Principal's Message May 8-12

Dear Families,

Today we Rocked the Red at Peabody and celebrated our honors and awards for excellence in Term 3 at Watkins. What an amazing time to celebrate and connect as a community. At Peabody, students discussed Asian American Pacific Islander month. Students learned how to say hello in Hindi, Korean, Japanese, and Mandarin. At Watkins we recognized students for excellence in their academic subjects, as well as those who showed a commitment to Panther PRIDE during term 3. Congratulations to all award winners and their families!

As a reminder, term 3 report cards should now be available in Aspen through the parent portal for K-5 students. Our schools sent paper copies of report cards home this week.

One other important update: Watkins' enrollment is over 70%! The deadline for the 60% benchmark is today, so we are in great shape! Peabody has over 60% of enrollment papers in hand. We are doing great and we're not there yet. We want everyone back next year. Re-enroll now! (more info below).

Coming up this week is a very special presentation by our Equity Team. See more info below, but please come out to Stuart Hobson at 6pm on Thursday!

Link to our cluster calendar!

Quick look ahead:

The equity team is proud to share their progress and plans for advancing equity at the cluster! Join us to hear from our teammates about our experiences in dialogue and what we're working on for the future.

We are also partnering with expert Ayo Magwood on a series examining structural racism in the US. The first of these will highlight the Cluster's equity journey and feature a discussion with Ayo on structural racism.

These hybrid sessions will be hosted in person at Stuart-Hobson and virtually on Teams. SHMS eight graders are encouraged to attend with an adult caregiver. Childcare and dinner will be available for younger children. All sessions at 6-7:30pm. You can register here.

Join vis Zoom using this link.

Thurs, May 11 - Equity at the Cluster: Past, Present, and Future - Featuring Ayo Magwood of Uprooting Inequity

Thurs, May 18 - Structural Racism: Historical Roots & Contemporary Impacts
Thurs, May 25 - Remediating Structural Racism
Thurs, June 1 - The Origins of Race and Racism
Thurs, June 8 - Strategies for Remediating Racism -Facilitated by the Cluster Equity Team

The Capitol Hill Classic is coming up fast on May 21. It’s one of the biggest days of the year for the Cluster and there are three ways to get involved:

· Volunteer

· Participate in the Pledge Drive - if your Panther raises $50 they earn a free registration!

· Register for the race

Get all the information here!

Enrollment season has kicked off and you can re-enroll your student for the upcoming 2023-2024 school year!

On behalf of the entire Peabody and Watkins family, we would like to thank you for the honor of educating your child this current school year and look forward to continuing our work together next year!

Our teachers, staff and leadership are already planning for next year, and you can help us prepare by completing re-enrollment for your child by May 1st. Thank you to all of the families who have already completed re-enrollment. If you haven’t, please visit https://enrolldcps.dc.gov to do so. Hard copies of enrollment forms will also be available in the main offices. In addition to the enrollment form, to complete enrollment, you will also need to submit your proof of residency document(s) per the instructions included in the enrollment packet and available at https://enrolldcps.dc.gov.

To support you with re-enrolling by May 1 and checking re-enrollment off your summer to-do list, throughout the month of April we will host several family engagement/ enrollment events:

Now that Spring is here, your child may be experiencing a cough, sore throat, fatigue, and/or a runny nose caused by seasonal allergies. Remember that allergies, COVID-19, and other illnesses can have similar symptoms. Check out this chart from the CDC to see if their sore throat is just from spring flowers or if you should keep them home and follow up with your doctor.

The Peabody team does not have the capacity to supervise students' arrival to class after 9am. We are changing our late-arrival procedure and will require caregivers to walk students to class if they arrive after 9am. This change will go into effect on April 24. Late arrivals will still have to sign in, then caregivers must escort their child to the classroom door.

Ms. Bloom just wants you all to know how much we appreciate the recyclables you keep sending in! We are using them as fast as you are sending them! Our engineers, designers and builders in our Library Maker Space Center are so creative and are making structures, monsters, dinosaurs, robots, vehicles and more! We need any of the following items: small boxes (from butter boxes to tissue boxes) and cardboard tubes (TP and paper towel). Many students LOVE to carry their creations to class in a bag, so we’ll take any spare plastic or paper shopping bags you want to pass along. Your students can put any of these items in a marked animal bin in the lobby of their floor or pass them to Ms. Bloom during morning arrival. Huge thanks!

Come on out to cheer on our Panther kickers!

• 5-15 4pm at Watkins vs. Ludlow Taylor
• 5-19 4pm at Watkins vs. Payne
• 5-22 4pm (at Ballou) Watkins vs. Hendley
• 5-25 4pm at Watkins vs. Whittier
• 6-2 4pm at Watkins vs. Sheppard
• 6-5 4pm (at Savoy) Watkins vs. Savoy

Watkins' Girls on the Run will host a bake sale after school on Tuesday, May 9 to benefit a local animal rescue, the Partnership for Animal Welfare. The bake sale will be held in the lobby or outside the main entrance weather permitting. The bake sale will begin at 3:30 and continue until all baked goods are sold. Please plan to use cash or Venmo. Thank you in advance for supporting Watkin's GOTR!

Would you like to join your child's class in our gardens? Up to 4 caregivers can join each class on Wednesdays (Watkins only) and Fridays. Please sign up for your child's class only.

Peabody sign-ups

For the Watkins schedule, the 1st-3rd grade classes will go in the afternoon, so look for your child's afternoon teacher, not homeroom teacher on this schedule.

Waktins sign-ups

Email addresses are often entered into our systems with mistakes. If someone you know (partner, friend, neighbor) isn't getting school communication please have them email their names, their child's name, email addresses and phone numbers and any other information to either PeabodyESEnroll@k12.dc.gov or WatkinsESEnroll@k12.dc.gov. Our team will correct the errors asap.

If you somehow are unsubscribed from Blackboard, please email your appropriate school inbox above and Adia.Howard-Stroud@k12.dc.gov who will fix the issue on Blackboard.

Field Trips have resumed and we welcome parents to join as chaperones. Parents who would to volunteer/ chaperone on an ongoing basis, must complete the DCPS Clearance process beforehand. Upon receipt, clearance letters should be emailed to tanisha.montgomery@k12.dc.gov.

Exceptions

Exceptions may be granted to the DCPS Clearance process in the following situations:

1. You are volunteering for a one-time, on-campus event, like Career Day or Field Day. Please email the Clearance Team at dcps.clearance@k12.dc.gov to confirm whether you qualify for a clearance exception.
2. You are a potential volunteer with an active secret or top-secret federal security clearance. Individuals in this group should complete the Federal Security Clearance Verification letter in lieu of being fingerprinted with DCPS. The original signed verification form and a copy of a state issued photo ID to dcps.clearance@k12.dc.gov