Dear EVCS families,

It was wonderful to see so many of you at our Festival of Lights on Wednesday! The kids looked and sounded fantastic – big thanks to our music teacher Stephanie for putting the entire program together. Another big thanks goes out to the Family Band. Was that not the swingingest version of Greensleeves you’ve ever heard?

I wanted to touch base before we unplug for the holidays to update you on a couple of things, including our diversity in admissions initiative. Last month there was an article in the Times that led some to believe the initiative was on hold. I’m not sure if that piece qualifies as “fake news”, but it was misleading. I’m here to tell you that the initiative is most definitely not on hold. In the admissions cycle for the 2017-2018 school year, students who qualify for free or reduced price lunch, or who are English Language Learners, will be given priority for 50% of our Pre-K and Kindergarten seats. Students who have older siblings at EVCS and those who were here for Pre-K will still be given top priority for seats. I’m confident that this initiative will represent a positive and important step for our school, and I’m proud that we are a part of it.

Of course, to be a truly diverse and inclusive school we need to do more than just change our admissions protocol. In our ongoing effort to reflect on and refine our approach to teaching and learning so that all of our students are included and valued in our community and represented in the curriculum, our entire staff recently read the book Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates. It’s a beautiful and powerful read and I highly recommend it to anyone who hasn’t already read it. In fact, I’d like to invite all of our parents to read the book and then come to the next “Coffee Talk with Bradley”, where we will discuss it together. Mark your calendars for January 24th at 5:30 in the evening. I’ll send reminders as it approaches, but in the meantime get the book and read it!

I hope you all have a fabulous holiday; however you choose to spend it. 2016 has been quite a doozy. Here’s hoping that 2017 will be a year filled with peace and joy for all of us. Cheers.

As ever,

Bradley