Equity

• Each community member is whole, just as they are.  
• Learning, wellness, nutrition, and access to experiences and opportunities are rights that all people have.
• We have a responsibility to constantly ask, “what am I missing?”  “whose voice is missing?”“are we all here?” “are we all heard?” in order to elevate the voices of members of oppressed or marginalized groups.
• Each person in our community belongs; this is reflected in our interactions with one another, our physical space, our events and curricular choices.
• We have a responsibility to disrupt the status quo and seek equity, reject oppression, and create social justice.

Potential

• Humans are born with the need and the right to communicate, interact, and use their energy and curiosity to construct their learning.
• Children have a voice that is sought, valued, and shapes the life of the school.
• Children and adults can do hard things in order to grow, and can withstand ambiguity, cognitive struggle, and challenge in order to learn.  
• Each person has limitless potential and we behave in ways that show that.  
• The school’s charge is to provide a system of delivery resulting in all children learning at high levels, so that their life opportunities and access are expanded through their experience here.

Inspiration

• Each of us possesses a unique combination of 100 languages - for expressing, communicating, absorbing and experimenting with the world around them.  
• The 100 languages must be honored and recognized in our experiences with one another.
• Curiosity, creativity, and flexibility are necessary ingredients in the human condition.  
• Children thrive where adults thrive and vice versa.  
• Joy, fun, and celebration are essential to our life together at school.

Connection

• All of us bloom by engaging with one another, sharing roles and jobs, and approaching our school with collective responsibility.  
• Each child has a network of relationships  at school that make it impossible for them to fail.
• At the center of our system is the triad relationship between teacher/staff, children, and family- all of these are connected within the context of the environment and community.
• Adults must build a safety net for children- our processes and procedures result in a systematic response  that meets each child’s social/emotional and academic needs
• When we are in conflict, we must seek mutually agreeable solutions and collaborate to solve problems.​