Wylie East High School filled its campus with food trucks, cup-stacking contests and circle-time talks on Sept. 16. The occasion was Wylie Way Day, a Wylie ISD tradition built around campus belonging.

The district schedules several Wylie Way Days each school year across its 20 campuses, which serve about 19,000 students. At Wylie East, which has about 2,700 students in grades 9-12, the day looked different in every classroom.

French teacher Madame Averre used her French III period to discuss support systems and the idea that home doesn't have to be a house.

"My family is what makes a home for me," Averre told her students, according to the Blue Print, the school's student newspaper. "I could be anywhere in the world, and if my family is there, it's home for me."

Physics teacher Heather Wilburn swapped equations for a class competition. Juniors Houston Ragsdale, Deryonah Newcombe and Shana Durst joined senior Gurshabad Singh Virk in a challenge to stack paper cups and plates as high as possible.

U.S. History and AP Psychology teacher Paige Cunningham took a quieter approach. She led a circle-time discussion while sitting among her students. Cunningham told the Blue Print that consistent routines, checking in on friends and giving people a sense that their effort is valued can make a school feel more like a home.

Outside, the lunch period ran longer than usual. Food trucks parked along the bus loop gave students a break from the cafeteria. Security officer Wanda Dowell, who has worked at Wylie East since 2024, patrolled the parking lot during the extended break. Government teacher Owen Stanfill pulled lunch duty nearby.

The day wasn't only about belonging. Stanfill offered his own take on responsibility: "Responsibility, to me, is doing what you say you'll do."

The next Wylie Way event on the district calendar is a follow-up day set for Wednesday, Oct. 7. Two more Wylie Way Days are scheduled for Feb. 3, 2027, and March 10, 2027.