News & Events

Six weeks until the first day of school! Important reminders! Dear Shepherd Families, I hope you and your family are having a safe summer so far. As we prepare to welcome your student back for a new school year on August 30, we want to keep you updated on our work and what you need to know to be ready for the first day of school. Please not that PK 3 and PK 4 programs start on September 2nd. In this email, you’ll find information on staffing, uniforms, health and safety protocols, virtual learning registration for medically eligible students, required immunization reminders for all students, afterschool registration information, dates for family activities and information for early childhood families. Staffing Updates Sabria Trotter who has taught Kindergarten for the last two years at Shepherd is excited to move to PK 3 this fall. Sarah Zepeda looks forward to moving back to Kindergarten. Janelle McCarthy will be our new third grade homeroom teacher. She has a background not only in general elementary education but special education and counseling. In term 4, Ms. McCarthy served as a substitute for in person learning classrooms and is already feeling at home in our Shepherd community. … Read More

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