Welcome to the Gardner Pilot Academy community!

Dear Parents/Guardians,

Welcome to Gardner Pilot Academy! The faculty and staff join me in saying we are happy to have you as a part of the Gardner family.  

As a school community, we believe deeply in our core values of Promoting Kindness, Respecting self and others, Including Everyone, Demonstrating Responsibility, and Excelling Every Day.  This means that as a school we stand for kindness, inclusion, and social justice for ALL.  As a full inclusion community school, it is important that our students and families learn how to appreciate the rich diversity of our community.   We are very proud that GPA was awarded the prestigious Seal of Excellence from the Human Rights Campaign to designate GPA as a safe and welcoming school for all.  We will be deepening our work this year with a focus on ensuring GPA is an active anti-racist and inclusive community for all. If you are interested in joining the team please let us know as families are incredibly valued partners in this work.

At GPA we feel strongly that we send the message to all of our students, families, partners, and our community that we do not tolerate any form of discrimination, harassment, or hate speech and that we will vigorously implement and actively enforce our safe and welcoming school policy to ensure that all of its daily operations are characterized by fairness, respect, and equity. It is the expectation of every member of our community to treat everyone with mutual respect and kindness.    We are asking that every family review our Safe and Welcoming School Policy with their child and talk about the expectations for ensuring that GPA is safe, welcoming, and inclusive to all.  

The pages of this handbook are filled with important information regarding school policy and procedures.  Parents and students should review the contents together. If you have any questions, please call the school office.  We feel strongly that open and clear communication is important to the success of our educational program. Every student at GPA receives a maroon folder that is our Home to School Communication Folder that is sent home every evening to families.   It will be important to check your child’s folder each day for important school notices and class assignments. We also regularly communicate with families via email through the Boston system. If you are not receiving school emails please come to the front office to ensure we have your correct email address.  On the first day of school, your child’s teacher will be sending home some very important paperwork in this folder that should be signed and returned as soon as possible.   

We welcome your participation and support this year and encourage you to become involved in our School Family Council and our School Governing Board. Gardner's parents are our partners in the important job of educating the children of our community.

Please feel free to contact the school or our Parent & Family Engagement Director, Nicolasa López at (617) 635-8365 or nlopez@bostonpublicschools.org if you have any questions.   

Sincerely,

Erica Herman, Principal
Joseph Sara, Assistant Principal