Guiding Principles for Term 4 In-person learning:

• As a starting point, DCPS will maintain any classrooms that previously opened for in-person learning with the classroom teacher, CARE classrooms with a CARE supervisor, or self-contained special education in-person learning with the classroom teacher.

• Since we don’t have a waitlist, we will create and publish another survey which will ask if any virtual students or students in CARE classrooms would like to be considered for in-person instruction.

• If guidance from DC Health changes, aligned adjustments may be made within existing classrooms. For instance, if recommended cohort sizes increase, additional seats could be offered with existing classrooms. If the demand is great, we would consider opening additional cohorts. DCPS will be notifying principals of any such changes as they arise.

• To minimize scheduling disruption, if there is sufficient demand at Murch, I may choose to add additional classrooms and/or cohorts to in-person learning and/or make other adjustments to accommodate more students in Term 4. Any plan we create must be approved by our school’s Instructional Superintendent.

Process for adding additional in-person learning classrooms and/or other adjustments to accommodate for more students in term 4:

What are the recommended minimum thresholds to open an in-person cohort?

Pre-K 4 and Kindergarten: 6 students

1^st – 5^th grades: 7 students

Self-contained special education classrooms: 2 students

Have a great rest of your day!

Principal Cebrzynski

Good afternoon Murch Families:

Tomorrow, February 15th, is Presidents Day. There is no attendance for students and staff.

Tuesday, February 16th is a virtual learning day for ALL students. If your child is enrolled in a CARE classroom, they will be attending virtually from home. The reason this is happening is because a vast majority of teachers will be receiving their 2nd vaccination on the 15th. According to many, teachers will most likely be experiencing side effects that may prevent them from coming into work. The district decided to be proactive and make this an all virtual day.

We look forward to seeing our Thursday/Friday cohort this coming Thursday, February 18th.

Also, you may want to review the attendance protocols for both in-person and virtual learners which can be found at https://murchschool.org/murch-attendance-reminders-2/

Enjoy the rest of your day!

Principal Cebrzynski

Good morning Murch Families:

Below are the teacher cohort assignments for term 3. If you have questions about placement or cohort day assignment, please contact Mary Eckstein and/or Stefanie Berger at mary.eckstein@k12.dc.gov and stefanie.berger@k12.dc.gov.  Students in Ms. Davis, Ms. Hsu, Ms. Silver, Dr. Lyon and Mr. Travitz’s classes will receive a personalized email sharing which cohort days your child will be attending.

Student/Teacher Cohorts for Term 3 IPLK

Good morning Murch Families,

Final rosters have been delivered to teachers this morning. Teachers know both who is coming to learn in the classroom space and who will be virtual at home. If you contact your child’s teacher to ask questions and are comfortable adding me as a cc on your email, that would be appreciated. If I can intervene and provide responses that teachers may not have answers to, I would love to provide that support to teachers and take that off their plate. That’s your choice.

If there is anything I can address, please feel free to reach out.  Also, with the targeted and accurately detailed work that Mary Eckstein and Stefanie Berger did to place students, most, if not all of you have had either email communication or phone conversations with them. Hopefully, to date, most of your questions about placement have been answered.

I look forward to seeing pre-k4 families at the update meeting on Monday at 7:00pm.

Lastly, all teachers, administrators, and support staff have been placed on the prioritized list to receive their first vaccination shot for COVID beginning on Monday, January 25th. That’s great news! I will be getting my vaccination shot and look forward to greeting all in-person students coming back for learning at Murch on Monday, February 1st. I will also be reconnecting and welcoming all our virtual students starting on the same day!

I hope you are all able to enjoy this glorious weekend!

Principal Cebrzynski

Good evening Murch Families,

I hope you are doing well and looking forward to the holiday weekend where we celebrate the life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He was and is one of America’s most influential American civil rights leaders, well-known for his campaigns to end racial segregation and for racial equality in the United States. This January 18, I hope we can all reflect on the work that still needs to be done to ensure racial equality and equity in our school system, schools, and classrooms.

Stating the obvious, there is so much information being shared throughout DCPS and we are feverishly planning for in-person learning which will start on February 1^st. Because of our strong Murch community, families, and committed staff members, I am confident about our ability to make a plan that addresses the needs of our most vulnerable students and our staff’s ability to deliver a quality in-person learning plan.

