Principally Speaking

Principal Gadsden

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A Note from the Principal:

Welcome to Takoma Park Elementary School, where we are committed to making the elementary years a memorable and academically successful experience for all children. The students, staff, parents, and I have combined efforts to create a school that is complete with a spirit of cooperation, collaboration, and shared responsibility for teaching and learning. With your active support and our best professional efforts, we can deliver high quality instructional programs that will prepare our children to become productive members of an increasingly diverse society. We have a unique and exciting educational environment in which all students are expected to achieve at their highest potential. The school blends a rich cultural diversity with the developmental needs of the elementary school child in the TPES family. The staff at Takoma Park Elementary School holds the belief that it is the right and responsibility of all students, staff and parents to work in an environment that is both physically and emotionally safe for learning. Through open communication, students, teachers and parents work together to help children become responsible citizens.

At Takoma Park, we are proud of the progress that our students make, but we believe that we can do even better. We have adopted the Baldrige method of school improvement to help take our school to higher heights. The goal of our school is to provide each student with a challenging and rigorous curriculum appropriate to his/her academic level. We are a full inclusion school with a range of student profiles from children with special needs, to children who perform within average range, to children who excel effortlessly. They are all unique in our eyes. Every child will be provided with high quality instructional experiences, which recognize and maintain high expectations for all students.

At Takoma Park, we are serious about the business of nurturing and teaching children. We maintain an environment where they feel free to take risks, make mistakes, and learn to be thinkers and problem-solvers. We apply this principle in teaching them social as well as academic skills. In order to give each child the best possible opportunity for success, we are committed to keeping children and their learning as our first priority.

Every Child, Every Day
Zadia T. Gadsden, Principal