Principal Welcome

Welcome to Creekside Elementary - home of the howling coyotes!  

 

Dear Creekside Community,

We are a 4K-5th grade elementary school with just under 400 students from a variety of cultural backgrounds with many unique identities- nearly one in every five students at Creekside is multilingual! Our amazing students show pride in their school and community by aiming their ARROW (Acceptance, Resilience, Risk-taking, Ownership, Working collaboratively) high, each and every day. 

Guiding and supporting our 400 Coyotes along their elementary journey are 75+ compassionate and dedicated adults who make it their mission that every child- and especially our children who have been underserved by our school systems for too long- feel a sense of belonging, engagement, and confidence to learn at high levels and reach their potential and beyond. This means we work to develop not only well-rounded students, but caring and empathetic human beings.

At Creekside, we prioritize learning different social-emotional skills, using Zones of Regulation, mindfulness, and the Second Step curriculum. Our Coyotes learn how to articulate how they are feeling so that they can access tools to help them get their minds and bodies ready for learning. Being a child- or just a person!- means that mistakes WILL happen; they are expected and accepted. We teach and learn behavior just as we do reading or math. When students make “below-the-line” choices, we use a restorative approach where students take ownership in repairing the harm caused. This serves our students not just in the classroom, but everywhere. At Creekside, we are committed to our restorative justice learning and journey, which begins with prioritizing relationships and community building throughout the year.

Creekside uses a “workshop” approach to reading, writing, and math so that our staff can differentiate their instruction and the learning opportunities that are provided. This means that students will have the chance to learn with their classmates in a variety of structures (whole class, small group, and 1:1). We know that students- and really all people- thrive when they have a voice and choice in what and how they are learning, so goal setting is something we strongly believe in, keeping our students at the very center of everything we do.  

The Creekside Community is such a special place and group of people. It truly takes a village to raise a child, and we both need and appreciate your partnership in helping us raise up our Coyotes to achieve amazing things. If you have any interest in volunteering- to work with students academically, serve as a PaCC (Parents and Community, Caregivers) volunteer, volunteer in other ways, or to donate supplies for our students and staff, please don’t hesitate to contact our office at 834-7700, or me directly.

I’ll leave you with a quote from one of my favorite educators and abolitionists, Bettina Love: "To love all children, we must struggle together to create the schools we are taught to believe are impossible: Schools built on justice, love, joy, and anti-racism." 

Here’s to an unforgettable year ahead.

In partnership,

Kyle Walsh, Principal