February Principal Update
It’s February, the month of love and history. We have a day on the calendar this month called Valentine’s Day that obligates us to think about the loved ones in our lives. Those of us who know better think about the loved ones in our lives on a daily basis throughout the year, showing appreciation, giving encouragement, celebrating life’s moments, and occasionally even doing a few extra household chores. February is also Black History Month, a celebration that was originally contained to a single week based on the birth dates of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln, but that was later expanded to a full month. While we have and will continue to take time at Hamilton across February to celebrate Black History Month with classroom lessons, school-wide Advisory activities, and staff professional development, we know that Black lives matter across each and every page of the calendar. As an entire Hamilton staff, we work to welcome and embrace the history, traditions, and contributions of our Black families each and every day all year long.
Our work across the past two weeks in honor of Black Lives Matter Week of Action and during Black History Month throughout February are celebratory in nature, but we are fully cognizant that our commemorative and celebratory activities come at a time when disturbing and racist events continue to be in our newsfeed, some from faraway places and some close to home. We also recognize that the confrontation and struggle against the difficult currents of racial oppression is a journey that some in our community walk each and every day.
As a Hamilton staff that is almost entirely white we recognize that we need to continue our learning and our efforts to understand and support our diverse community, especially those who have been historically marginalized. Within our School Improvement Plan we have a consistent strand that looks specifically at creating a culture of belongingness for all. This focus on belongingness is not simply from the viewpoint of safety and connectedness, but from our own perspectives as staff members on belongingness to a culture of high expectations for all students, including every one of our Black students. We consider these high expectations through the lenses of access to rigor, engagement, and an expectation for success. Connected to this work is our equity strand that has us as an entire staff working to understand how historical constructs such as slavery, early state legislative actions, Jim Crow laws, and red lining loan practices have created institutional structures that to this day can marginalize and racialize our perspectives of people of color in ways that can impact expectations for and access to success. It is all work that we do with a passion; work that we do not because it is required of us, but rather because it is morally and ethically the right thing to do.
I hope you will join me as a member of our proud community in being an ally and a healer when confronting racial slurs, racial injustices, and institutional marginalization and racialization. Help us to be a school that is unapologetic in our work to welcome and embrace every member of our community while having zero tolerance for racism in any form. And please join me in celebrating Black History Month all year long!
