Principal's Message 13-17

Dear Peabody and Watkins community,

We are not in school today in observance of Veteran's Day. I hope all in our community can take a moment to appreciate the sacrifice of our country's service members and their families. At both schools, we are recognizing the Veterans in our Peabody and Watkins immediate and extended families. We're proud to share veterans' names, faces, and relationships to our students at our schools. See Peabody's picture below. If you'd like to contribute a picture, you still can. Please send a paper (preferred) or digital picture in to your child's teacher or the main office.

There is an important LSAT meeting this Tuesday starting at 6:30pm. Our routine business includes a discussion of our Loved, Challenged, and Prepared survey results and enrollment projections for next year.

Importantly, representatives from the Deputy Mayor for Education's Office will engage our community on some proposed boundary adjustments. Please see below for more information. Access meeting here. School business starts at 6:30, with the boundary presentation beginning at or around 7pm.

Please see below for more information about:

• Peabody Picture Day
• New school boundary proposals
• East City Bookshop Book Fair
• Stuart Hobson Open Houses
  
• Nov 13 Caregiver Chat at Watkins!
• Welcome Watkins Science Teacher, Mr. Vargas!
• Last-minute Opera trip for 4th and 5th graders

Link to our cluster calendar!

Quick look ahead. Click above to see details:

This year, the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Education (DME) is conducting a Boundary and Student Assignment study (“Boundary Study”) to review DCPS boundaries and feeder patterns, and District-wide public school student assignment policies. The DME, guided by an advisory committee, is developing recommendations based on analytic findings and community input. These final recommendations will be submitted to the Mayor in March 2024.

In my conversations with the DME, the current proposal is to expand the Peabody and Watkins boundary to the south just south of Peabody (those addresses are currently zoned for Brent) and contract the eastern-most part of the boundary westward (these addresses are currently zoned for us but would be re-zoned for Payne. These changes not only impact elementary school zones, but also middle school feeder patterns. I don’t have specific addresses to share, but we can expect to hear these details on Tuesday night.

Access the meeting here: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88093770303?pwd=Z1h0NDJuM0w0c0hyUUtIRk5jelg0QT09

Meeting ID: 880 9377 0303
Passcode: 311972

We are working on creating class directories that include caregivers' names, student names, email addresses, and phone numbers. We plan to furnish this information to Room Parents so it can be shared with all families in the homeroom. Our hope is that this contact information can be used for playdates, birthday parties, and other community building events.

When caregivers enroll their children, opting out of sharing this information is part of the enrollment forms. You can confirm your choice to not be included by completing this form.

Tell us your thoughts about how equity and inclusion issues impact our school community.

Responses to this survey are anonymous. We are not collecting names or other personal identifying information. The Equity Team, including school leaders, will share a summary of results and use the information to develop and evaluate caregiver-led and school-based equity initiatives. As we undertake this work, it is crucial that we hear a wide variety of voices and viewpoints. For this reason, the survey will be open until November 30, 2023.

The survey should take approximately 10 minutes to complete. You can access using the QR code below. We appreciate your time and thank you in advance for your participation.

Peabody is continuing our Anti-Racist, Anti-Bias Curriculum Extension this school year. Much of our learning takes place through read alouds and discussions. For more information, visit our website https://www.capitolhillclusterschool.org/equity-inclusion. Every other week we will post the book title along with a discussion question. We invite families to engage in conversations with your child at home as well!

Next week we will read: The Color of Us by Karen Katz

Some discussion questions you could have with your child at home are: What colors might you use to mix your skin tone? What name will you give the color?

Ms. Stacy Taylor (stacy.barker2@k12.dc.gov) leads this work at Peabody. She and I are happy to engaged. We had our first caregiver preview on Parent-Teacher Conference Day and we will continue to do so before the launch of each unit.

What about Watkins? The Watkins team is working on a 1st grade version of this extension. We will have more to share soon, but for now nothing is planned to launch in 2023. We will certainly share updates soon!

As of November 3, our Science teacher, Mr. Roger Vargas is hired! We are thrilled to welcome Mr. Vargas to our team and so excited for science content to begin at Watkins. AP Edmonds thoughtfully crafted an onboarding plan for him. Science has not started right away, but Mr. Vargas is visiting classrooms and getting to know our staff, kids, and the curriculum.

