How Tumbleweed Elementary Built Seven Houses and Cut Referrals 56%

The Staff Reveal

Tumbleweed’s rollout was a two-year production – not because they were slow, but because they believed anticipation was part of the experience. Year one was all planning and buildup. A bulletin board in the school office read: “Something big is coming.” Morning announcements taught one house at a time, two weeks per house, building familiarity before anyone knew which house they’d join.

The staff reveal came first. Every adult in the building – custodians, kitchen staff, instructional aides, office personnel – received a super-secret letter. The event itself was theatrical: dimmed lights, black lights, music, a glitter wall. Each person opened a swag bag containing a house shirt, lanyard, sunglasses, bracelets, and cupcakes and candy bars wrapped in their house colors.

The decision to include every staff member, not just teachers, was intentional. As SEL Specialist Lindsay Williams described it, the house system was meant to be a family – and families don’t leave people out. The competition for house gear became fierce. Williams collected five pairs of Altruismo shoes. Assistant Principal Dr. Rosalia Contreras was working on an airbrushed Newcore jacket. Every Wednesday became Houseware Wednesday, with staff wearing their house colors.

Seven Houses, One Family

Tumbleweed adopted Ron Clark Academy’s eight house names – signing a pledge not to profit from or alter them – and adapted the structure for an elementary setting. First through fifth graders were randomly sorted into six houses. But kindergarten and transitional kindergarten needed something different.

Borrowing an idea from Freedom Crossing Academy, the school placed all kindergartners in the House of Ohana. Ohana’s symbolic animal is the sea turtle, and its shell colors represent the six main houses – a visual reminder that every house grows from the same origin. The school motto became: “Seven houses, one family.”

The kindergarten promotion ceremony became one of Tumbleweed’s signature traditions. At the end of the year, kindergartners discover which of the six main houses they’ll promote into. Fifth graders flank the ceremony in full house gear, ready to welcome their newest members. Before the first day of the new school year, the school holds a “Kinder Signing Day” – staged like a college athlete’s recruiting event – where incoming students formally join their house.

The core values anchoring the system – Champion Students, Expect Excellence, Carry the Banner, Haven of Hope – gave houses meaning beyond colors and mascots. Student house leads reinforced ownership from within, and each house took on community service projects that extended identity beyond the school walls.

The Student Reveal

The plan had been to reveal houses to students before winter break of Year 1. Then a COVID surge hit, and the team pivoted – using the remaining months to teach each house in depth. By the time Year 2 arrived, students knew every house name, color, and value. They just didn’t know which one was theirs.

The student reveal happened after Labor Day. Staff decorated the cafeteria while students ate outside, trying to peek through the windows. Students entered one grade level at a time. Each child received a super-secret letter with a countdown. The superintendent, board members, and the district PBIS team were all invited.

Board members later told Larrick that the event produced more excitement than Christmas morning. Quiet students who rarely spoke found a voice through house competition – kids who had never said a word suddenly erupted when someone suggested their house might lose. As Williams observed, the house system gave students a chance to leave everything else at the door, because they were part of a family.

Once sorted, a student’s house membership was permanent. Once you’re a member of the house, you’re always a member of the house. That permanence – knowing the identity wouldn’t shift year to year – gave students something stable to build on.

Points That Only Go Up

LiveSchool became the engine that made the house system measurable. Every positive behavior – classroom effort, hallway conduct, acts of kindness – earned house points tracked in real time. By the time the data was tallied, the school had awarded more than 410,000 points.

One principle was non-negotiable: points were never taken away. Students could only earn, never lose. The approach reinforced a positive-only framework where recognition flowed in one direction. At the end of each year, the house with the most points was crowned House Champion.

The system’s visibility drove engagement. Students tracked their house’s standing. Staff referenced point totals in morning announcements and hallway conversations. House competitions – flag football around Super Bowl Sunday, minute-to-win-it challenges, Easter egg hunts – created regular moments where points mattered and belonging was tangible.

The Numbers Behind the Culture

The cultural transformation showed up in the data. Major referrals – primarily fights – dropped from 77 in the 2021–22 school year to 34 in 2023–24, a 56% decrease. Annual average attendance climbed from 88% to 91% over the same period. The suspension rate held steady at 0.06% despite enrollment fluctuations as the school underwent restructuring and absorbed roughly half new students.

Those numbers reflected something Larrick had learned from Flip Flippen, the founder of Capturing Kids’ Hearts: greatness demands intentionality. The house system didn’t happen by accident. It was planned across two years, revealed in stages, and embedded into every part of the school day – from Wednesday house gear to kindergarten signing ceremonies to community service projects.

The investment extended to relationships with outside partners. Ron Clark Academy offered bulk rates on house swag. Freedom Crossing Academy shared implementation strategies. The team of eleven who visited Atlanta became the ambassadors who carried the vision back to Palmdale.

For a school that the state once deemed low-performing, the transformation was comprehensive. As Williams put it, the house system changed the game at Tumbleweed – not by adding a program, but by giving every student, every staff member, and every family a place to belong.