Buenas Tardes, Comunidad de Palisades,

下午好， Palisades 社区,

Good Afternoon, Palisades Community,

I’m officially unpacked and I’m so excited to get started as your principal this new school year, and hopefully beyond! I’ve had the opportunity to review Youth Truth data (a survey from the Spring), and I have had meetings this Summer with quite a few staff members, district administrators and several parents. I’m learning a bit more each day about our Palisades family. I’ve consistently heard that this community is strong, and works very well together. People (parents, students, staff) care about each other very much, and have stronger relationships here than we find in most elementary buildings. People feel very fortunate to have our school as an option and have talked with me a lot about how important it is that we exist here in the LO community. Also, through these conversations a few ideas have emerged as focus areas for me for the coming school year. I’m listing them below, because I want you to know that these will be things our team at Palisades will be working on. And I personally would like to be held accountable to this commitment:

--Improved one way and two way communication from school (both administration and staff)

--Fair and consistent Academic and Disciplinary Support

--Curricular alignment, and fidelity

--Transparency of practices/ decisions

I am a BIG believer in the idea that school works best when everyone (parents/ caregivers, students, teachers, support staff) is actively connected to the process. It’s also important that they feel welcome in the building, and understand that they are a vital part of what is happening. Connected to this, I’d like to ask for a little more feedback from our parents and caregivers. I’ve put together a very brief anonymous survey for you. I’m planning to use results from this survey with our staff as they come back during In-Service week this year– it will be helpful in fleshing out our improvement plan for the year. I’m also planning to share results with you all so you know where we stand currently, and where we’re going. If you are a parent or caregiver, please take a moment to fill this out: Palisades Survey.

In addition to the survey, I want you all to know that my door is always open and I want to hear from you. I’m happy to meet with you and I hope to get to know you and your kid(s) very soon. We can set a time to sit down and talk. I’m glad to talk on the phone, or meet via Zoom. I’m also hoping to connect with you informally in front of the school during drop-off or pick-up, at a Palisades Community Event or any time, really.

Sincerely/ 真诚的/ Atentamente,

Noah