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Students at Bradley Elementary School walked in for their first day of school Thursday to see faculty and staff dressed in athletic clothes and shouting this year’s school theme “One Team, One Goal.”

The theme expresses the school administration’s vision to work together with faculty, staff and parents to ensure students’ success, according to school principal Thea Jackson.

Click here to see more photos of Bradley Elementary School’s opening day

“Failure is not an option here in this building,” said Jackson. “We join forces — there is a cohesive goal that we are one team here at Bradley, and the goal is their [students’] success. We let them know that they are special and they are our goal.”

This is Jackson’s first year as school principal. 

In 1997, she began work in the district as a substitute teacher in Bradley Elementary before moving up the ranks to become a paraprofessional, fourth grade teacher, and then vice principal at the middle school. 

Now, she is back in the building where she started and is ready for a successful school year, she said. 

“I know how Dorothy felt —  there is no place like home,” said Jackson. 

[Photo at top, from left to right: Kim Myrick, reading teacher; Rosemary Penta, instructional coach; Nancy Ziobro, early childhood supervisor; Thea Jackson, principal; Keisha Johnson, early childhood secretary; Keri Hennessy-Wilson, technology coach; Hope Rataski, reading specialist.]

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