Dear Community,

My heart has been heavy these past several days; I am sure yours has been, too.

Any time a young person is lost, it is tragic. The circumstances of Mike Brown's death are devastating.

This event, and all that has happened since his killing, have cast a glaring spotlight on the deep segregation, pain and injustice that exist in our city and in our country.

It is sad, angering and can evoke a sense of hopelessness and despair.

I write to ask all of us, as a community, to redouble our commitment to one another. To hold tightly to our commitment to all of our children. To work fiercely to eradicate systemic racism. To acknowledge our privilege. To defy all of the forces in our culture that tell us that we, as People of Color and White people, do not belong together, that inequity is okay or that one child's worth is more than another.

This is the reason City Garden was founded: to work toward equity, to dismantle racism. To create a space and an institution where justice is actively pursued, where relationships are the fabric of our existence and where all children can and will fulfill their potential. Our city's education systems, and the deep inequity exists, are at the center of the problem of racism in our city. City Garden exists in active opposition to that. Through our school and our community, we hope that we can show that it is possible to create justice, understanding and opportunity for all people.

We have a unique and tremendous opportunity here at City Garden.

We have an opportunity to live side by side, enjoying and learning about and embracing one another's differences. To notice where we fail, to motivate one another to keep growing.

We have an opportunity to parent together, to support one another and to create authentic community.

We have an opportunity to close the achievement gap, and to teach our children about justice and compassion, and to look out for one another.

We have an opportunity, through really seeing each other, and our humanness, to stretch our hearts and minds.

We have an opportunity to love one another's children, and, through our imperfections, even to love one another.

Many Parents of Color in our community have expressed deep pain and anguish about raising their children in a world where their lives do not seem to be valued, and where they are unsafe. This is terrifying and angering. A relative of one City Garden student said, "It doesn't matter whether we raise them to be good or bad... it just doesn't matter."

We must work to change this reality.

I ask, in particular, those of us who are White to be aware of the very real pain that our African American community members are experiencing. Though we cannot immediately change all that is happening in our surrounding community, we can all work to create a safe space, for all of our families and all of our children, here at City Garden.

City Garden's staff spent three days last week in an anti-bias/ anti-racism training. Much of our work this year will focus on deepening our commitment as an anti-biased, anti-racist school and community. This will manifest in our determination to close the achievement gap that exists in our school, in the way we do things in our classrooms and in the work we will do together as adult community members.

Thank you for all you do to help make City Garden a learning, growing, loving, justice-focused community.

With hope and determination,