Scott Peacock, Superintendent

Dear Students, Staff, Parents and Community Members:

Relationships based on engagement, compassion and fairness are vital to all that we do. As your Superintendent, this belief informs my service to the Lakewood community.

Stories are at the heart of who we are, individually and collectively. We place ourselves and each other in these stories in ways that define relationships. We do this as we tell and retell our stories. In sharing our journeys, we have the power to convey who belongs and who does not. We have the power to communicate who is seen or heard and who is not. We can humanize and dehumanize. Lakewood's schools are at the heart of the stories we tell as a community. Discriminating language and behaviors that have the effect of demeaning individuals or groups have no place in our programs.

My commitment to our students, families and community is to ensure that each family and student has a voice — has a place in co-creating our stories. Each person needs to be seen and heard. This does not mean we will always or even ever agree completely. It simply means that as we define together what we value, each person will know that their experience or perspective contributed to the larger conversation that moved us toward a greater sense of belonging.

We cannot maximize the growth of each child without these commitments. Learning is not a transaction. Specific inputs do not assure specific outputs. Children and families are not problems to be solved. They are not broken and do not need to be fixed.

Learning is a social experience that is only meaningful when skills, knowledge and understanding are experienced in contexts that empower those who are part of the process. In any moment a teacher may learn and a student may teach—or vice versa. As a thirst for learning drives relationships, power and control diminish in importance. Support becomes our most powerful means of holding one another accountable. When we create such conditions together, our students are motivated, empowered citizens in our community.

Our students are our future. Ensuring that belonging is at the heart of their experiences will sustain Lakewood and our stories for generations.

All the best,

Scott