Gocio flips for Principal's Breakfast

Last week, a Gocio Elementary School student told Principal Steven Royce exciting news.

Not only did the student get a puppy over the weekend, but he was also invited to the Principal’s Breakfast on Jan. 19.

Royce was ecstatic the student thought the breakfast was as exciting as a puppy.

On Friday morning, Royce, and his father, Sid Royce, started making pancakes at 7:30 for the quarterly breakfast that rewards students who received straight A's the quarter before.

The Royces made 500 pancakes out of 14 pounds of batter. The batter is a secret recipe, but Royce jokes the secret is Gocio’s water.

Royce started the breakfasts last year as a way to reward both students and their families for the hard work they all put in in the classroom and at home.

“This is the bar we’re trying to set,” he said.

Since the breakfast’s inception, Royce has seen the number of students who get straight A’s increase. The first breakfast celebrated 60 students. This quarter’s breakfast celebrated 88, the most a breakfast has ever honored.

While parents were there to celebrate their kids, Royce made sure they knew it was a celebration for them, too.

“Straight A’s usually don’t happen in isolation,” he said.

And some of the parents felt validation in that, too. Marible Phommathep’s kindergartener Naila got straight A’s. Phommathep said she often works at home with her daughter on school work and is not only excited for her, but also herself.

“I feel like I did my job,” she said.

And no matter if this was their first breakfast, or as one student claimed the “15th” Principal’s Breakfast, Royce was proud of everyone in the room.

“For me, seeing that this is the highest ever is a testimony to the teachers' work in the classroom and the parents' [work] at home,” he said.