Garfield Announcement April 24, 2020

Garfield Announcement

April 24, 2020

Dear Garfield Staff and Families, 

It is with mixed emotions that I share with you, that I have been offered and have accepted a principal position in Wisconsin, effective July 1, 2020.  As I reflect on my ten years at Garfield it has truly been an honor to serve as your principal.  As you can imagine, this was not an easy decision for me to make because I absolutely love being your principal and a member of the Garfield community.  I am originally from Wisconsin and will be able to serve as the principal of the elementary school I attended as a child as well as be closer to my family.

As I reflect on my time at Garfield, I am flooded with so many wonderful memories.  I remember the first time I came to Garfield and immediately knew it was a special place with amazing people.  It’s the students, staff, and families who make Garfield such a remarkable school!  I am proud of our work of embedding the Responsive Classroom philosophy to create a caring community to meet the social, emotional and academic needs of our students.  As a Garfield staff, we have been working as a Professional Learning Community (PLC) where the focus is on teams of teachers collaborating and taking collective responsibility for all our students. This commitment to the PLC process focuses on learning, collaboration and improved student learning and is deeply embedded at Garfield.

We also worked as leaders in the county as our teams learned and led with Project Based Learning (PBLs), Portrait of a Graduate (POG) embedded lessons and piloted the POG Presentation of Learning as we continued our focus of embedding innovative practices for all students. The creation of a group of parent ambassadors is developing leadership opportunities for our parents which I know will continue to grow and thrive in the coming years.  Garfield received a new look as we completed the process of our multi-million-dollar renovation resulting in an addition, renovated learning spaces and new playground equipment.

I will dearly miss Garfield Elementary and all the wonderful students and staff that I have had the privilege to work with each and every day.  In addition to the wonderful memories, the people and my time at Garfield will always have a special place in my heart.  I know each time I think of Garfield, it will bring a smile to me.  I always share with staff, “Once a Garfield Eagle, always a Garfield Eagle.”  I am proud to be a forever Garfield Eagle!

Please be assured that the Region 3 leadership team will work with the staff and the community to find the next principal for Garfield Elementary School.  They will communicate with you soon regarding next steps.  It has truly been an honor to partner with students, teachers, and parents during my tenure.  Thank you for making Garfield such a special place!

 

Sincerely,

Christine Slattery

Principal