Equity Team:

Vision: Thoreau Equity Team will be a model for inclusive partnerships between students, families, and staff to cultivate an affirming environment empowering historically marginalized students to be their authentic selves while experiencing academic, social, and emotional success.

Mission: The mission of the Thoreau Equity Team is to transform the lives of Thoreau community members through dismantling racist educational structures. Thoreau Equity Team commits to utilizing multimodal communication methods, creating affirming spaces, building family coalitions, supporting racial identity discovery, promoting leadership opportunities for students of color and fostering whole-child success for all Thoreau's marginalized students and their families.

 

Recent Work:

• Spring 2022 created a student equity panel of 4^th and 5^th graders who met once a week to discuss how to make our school a more equitable environment
• 2021-2022 school year created PowerPoint resources with daily resources for classroom use about Hispanic Heritage Month, Disability Awareness Month, Native American Heritage Month, Civil Rights, Black History Month, Women’s History Month, Arab American Heritage Month, Asian American and Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander Heritage Month, and Pride Month.

 

Rainbow Squad:

Vision: Making Thoreau Elementary a welcoming space for LGBTQ+ students, families, staff, and community members.

Mission: Thoreau’s Rainbow Squad will pursue robust resources to be proactive in learning best practices to support our LGBTQ+ students, families, and staff. We will work to provide inclusive and respectful welcoming spaces and to create an environment of visibility that celebrates our differences.

Recent Work:

• Hung Progress Pride Flag in the school
• Professional development for staff and parent information night using the documentary Creating Gender Inclusive Schools (Director: Johnathan Skurnik, 2016)