Embracing Kindness

Ben’s Bells murals serve as a great visual reminder to 'be kind' and symbolize community connection, and support through kindness, while adding beauty to the community. Murals are located across the District and other locations in southern Arizona including businesses and community areas. Each mural includes handmade ceramic tile, recycled donated tile, and mirror chunks so the viewer can look into the mural and feel empowered to be the one who can choose to ‘be kind’.  Students raised all funds for the project and created all mosaic tiles. Parent volunteers assisted with the construction of each mosaic mural.  

MUSD schools promote a positive school climate at each school through a District-wide integrated behavior system, Positive Behavioral Interventions and Support (PBIS). PBIS, is instrumental in teaching students respect, responsibility, and accountability from an early age. As part of PBIS, every school establishes clear expectations for the behavior expected in all classrooms and areas of school. Ben’s Bells along with other school-wide programs such as Peaceful Playgrounds and Healthy Play promote a positive school climate. 

Each student has the opportunity to earn stars to add to their individual Dust Devil Dozen sheet. A student receives a star from a staff member when they are recognized for following our PBIS expectations, which at DeGrazia, is our ART Code. A stands for Act Safely, R stands for Respect Everyone and Everything and T stands for Take Responsibility. Once students fill a Daily Dozen sheet with 12 stars, they can take the Dust Devil Dozen to our prize store in the Counselor’s classroom to turn it in for a prize. The Daily Dozens are then put into a drawing for a larger prize. This drawing occurs at our school-wide assembly.