A Message from Superintendent Baker
Message from Superintendent Dr. John Baker:
Dear RCSD Community,
Our mission, vision, and values drive the work we do every day in Redwood City School District (RCSD). These guiding principles ensure that we remain focused on maintaining a safe, inclusive, and inspiring environment where every student can thrive. As we begin a new chapter at the national level, I am writing to reaffirm our commitment to welcoming, respecting, and supporting all students, staff, and families in RCSD.
Together, we share a collective responsibility to achieve our vision through a steadfast commitment to our district values:
Innovation: To analyze systemic practices, including racial biases, through an equity-conscious lens that dismantles barriers to student learning and emotional well-being.
Student Voice: To encourage students’ bravery, voice, and leadership.
Equity: To instill passion in learning by emphasizing student strengths and gifts for all learners: all abilities, all ethnicities and cultural identities, LGBTQ+ youth, and multilingual learners.
Engagement: To offer opportunities and access to joyful, rigorous, and enriching instruction and resources.
Partnerships: To build family and community partnerships for student success.
Our value of Equity compels us to maintain a district that is inclusive and welcoming to everyone. As we strive to live out this value, we remain focused on ensuring that all students—regardless of their abilities, ethnic or cultural identities, gender, language, or background—have access to an education that values their strengths, respects their individuality, and inspires their growth.
In alignment with this commitment, I want to share two key Board of Education policies that demonstrate our dedication to providing a safe, supportive, and equitable environment for all:
These policies stress our district’s pledge to honor student privacy, protect access to education for all, and promote inclusivity in our schools.
As you may know, we are prohibited from requesting social security numbers or inquiring about the citizenship or immigration status of students or their parents/guardians. Our schools will not voluntarily grant access to immigration enforcement officers without a judicial warrant or court order.
We maintain strict protection of student privacy. Our schools will not share personal information about students or their family members for immigration-enforcement purposes without a court order or judicial subpoena.
In RCSD, we celebrate the diversity within our learning community, and we believe that our differences make us stronger. Every student, family, and staff member brings unique gifts that enrich our schools and strengthen our shared mission. As a public school district, we stand firmly committed to providing a space where every individual feels safe, valued, and empowered to succeed.
Thank you for partnering with us to ensure that RCSD remains a place where fairness, inclusion, and equity thrive. Together, we will continue to honor and uplift every member of our learning community.
In community,
John Baker
Superintendent