LITH Elementary Students Dunk Superintendent, Principal

On Monday afternoon, the superintendent of Community Unit School District 300 found himself balancing awkwardly on a blue seat, facing a cage of fencing, with his toes skimming icy water. 

And he loved it. Well, most of it.

Superintendent Michael Bregy said he loved the reason that brought him to that dunk tank Monday.  The students at Lake in the Hills Elementary were challenged to cut the number of referrals to the school office by 10 percent from January through May 20.

They met the goal, which meant Bregy and other LITH Elementary School staff had to make good a promise to face the dunk tank.

For Bregy, the anxiety mounted as the first student threw a ball at a target three times -- and missed. Still, he sat, toes touching the chilly water and waiting.

But the next student, a third grader, was much more lucky. He threw and hit the target. With a huge splash Bregy, who had traded his suit for a white polo shirt and khaki shorts, dropped into a cylinder of cold water. 

"I think I scared everybody," said Bregy on Wednesday, recalling the memory. "I shot up out of that water so fast. But it was so fun." 

Bregy then joined the drenched teachers, custodian, physical education instructor and principal of LITH Elementary School, who were also dunked by their students time and time again because of a promise they made to the students.

"I'm so proud of them because they've really worked so hard," said Tammy Poole, the principal at LITH Elementary. "They would ask me in the hallway, 'How many referrals to do we have?'"

A bulletin board in the hallway let the students keep track of their progress and each week, Poole would announce a new staff member who would be dunked in the tank if the students reached their goal. 

It all meshes with the district-wide participation in Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports, or PBIS, which Bregy describes as "a system that promotes positive behaviors in school and the expectation that students bring that home." 

LITH Elementary had designed, as its PBIS incentive, the dunk tank as a reward.

Actually, so many staff had volunteered to be dunked that the school had two tanks outside. Starting with the morning kindergarten students, classes and grades lined up outside the school, with each student getting three chances each to try to dunk a staff member. 

The whole experience excited kids — and teachers, who got into the event by wearing inflatable arm bands and goggles — so much that Poole says the school will offer the dunk tanks as a reward again next year. 

If so, she'll be ready to climb off and on the seat, getting soaked all the while. 

And Bregy will be back, too, wearing shorts and toting flip flops.

"Really, for elementary kids, there's nothing better than saying, 'I got to dunk my teacher or my principal or my superintendent,'" Bregy said.