Science classes will start November 20th. It will be a weekly special for 1st-5th graders and library will move to every-other-week.

Action required! Please see even more details from the message from Ms. Montgomery.

We are excited to announce that the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts has invited and sponsored us to attend the Washington National Opera’s Opera Look-In: Romeo and Juliet, with complimentary seating, on Wednesday, November 15th. The “Look-In” will provide a unique experience for students to learn how operas are made, and will feature scenes from Gounod’s Romeo and Juliet.

[IMPORTANT CHAPERONE INFORMATION] The Kennedy Center has provided a limited number of chaperone tickets and unfortunately, we only have room for one caregiver ticket per homeroom. If you are cleared through DCPS to chaperone, and are interested in, and available to attend this trip, please indicate that on the permission form. By end of day, Monday, Nov. 13, we will do a homeroom based lottery, choosing from parents who have indicated interest on the permission form, and will send confirmation to the parent who was chosen. If you do not receive confirmation on Monday, unfortunately, your name wasn’t picked in the lottery. We have inquired about additional tickets being available for purchase and will let you know when we receive a response.

Additional information and action items:

1. By Monday, November 13—please complete and submit this electronic permission slip:https://forms.office.com/r/f87zq7gT1b
2. This is a grade level field trip. We hope that you will consent for smoother school-wide operations. If you choose for your student not to attend, they will stay in the building with adult supervision.
3. Money will not be needed for this trip. Staff will not be responsible for any money sent with your child.

Back by popular demand, we are restarting the Watkins WatchDOGS (Dads [& Others] of Great Students) Volunteer program!!

What is WATCH D.O.G.S.?
WATCH D.O.G.S. (Dads [& Others] Of Great Students) is a family and community engagement educational initiative.

What is the goal of a WATCH D.O.G.S. program?
To provide positive caregiver role models for the students, demonstrating by their presence that education is important.


Who are WatchDOGS and how does WATCH D.O.G.S. work?
WatchDOGS are fathers, mothers, grandparents, and uncles/aunts who volunteer for at least one day each year at an official WATCH D.O.G.S. school. WATCH D.O.G.S., a K-12 program, invites caregivers to volunteer at least one day at their child’s/student’s school for part or all of the day during the school year. Identification will be checked upon entrance.

Is this program only for Dads?

Absolutely not!! We welcome all caregivers to volunteer.

What do WatchDOGS do (while they are at school)?
During the day, WatchDOGS may read and work on flash cards with students, play at recess, eat lunch with students, patrol the school entrances and hallways, assist with traffic flow and any other assigned activities where they actively engage with not only their own students, but other students as well. Many school principals have reported that the mere presence of a WatchDOGS volunteer dramatically reduces reports of bullying. On the day of their participation, WatchDOGS participants are given a brief review of their involvement and they wear an official WATCH D.O.G.S. name tag identifying them as a WatchDOG.

What days can I volunteer and how do I sign up?

WatchDOGS participant days will be every Wednesday. Please sign up at least a week in advance so we can notify school administration and teachers of your visit using this link to the WatchDOGS sign-up list: https://signup.com/go/xxkWcuc

Make sure you are checking class dojo for sports updates from Athletic Director, Coach Drakeford. Please send sports questions her way on dojo or latavia.drakefod-allen@k12.dc.gov.

Peabody and Watkins teachers have some big plans and big wishes for your kids and their classrooms this year. Please consider fulling some of those wishes from their wish lists.

Hello parents and guardians! We're back again for another year of FoodPrints at Peabody and Watkins Elementary and we are looking for parents to volunteer in our classroom and garden!

We'll have a maximum number of four (4) slots available for parent volunteers for each class. We'll be adding more dates in the coming weeks so be sure to check back frequently if you don't see your child's class as yet. Please reach out if you have any questions to ms. Natasha natasha@ffm.org at Watkins and Ms. Aubryn aubryn@ffm.org at Peabody.

The sign up genius also has the schedule for classes.

Thanks again for your support of FoodPrints!

Peabody caregiver sign up

Watkins caregiver sign up

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