Principal James Brown isn’t the only thing new at Grover Cleveland Middle School.

The first-year principal discussed some changes he’s implemented at the school at Monday’s Caldwell-West Caldwell Board of Education meeting.

Brown said when he arrived at the Caldwell school in August he surveyed teachers and heard repeatedly that school spirit and pride could use improvement.

With that in mind, Brown has taken several steps, including creating a Student-Principal Advisory Council.

He said the idea is to take a business approach.

“Students are the customers,” he said, adding that he hopes to work with the council of 18 sixth, seventh and eighth graders to serve them better.

Another change is the addition of an incentive to wear the school color on Fridays. Students who participate in the school pride activity and wear blue at the end of the week have their names entered into a raffle for a gift card. Brown said he has seen participation grow from about 40% to 55-60% in the opening months of the school year.

Brown has also reintroduced recess. He said the students will be allowed to go outside weather permitting to play sports and blow off steam after they eat their lunches.

Here’s what else is new since September at Grover Cleveland Middle School:

• The middle school can now be followed on Twitter at @CWCGCMS.
• A newsletter called “Middle Years” is being distributed to parents.
• Two computer labs have been redesigned and all students now have Google accounts.
• Student bands are playing in the school library once a month during lunch. Parents and teachers are welcome.

Prior to becoming principal at the middle school, Brown was a vice-principal at James Caldwell High School.