Kindness That Holds a Community Together
This year, Allen Jay Elementary School exists in two places at once. In April 2025, the district announced a new building, and the school had to split: grades K-2 in one location and 3-5 in another, seventeen minutes apart and in two different cities. For Counselor Jaclyn Lankford, now in her second year, the challenge was immediate: how do you keep one school feeling like one school when you are not under the same roof?
Her answer starts every morning. Lankford records a daily video message—a mindfulness moment, a conversation prompt, sometimes a check-in on feelings—and sends it to both campuses so every student sees her face and hears the same words. The youngest students were delighted. “They would say, ‘ Oh my gosh, I saw you on TV,'” Lankford laughs. “And I’d be like, oh my gosh, I’m famous.” This routine unites Allen Jay’s 380 students across two buildings, helping them stay connected to the same school culture.
Allen Jay’s student body is roughly a third Asian, a third Black, and a third Hispanic, with a large Pakistani population enrolled in a unique Urdu-English dual language program, the only program of its kind in the country. Lankford describes walking through the hallway and hearing three or four languages in the space of a few steps. “You could imagine what I hear every day,” she says. “It’s beautiful.”
This diversity brings richness and real conversation, informing Allen Jay’s kindness work. Here, to be kind is to learn how to ask questions with care, to be direct without being rude, and to name hard things in a way someone can hear. The school’s definition of kindness reflects that: kindness means helping others feel good about themselves, using kind words, supporting each other, and telling a teacher when someone needs help.
Beyond definitions, Allen Jay puts these ideas into practice across the school. Teach Kindness lessons like STOP! and The Courage to Be Kind give students practice in emotional regulation and pausing before reacting. Lankford’s “Monday Pulse,” a lengthy weekly newsletter to staff, offers kind grounding for the week ahead: reminders to extend grace, to take care of themselves, and to give students the same patience they’d want in return.
What holds Allen Jay together across languages, classrooms, and campuses is a belief Lankford describes simply: “Whatever you bring, whoever you show up as, we’re making room. You have room at the table.”