TA News

Dear TA Families & Students,

Last July Thetford Academy issued an important statement condemning racism in all forms and made a list of ten commitments to guide our work to become an actively antiracist institution. I want to share a brief update on some of the efforts that have taken root since then.

• The TA Antiracism Task Force launched in the fall and is playing a lead role in this phase of our work. The task force includes TA staff, parents, alumni, and community representatives. More recently, the Student Alliance for Racial Justice started to provide TA students the opportunity to get directly involved. TA’s Dean of Students Siobhan Lopez and Paraeducator Angela Lavoy are both playing key dual roles – as members of the task force and as co-facilitators of the student alliance.
• This month the groups are surveying TA’s many stakeholders, including students, employees, parents, alumni, and the wider community. Three different versions of the survey have been distributed – one for students, one for TA employees, and one for everyone else. Thank you to all who took time in recent weeks to participate in the survey. We invite parents and guardians who have not yet taken it to do so by Monday. (LINK to parent survey distributed by the TA Antiracism Task Force.) 
• Next steps for the groups include hosting community forums later this spring, so please be on the lookout for invitations. Meanwhile, we are encouraging and tracking professional development for all of us at TA on the topic of antiracism and are seeking ways to share and build on this learning. 

We will continue to update and engage our TA community on this important work.

Thank you,

Carrie Brennan, Head of School