Welcome to Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary School! We encourage learning by challenging students to experience new things and deepen their learning by sharing it with others. It is the mission of MLK School to produce kind leaders, high-achieving scholars, and loving humans. Through this mission, it is our hope that we will assist our student body in strengthening relationships with, and positively contributing to, the local South Mountain community. 

Mission
At MLK, we work with out neighbors to provide a safe, interesting, and challenging learnning environment that helps others and develops leaders. 

Vision
MLK's students will use their strategies, skills, and know-how to become individually unique scholars, high-achievers, and kind humans. 

Collective Commitments
The following values guide our decision-making and program delivery as it applies to our children, families, community, and staff.

• If we are to develop students who have the social and emotional skills to be productive, kind humans, then we must devote time to explicitly teach social-emotional skills while instructing students on how to problem solve and ask for help. Finally, we must also employ targeted interventions to ensure all students’ needs are met.

• If we are to have families that feel a sense of ownership and feel valued, then we must work to build positive, reciprocal relationships with defined methods of communication while providing opportunities for stakeholders to contribute directly and consistently to the school environment.

• If we are to provide meaningful, academic experiences that foster a love of learning and challenge students, then we must consistently plan with our goals in the forefront of all decision-making while implementing problem-based learning experiences balanced with a traditional approach to instruction.

• If we are to build leaders who advocate for themselves and others, then we must provide a toolbox of strategies that promote student advocacy and choice while empowering students to exhibit their leadership skills and acknowledge others’ point of view.

• If we are to create a safe school environment where all are encouraged to take responsibility for their actions, repair harm if it has occurred, and restore positive relationships, then we must teach and model expectations for these behaviors while developing consistent, restorative practices in order to build community-wide social and emotional understanding.

• If we are to develop students who use their skills, strategies, and know-how to achieve their academic goals, then we must regularly monitor, review and celebrate student progress while involving our youth in that process. In order to support student progress, we, as educators, must have a deep understanding of our standards, curriculum and resources.

• If we are to be a solutions-oriented staff that collaborate courageously and reflectively, then we must take collective responsibility for the success of our students and each other, leverage our strengths to develop solutions, share resources to improve our practice and maintain positive assumptions throughout all interactions.