Principal's Letter

2023-2024

Dear Thoreau High School Community

It's an honor to be the principal at Thoreau High School. I am a proud LAUSD graduate. I began my educational career in 1992 as a teacher aide at Harding Elementary School. From there, I have served in various capacities as a teacher, coordinator and administrator for a total of 32 years of service. Throughout the years, I had many experiences that have shaped my career. I have worked both on school sites and at the District level. During my 32 years with LAUSD I have worked at the elementary, middle and high school level. 

Starting my career with LAUSD in 1992 as a teacher's aide for both the elementary and middle school level, gave me the opportunity to work closely with over 50 teachers. For a young educator who was going through college at the time, this was a great opportunity to learn from teachers with different levels of experience and diverse styles of teaching. When I finished college and was hired for my first teaching job, I was eager to start putting into practice what I had learned from all the teachers I had worked with and observed. 

After working as a teacher's aide, I spent the next 10 years working as a middle school teacher. During those ten years, I had many rewarding experiences. I worked at Madison Middle school, a school with a high percentage of ELD students from Latin America and Armenia. Working with our ELD students, help me understand the struggles and dreams of our students. While at Madison Middle school, I also had the opportunity to work as a bilingual and intervention coordinator. This gave me the opportunity to create and supervise programs that would help our students achieve their goals. While at Madison middle school I worked with special education, ELD, gifted and magnet Students. 

In 2008, I had the opportunity to be part of the District's Administrators Leadership Academy. In this program, aspiring administrators were given the opportunity to work closely with all of the District’s different departments. Also, those of us that worked at middle schools were sent to high schools for one year and that's how I started to work at the high school level. I was assigned a mentor principal that I would shadow for the entire year. This turned out to be a great learning experience that prepared me for my current role as a principal. Since East Valley High School was one of the new schools at the time, part of my job was to help stablish and grow the school along with the administration team at the school. 

In 2014, I had the opportunity to work at one of LAUSD's local districts in region North. I worked for the parent unit and I was assigned 35 schools. My job was to support the 35 schools with parent and community engagement. This was a very rewarding job because I had the opportunity to work closely with parents and community partners as well as with all the support staff that helps our schools. Part of my 35 schools were the 18 continuation/option/CDS schools in region north at the time. As I worked closely with continuation and option schools, I realized that I wanted to be a continuation school principal. After eight years as a continuation principal, I can say that I have learned from our students, parents, teachers, staff and community to be a better educator.  It has been a wonderful growing experience.

You can be sure that I’m dedicated to Thoreau High School and I’m always willing to make changes and adjustments as needed for the better of our students, parents, teachers, staff and community. 

Our small classroom size, highly-qualified and caring teachers, knowledgeable counselors, friendly clerical staff, prime location in the southwest San Fernando Valley, partnership with Pierce College, West Valley and Taft High School offers the unparalleled advantages of a personalized, safe, and successful high school experience for your child. We all work together to provide a professional and welcoming environment for students, parents, and school staff. I look forward to meeting the educational needs of your child. Let’s have a great year of learning!

Respectfully,

Eric Diaz

Thoreau High School, Principal