Tuesday, October 18, 2016, BROOKSVILLE – An Assistant Principal is teaching invaluable life lessons to students, and has made it cool to be classy.
Every Tuesday morning approximately 40 Pine Grove Elementary School students dress for success with a shirt and tie before heading off to school. The shirt and tie are the signature attire worn by the members of the Urban Gentlemen’s Club.
“It’s a guy’s club, don’t tell the girls!” says Nick Pagano, the Assistant Principal who started the Urban Gentlemen’s Club at Pine Grove Elementary School in Brooksville, Florida. The goal of the club is to help students learn how to act like gentlemen and become productive members of society.
The members of the Urban Gentlemen’s Club meet every two weeks. Community leaders and positive role models attend at least once a month to speak with the boys. Meetings involve discussions about setting and achieving goals, study skills, interaction with people, public appearance, behavior, and just being a guy.
Membership is open to all boys in the school. To become a member the student and his parents must sign an agreement to follow the club’s rules. If the boys break the rules they don’t get to participate in club activities such as dinner events and field trips.
According to School Principal Nancy Johnson, school-wide discipline issues have gone down significantly since the formation of the Urban Gentlemen’s Club.
“The boys in the Club seem to walk a little taller. They have more confidence in themselves,” says Pagano.
The Urban Gentlemen’s Club at Pine Grove Elementary has made a positive impact on the school. It’s been such a success that the club recently formed a chapter at Eastside Elementary in Spring Hill, Florida. Not to be outdone, the girls of Pine Grove Elementary started their own club called The Leading Ladies.
CareerSource of Pasco and Hernando Counties is a major sponsor of the Urban Gentlemen’s Club. Realizing that not every child has access to a dress shirt and tie, Mr. Pagano sought donations to provide attire for kids in need. CareerSource generously stepped-up with funding for one-hundred “UGC” monogramed shirts and ties.
Anyone interested in donating to the Urban Gentleman’s Club should contact Mr. Pagano at 352-797-7090, ext. 402. He can also be reached via email at pagano_n@hcsb.k12.fl.us.