrity. You can go give it to Coach P.’ And he was so excited because he’s like, ‘We just learned that.’
This accessibility of P2 means every adult in the building can participate—regardless of role or teaching experience. Site staff, after-school programs, and support teams all participate in using the same terms and expectations, reinforcing a unified culture. The result is that whether students are in the classroom, cafeteria, or on the playground, they hear the same language and understand what it means to live out those values.
The ease of implementation has made this consistency possible. Learning Director over Multilingual Services Lisa Vuola said:
It is as simple as turning on your computer, putting up that slide deck, and having a conversation with students.
By unifying language and expectations through P2, CUSD has created a seamless positive culture that empowers students and staff to engage in meaningful conversations about character and carry those values into every part of the school day.
Parent Buy-In
The cultural shift wasn’t limited to students and staff—it reached into homes as well. With weekly certificates, newsletters highlighting the character strength of the week, and access to P2’s parent resources, families became active participants in reinforcing character development.
Parents quickly began noticing a difference. Irma Roach reflected:
It was just enhancing the parents’ ability to connect to their children… The Positivity Project is something every parent would want in their household, at the dinner table, in the morning, on the way to school.
Learning Director over Multilingual Services Lisa Vuola said:
The videos are vetted and teachers can be very secure in knowing that there is not going to be anything that isn’t appropriate for the grade level they are teaching. And that’s important as a teacher. It’s important as an administrator… The Positivity Project has gone above and beyond to make sure that everything that is shown and everything that is talked about is at grade level and appropriate for the kids that we’re teaching.
Parents not only supported the initiative—they engaged with it. Certificates recognizing character strengths were sent home, sparking family discussions around values and behavior.
A Sustainable, Scalable Culture Solution
Clovis Unified School District’s district-wide implementation of The Positivity Project demonstrates how a shared commitment to character can transform school culture. By embedding daily character education into classrooms, empowering students to form relationships, and uniting staff and families through a common vocabulary, Clovis created schools where students feel seen, connected, and motivated.
The success of this initiative shows that when character becomes a part of the everyday language and structure of a school, the impact extends far beyond behavior or academics—it shapes a community grounded in respect, relationships, and resilience.
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