January 24, 2020

Dear teachers, parents, and families:

Welcome to the Wayman Tisdale family! I am Elaine Buxton, principal of Wayman Tisdale Fine Arts Academy. I am currently in my 25th year as an educator and my 10th year as a principal. Without question, it has been my distinct honor to serve the students, staff, and community as principal of the Wayman Tisdale Fine Arts Academy for six years. 

My staff and I are committed to developing a welcoming and affirming culture for all students, faculty, parents, and partnerships affected by the consolidation of schools. Our goal is to create a new and better Tisdale Team and community by merging who we are and what makes us great with who Mark Twain is and what makes them great. I am working very closely with Principal Teas to ensure this occurs. 

My staff and I are excited to welcome more students and staff to form a larger and greater Tisdale community and have begun creating plans with our newly formed transition team. 

We are also exploring various ways to bring in various partnerships from Mark Twain and merge them with our current partnerships so that we can provide all of the students with a menu of options and care. 

At Wayman Tisdale Fine Arts Academy, we create life-long learners with art integration while ensuring that every student and staff thrive in a safe and nurturing environment. 

Wayman Tisdale Fine Arts Academy is an A+ demonstration school, whose vision is to infuse the arts into the curriculum in an effort to make lifelong learners. As a 21st Century Grant School, we offer TheZone, a free after-school program to extend and enhance the learning day through hands-on recreation in subjects like filmmaking, cooking, community gardening, computer coding and much more. In addition, we operate a summer program in June for free for our students, where all content is tailored to enrich students while meeting the needs of parents. 

We offer a collection of programs and clubs including Collage Art, Art, Coloring, Just Dance, Jewelry Making, Dance Team, Photography, Poetry, Board Games, Cooking, Chess, Environment, Reader's Theatre, Model Rocketry, Crucial Conversations, Game Time, Robotics, Design, Health and Fitness, Spanish, Board Games (Special Education), and Thematic Arts (Special Education).

This merging of a new Tisdale community will provide even more opportunities to all of the students in our tight-knit westside neighborhood. This merging will increase staff with specific specialties, give students more out of school options, provide more instructional support to teachers, and make more resources available to staff and students.  

My staff and I are committed and ready to create a new school community that will include all Mark Twain and Tisdale students and staff for the upcoming school year.