In the summer of 2021, Bradford Elementary created a culture team to collaborate on a theme to help our students and staff have a collective focus for the school year.  “You Matter,” became our focus to begin our school year.  We wore t-shirts and recited chants to remind our students that they mattered.  This began a yearly objective that propelled us into a deeper purpose for our school, therefore, in the fall of 2021, several teacher leaders began to re-evaluate our school’s mission statement.  We realized that while our mission statement was appropriate, it lacked student and teacher ownership.  We needed goals and objectives that our students and staff could resonate with.  We began surveying our students and staff to decide on core values that were important to us as a learning community.  As we reflected on responses from students and staff, we found a common theme was important to us all.  We pulled this information together to create a unified touchstone for our school.  We call our new mission REACH.

This new vision for our school encompasses the goals that our school community values. These goals and expectations center around helping our children and community unite together with a common purpose to understand how to become good citizens and learn various ways to contribute to the larger community. Our school participates in this chant daily to remind staff and students of our core values. These core values are also instilled in our students through posters, affirmations, and activities. We have events to focus on establishing and growing these values;  an annual food drive is completed to serve individuals in need, student activities to engage with the elderly are held annually, and finally, school-wide competitions and community involvement is utilized when teaching civic and performance virtues.