Category Archive

Dear families, Happy summer! It was a lot of fun to have so many of you with us on the playground over the last week — a taste of things to come. We are excited to welcome you all back next year. The LSAT will be meeting in July to finalize our Comprehensive School Plan, but we have been discussing and planning strategy since March. Here is an overview of what we have planned for SY 2021-22 organized by the domains of the Comprehensive School Plan: Shared Leadership — We have created a number of teacher leader roles to support the accomplishment of our objectives. We will have two Family Engagement leads to support outreach, recruitment, and participation in school initiatives: Ms. Holt and Ms. Hagan. Ms. Zepeda and Ms. Montgomery will serve as mentors to teachers new to Shepherd. Dr. Rowe, our new special educator, will be our equity lead, and she will work with staff and families using the Courageous Conversations framework to extend what we began before the pandemic. She will also work closely with Ms. Mack to bring IB into Action with an emphasis on equity and social justice for students. Ms. Murali will serve as … Read More

Dear Shepherd families, It was great to see so many of you on Friday celebrating Ms. Johnson and her remarkable career serving children. There was so much love and appreciation on 14th Street yesterday. Thank you especially to our PTO co-Presidents, Liz Bradley and Taryn Beridon, and staff members, Ms. Akaba, Madame Gadie, Ms. Hagan, Ms. Holt, Mr. James and Mr. Velez (former), for their efforts to make it such a sweet and special event. We love you, Ms. Johnson. Unfortunately, our moving up ceremonies scheduled for yesterday had to be rescheduled, but fortunately, Juneteenth is now a federal holiday. Happy Juneteenth! Here is the new schedule for popsicles and praise: PK 3 Thursday 6/24 from 10-11PK 4 Thursday 6/24 from 9-10K Monday 6/21 from 2-31st Thursday 6/24 from 1-22nd Tuesday 6/22 from 2-33rd Thursday 6/24 from 11-124th Thursday 6/24 from 2-3 Enjoy the weekend! And please look forward to an overview of our vision for SY21-22 and end of year student achievement data next week. Phyllis

Good afternoon families, I was out in California celebrating my daughter’s graduation last Friday and delayed the newsletter. There is considerable news to share with you as we close out the school year.​​​​​​​ Ms. Rottman will be leaving Shepherd at the close of this school year. In July, she will start her next chapter at Takoma Park where they are in dire need of a school leader with math expertise. She will be the community’s new assistant principal. After working with her for two years, I can say that we all need a little Ms. Rottman in our lives. She is organized, committed, kind, diligent and conscientious. She has been a tremendous partner to me since I arrived at Shepherd, schooling me in the DCPS way from the start. Her attention to detail has made school operations and the logistics of virtual and in person learning run so smoothly. Ms. Rottman cares deeply about the children, the work and our community. She is as sad to leave as we are to see her go. Please join us in wishing her well at arrival, dismissal or one of our moving up ceremonies. We will miss her. The personnel committee is comprised of Ms. … Read More

Good morning Shepherd Families, I hope you all enjoyed the hot, sunny weather this weekend. Here at Shepherd we are busy closing out this year and preparing for the next simultaneously. We are closing out employee evaluations, ordering supplies for summer and closing out this year’s budget, drafting a summer schedule, securing our professional development for pre-service and beyond, and hiring for vacancies. A huge shout out to Madame Gadie who closed out our partnership with Quebec with a beautiful showcase of students’ learning (all in twenty minutes). It was a lot of fun, and this coming week, we have 5th grade exhibitions to behold. It is such a busy time of year, but so exciting to witness the student growth. Our end of year data is coming in, and another huge shout out to the first grade teachers and all the tutors who assisted first grade students these last two terms. I have seen a lot of data, and their growth is STUPENDOUS. Stay tuned for a EOY achievement data presentation soon. Fifth grade reading proficiency rates will also knock your socks off:). So far, it appears that Shepherd students have not suffered significant learning loss, and we will be … Read More

