Welcome

Dear Gateway Community,

Welcome to the 2023 - 2024 school year!  

This year, we are fortunate to have over 90% of our teaching staff returning to GMS! This means are better positioned to build on our community’s strengths to work towards eradicating educational inequities and improving student academic and social-emotional outcomes. In our pursuit of education for liberation, we will anchor our practices and beliefs in the research and work of Dr. Zaretta Hammond, Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain, and Glen Singleton’s work, Courageous Conversations About Race. 

We continue to focus on the following best means to achieve our bold and audacious goal of ensuring that ALL students are prepared for the rigors of high school, college/career, and beyond:

• Leverage our instructional coaches/subject area leads to build on and strengthen teachers’ instructional and classroom management practices with a restorative justice approach
• Create a joyful and academically rich environment for our students to have a greater sense of belonging at GMS by working with many external partners this year to ensure student mental health and well-being is a priority 
• Refine the systems, policies and procedures that are currently in place to ensure they yield equitable outcomes for all students and are aligned with our racial justice principles
• Increase family/caregiver involvement throughout the school year by strengthening our connections and collaboration with families and hosting events for parents/caregivers to connect
• Retain all of our effective and values-aligned staff, especially those who identify as Black, Indigenous, or a Person of Color (BIPOC), through sustainable and equitable hiring and retention practices.

This work will be achieved through our collective efforts and I have no doubt that staff, parents/caregivers and students will come together to accomplish this work and more! Cheers to our work ahead!

As always, we appreciate hearing from you and maintaining open lines of communication, so please feel free to reach out anytime

In community,