Dr. Nathan Morris, our superintendent, saw the need in our school community for character development – specifically calling character development Cross County School District's “missing piece.” Through a long-standing partnership with NIET, we began to work with their Accelerating Character Education Development (ACED) team to train a district character leadership team. The focus of that training was grounded in the Jubilee Center’s Building Blocks of Character, 11 Principles of Character Education, and the work of Dr. Marvin Berkowitz from the Center for Character and Citizenship.  Our  school then developed a building character leadership team and met over the course of the 2021-2022 school year to narrow down how to practically implement what we wanted to achieve and set character goals. Surveys were distributed to stakeholders to determine which core values our school community saw as most fundamental for our students. When reviewing results, the character values that came to the forefront were self-discipline, compassion, respect, courage, integrity, and gratitude. After identifying these values, the team decided that the best way to tackle the challenge of teaching character was to think of a practical way for our elementary students to relate to these identified values. When looking at the culture of our rural Arkansas community, the team identified hunting and abundant wildlife as something that is embedded in daily life. Because of this, we chose wildlife according to the seasons where the animals are hunted and/or active. Students see these animals often, and serve as a reminder of the character values we are embedding in our school community.  In 22-23 the school unveiled the ‘Creatures of Character’.  After a successful year of implementing the new core values our stakeholders were surveyed again and the results showed that we made significant progress but needed to add an additional core value for our students to be even more successful.  In 2023-2024 humility was added as the seventh core value at Cross County Elementary.  In order to keep with the Creature of Character theme, humility was then connected to the honeybee.  The honeybee is a creature that promotes teamwork and supports the hive to perform whatever task needs completed. We have seen humility be the perfect addition to our core values.  We often call it the glue that holds all of them together.