Dear Families,  We are in the process of planning our end of the year activities. On Monday June 21, 2021 at 10:00 am, we will celebrate 5th grade promotion in person for all students and their families who would like to attend. The DPR field should be resurfaced by that date, but alternatively, we will use our playground space. Also in store are “move up” ceremonies in person for each grade level so students have the opportunity to see one another before we close out the school year. We currently are researching and planning for safe celebrations of our students so please stay tuned for details but we would love to have the opportunity to celebrate all of our children as we close out what has been a challenging year.  At our PTO meeting on Wednesday, I walked participants through the Panorama survey data for students and families. Once our end of the year achievement data is available, I will share it with you. Dr. Leonard and Ms. Freeman are planning our summer program for those students in need of some additional support, and they will be communicating details with those families as soon as possible.   I am saddened to inform you that Dr. Wilson is experiencing a family emergency and will have to take leave for the … Read More

Dear Families, Happy Friday! We launched our first 4th grade CARE class and increased capacity in our 3rd grade CARE classroom, and Madame Gadie, Senor Hernandez, Coach Langrock, Mr. Muskett and Ms. Pereira all returned to the building. Big news is that it will no longer be 3rd grade CARE. Starting next Thursday, it will be in-person learning with Mr. Mack. Next week, Ms. Hunter, Ms. Johnson and Dr. Leonard return to teach in person. Ms. Rajwani, Ms. Saxton, Ms. Murali and Mr. Clayborn increase their class sizes. We will have 210 students in attendance, putting us at 57% of our students returning in person. Thank you to everyone as we shift and change rooms, dismissal locations, and at times, homeroom assignments. I am so excited to turn a corner and see a child or hear a class outside my office during lunch. It is wonderful to have students and staff back here again! Phyllis 4/25/21 Shepherd Elementary Beautification Day 10:00 am Please come out with garden tools if you have them to help tend our beautiful gardens that Simon Messing nurtures with love and devotion. Thank you Mr. Messing for all you do! 2022 DC Teacher of the Year Nominations  OSSE is currently accepting … Read More

Dear Families, Thank you for your patience as we completed our plans for Term 4 and launched our plans for the summer. There are a lot of logistics in place, and we were moving quickly to fill seats and communicate changes. If we made an error that impacted your family or miscommunicated something along the way, I am sorry. I provided the Term 4 shifts again at the end of this message, and Ms. Rottman is in the process of sending grade level emails to families returning to the building. Please continue to reach out if you have any questions, and thanks again. Happy Spring Break! Just a reminder that DCPS is not in session next week for students. Monday is a professional development and records keeping day. Tuesday through Thursday are Spring Break, and Friday is Emancipation Day. I am excited to share that Ms. Romero will be out for maternity leave in early May. This week, she helped us interview and hire Ms. Brenda Brown who will serve as a temporary teacher in her absence. Ms. Brown has been teaching for 14 years, and her last role was as a third through fifth grade Math teacher. She has … Read More

More Updates on Term 4 Good afternoon families, Given all the changes we will undergo in Term 4, I wanted to outline the shifts by grade level for your review. Since Spring Break is the week of April 12th and some families may be traveling during that time, the majority of the students will return to the building on April 26th. Grade/Class Start Date Capacity Changes PK 3 CARE 4/19 Students who started in CARE before break will return on 4/19 PK 3 IPL 4/26 New students start when Ms. Johnson Returns on 4/26 PK 4 CARE 4/19 Term 3 CARE students return on 4/19 PK IPL Hunter 4/29 When Ms. Hunter returns on 4/29, her students will return, either transferring out of the CARE classroom to her classroom or returning to school PK IPL Holt 4/29 Ms. Holt’s students who are in PK 4 CARE will stay in CARE, and her students returning to the building can start CARE on 4/29. They will stay in CARE until 5/17 when Ms. Holt returns to the building. K IPL Rajwani 4/26 New students start 4/26. Term 3 students return 4/19. Classroom capacity increases from 10 to 23. K CARE 4/26 New students start … Read More