Archives for 2024

Dear Families,

Murch Elementary School is forming a Parent Advisory and Engagement Team to enhance collaboration and inclusivity within our school community. This initiative aims to ensure that all voices are heard and valued, particularly those from historically underserved and underrepresented groups.

By actively involving parents in decision-making processes and fostering an environment of equity, the team will work to create a supportive and inclusive atmosphere that promotes the academic and social growth of every student. Together, we can build stronger connections between families and the school community to ensure that every child has the opportunity to thrive and reach their goals.

As a member of the Murch Parent Advisory and Engagement Team, you may be asked to participate in the following:

Advocacy and Awareness: Promote awareness about equity issues within the school community. This might involve organizing workshops, creating informational materials, or leading discussions on topics like race, socioeconomic status, disabilities, and other forms of diversity.

Policy Review and Recommendations: Collaborate with school administrators to review and develop policies that promote equity. This can include evaluating current practices and suggesting improvements to ensure all students have equal opportunities.

Community Engagement: Build bridges between the school and diverse community groups. This could involve organizing events that celebrate different cultures, facilitating dialogue between parents and school staff, or connecting families with community resources.

Student Support: Work with teachers and administrators to ensure that the needs of all students are met. This might include advocating for tailored support for students with disabilities, English language learners, or those from underrepresented backgrounds.

The team requires a full-year commitment from 10-12 parents dedicated to this work. We invite you to join us on this journey.

If you are interested, please complete this simple application by Friday, September 6. The first meeting will be held on Wednesday, September 25. Once the team has been finalized, a survey will be sent to to the group to poll future meeting dates and times.

For more information on the DCPS Equity Framework, please click here.

Best regards,
Principal Cebrzynski

Dear Murch Families,

As we enter August, anticipation fills the air with the promise of a new academic year just around the corner. I am thrilled to welcome back our students and the entire school community on August 26th. Our faculty and staff will continue to prepare for the return of both our returning and new students to Murch, ensuring that our classrooms are not only safe but also nurturing environments where your children can thrive.

One important update I’d like to share is about enrollment and student-teacher assignments. We have over 40 seats to fill to reach our enrollment projection of 661 students, which I am confident we will meet. That said, this creates some uncertainty in predicting final numbers for grade levels/individual classes at this time.  The leadership team will be monitoring enrollment over the next two weeks. Once we can confidently finalize grade-level enrollment, we will send class assignments to you.

In my next update, to be sent on Monday, August 5^th and posted to the HSA website, I am excited to introduce several new staff members who will be joining our Murch family as well as initiatives, in conjunction with DCPS’s new five-year strategic plan, aimed at enriching the educational experience for our students. From a focus on improving to new extracurricular activities, we are committed to providing a well-rounded education that caters to the diverse needs and interests of our students.

We understand that the transition back to school can be a time of mixed emotions for both children and parents. Please know that we are here to support you every step of the way. In the coming days/weeks, I will be sharing more information including, but not limited to our back-to-school procedures, the implementation of STRONG START (which will take the place of the morning meeting), our new staff members, and our Sneak Peek on August 23rd.

Your partnership is vital to the success of our school and your children’s education. We encourage you to get involved, whether it be through volunteering, joining our HSA, or simply engaging with your child’s learning at home. Together, we can make this a fantastic year filled with growth, learning, and joy.

Please mark your calendars for our Back-to-School Night on September 5th, where you will have the opportunity to meet our teachers, visit the classrooms, and learn more about the curriculum and our goals for the year ahead.

In closing, I want to express my deepest gratitude for your continued support and trust in our school. We are honored to be a part of your child’s educational journey and look forward to seeing their smiling faces on the first day of school.

Warm regards,

Principal Cebrzynski

Dear Murch Families,

As we head into our final term of the 2023-2024 school year, I want to update you all on one item, in particular, and take a moment to reflect on how I am feeling as a school leader as we complete only our second full year, post-pandemic.

SY24-25 Class Placements
Teachers have already started developing class rosters for next year. As you may recall, it has been our historical practice to release class rosters in early to mid August. For next school year, however, we are aiming to have class rosters out by early July.

In addition to using the latest scheduling software that better enables us to take into account various factors before creating class rosters, I am also asking for parental input, just as I have done in past years. My request to parents is that if you have input for your child’s placement next year, please take the time to communicate your thoughts with your child’s current teacher(s) before they close of business on May 17th. We are not taking specific teacher requests.

Reflections 
I have worked in education for over 35 years, and as many of you know, this is my 13th year as the Principal of Murch. Pre-pandemic, I would have told you that this job, like most jobs, gets easier with every passing year, but not because there aren’t challenges and new and different hurdles to overcome each year, but because there are pieces that become routine and more predictable.

Since the pandemic, however, I have, in many ways, felt like a brand new Principal all over again – routine and predictability can be elusive, and external pressures on educators are extreme (trying to make up for years of learning loss in a finite period of time) and ever-changing demands are very real (health protocols, new curriculum, budget cuts at both the federal and local levels etc…). In our efforts to keep up, there are pieces of my job that have definitely suffered, most namely communication. In some instances the lack of communication has been intentional, perhaps as a way of protecting myself and my staff, but in lots of instances, it has been unintentional and simply a product of exhaustion.

Over the last few weeks in particular, I have had an opportunity to discuss this with a handful of parents and I am committed during this final term and as we move into the next school year, to figuring out protocols that address how and when information is communicated to the school community and/or to individual families that are being affected by a specific issue.

To this end, I will be creating a short survey to solicit feedback that will go out in the next week or so. I sincerely hope that our community takes time to respond, remembering that solutions will only reflect community input if there is actually input!

 

With Much Gratitude,

Principal Cebrzynski