Dear Theodore Judah Families,

Since the beginning of my Journey as your school Principal, it has been my honor to serve this wonderful community, my community.  It’s a privilege to be responsible for the learning, social development, and general wellbeing of someone else’s child.  Here at Judah, we teach our neighbor’s kids, our friend’s kids, and even our co-worker’s kids, so the business of educating our students is even more personal to us.  For that reason, polarizing issues like presidential elections and potential work stoppages can be especially challenging for our community – we strive to treat our little Bears like our own children and we all have a valued interest in the outcomes.

On Wednesday, if an agreement cannot be reached between SCTA and the district’s bargaining team, we will have members of our community on either side of a picket line.  One’s decision to strike or not, to cross a picket line or not, is personal and should be respected as such.  It is not necessary that we agree with one another on every issue. It is necessary, however, that we respect each other and strive to understand one another better (it is one of our Bear Essential Values, after all).  If a strike does occur, the school will remain open and those days may be challenging – I believe strongly that our relationships will help us persevere.

At last Thursday’s staff meeting, I celebrated the way we opened this school year in terms of cohesion, spirit, and sense of community.  I went on to say that I expected some turbulent, trying times for us and that, regardless of what anyone says, there is no manual for a unique situation such as this.  I asked all of our staff the same thing I’ll ask of our community here: may we put as much positive and constructive energy into our students and this school in the coming weeks as we have for the first two months of school.  What I have learned in my few months here so far and what I do about know about Judah’s community, it’s that we persevere and can overcome any challenge.

Respectfully,

Troy Holding
Principal
Theodore Judah Elementary