Principal's Message

Dear Encinal School Community,

Encinal strives to create a community whereby all students thrive and all families feel safe, welcome, included, and loved. Our school mission states, “We educate, nurture, and inspire all voices to contribute to a better world.”  Throughout the 2023-24 school year, we will continue to create opportunities that help lift every student and family and provide them with the best educational experience possible. Everyone is a valued member of our community and belongs at Encinal School.

In alignment with our school mission, we will work toward every student and staff member being their best self through age-appropriate social-emotional learning lessons in every classroom.  We will empower our students to try out their tools, especially during unstructured times at recess and lunch recess, and provide more in-the-moment assistance and guidance from our school counselor. 

We are continuing our “Community Reads” initiative. All Encinal students will read and engage in meaningful activities with four selected children’s books in their classrooms that elevate themes of identity, justice, diversity, and action.  We are launching the year with every classroom reading Yefferson Actually.  In this book, the main character starts at a new school, and on his first day, Yefferson realizes that everyone incorrectly calls him Jefferson. With the love and support of his family, Yefferson finds the courage to teach others how to pronounce his name correctly and to be proud of his namesake. At Encinal School, we want to ensure that everyone’s name is pronounced correctly. 

Our teachers will continue professional learning throughout the year around balanced literacy, science, and mathematics. We will host two school-wide mathematical problem-solving challenges highlighting our students' mathematical thinking and understanding.

Our students will experience lots of joy with our garden curriculum, school-wide assemblies, cultural events, bike rodeos, and community events such as Fall Family Picnic, book fair, movie nights, and Science Night, just to name a few.

This summer, a new rock climbing wall that will serve students in grades 1-5 is being constructed in our large gym and will be used during PE classes.  Thank you to our wonderful parent community for funding this new experience for our students!

We are pleased to welcome all families to another great year of learning and friendship at Encinal School. Together, we will contribute to a better world.

In partnership,

Principal Burns