First, if you chose for your child to continue “virtual” on the term 3 survey, he/she will be.

Second, if you chose for your child to be enrolled in a CARES classroom, that request will be honored.

If you chose in-person learning, (not CARES) there are a several things we are currently working on which will determine final class rosters for in-person learning.

• All students in the prioritized group who accepted an in-person seat for term 2 and have and completed the term 3 survey stating you wanted an in-person seat, will receive one.
• Next, we call all other parents who are in the prioritized group to see if they would like to accept a seat as well.  Once we have completed these two stages of the process, we move into the general pool of students whose parents requested in-person learning but are not in the prioritized group.
• Every student, prioritized and general pool, receives a lottery number. Per class roster, we highlight the first eleven names of the students who have the 11 highest numbers in the lottery.
• If this initial group of eleven select in-person, that class becomes a cohort and we are done with that class.
• Then we move on to the next class roster.
• For students who were not selected for in-person learning, they will remain on a waitlist.
• If all seats are not filled using the first eleven lottery slots or for whatever reason a seat becomes available, we go to the waitlist, the next number, and contact parents of that student to see if the in-person seat will be accepted.
• When the process has been completed for each classroom, you will know what your placement is. We are determining the best way to communicate this to everyone.
• If you have not yet completed the survey and would like to, I have extended the deadline to tomorrow morning at 8:00 am.

Details about in-person learning (safety precautions, schedule, technology, etc.) will be presented via Microsoft TEAMS presentations starting next week in the evening. There will be multiple evening presentations. Meeting links will be sent to you on Sunday for your convenience.

We anticipate having all class rosters finalized by close of business on Friday, January 15th and we will communicate this to you prior meetings being held next week. We are doing our best to get this information to you asap so you can make whatever decisions you need to for your child and family.

I hope you enjoy the rest of your evening.

Stay safe!

Principal Cebrzynski

Good morning Murch parents,

After yesterday’s horrific events, I want to reach out to everyone in the Murch community with hopes that you are in good health and are safe. I have been in touch with my staff prior to the school day starting and our mental health team and teachers are equipped with resources to respond to concerns, feelings, and questions students may have about yesterday’s events. If anyone needs support for your child as we are all trying to make sense of this, please reach out to our mental health team: Deb Meisel (Social Worker), Allison Warshof (Social Worker) or Lauren Miller (Counselor). I was really counting on 2021 being “different”, and it still can be.

Lauren Miller – lauren.miller@k12.dc.gov

Deb Meisel – deborah.meisel@k12.dc.gov

Allison Warshof – allison.warshof@k12.dc.gov

On a separate note, every grade level teacher will be sending home a very short term 3 survey tomorrow to every household. If you are requesting an in-person seat for your child, it is important to submit this survey.  Come February 1st, we will be open, and students and teachers will be in attendance. The district will inform teachers tomorrow of their term 3 assignment.

On a final note, information about term 3 will be shared with you as we receive it and decisions are finalized. You will receive information tomorrow along with the survey that will provide you with what we know about term 3 to date.

Stay safe!

Principal Cebrzynski

Congratulations to the more than 50 students who participated in the Murch Spelling Bee.  Well done to all our spellers for their hard work and to the following students for placing:

1. Junzhe Liu
2. Amos Tama and Ronan Shah (tie)

These students will advance to the cluster bee.

Have a great weekend!

On February 1, Term 3 begins. According to district guidance, Murch, along with every other school in the district, is expected to offer in person instruction with teachers, CARES classrooms, and an option for students to continue their instruction 100% virtually. We will be offering all three options.

76% of our student population was represented in the recent survey for term 3. You can find a summary of the results HERE.

Currently, a group of parents, teachers, and staff are meeting to develop a plan for term 3.  A draft of this plan is to be completed by this Friday with the final plan to be submitted by the 18^th. Upon completion of the draft, I will release it to the community. You are welcome to provide feedback.

I will reopen the survey for those of you who have not yet completed it and would like to. It will stay open until this Wednesday, 7:00pm.  You can find the survey HERE.

Have a great rest of your day!

Principal Cebrzynski

Dear Murch Families,

I want to take this opportunity to thank you on behalf of our staff at Murch Elementary School for your partnership, kindness, and generosity. To date, we have experienced new things daily in our work as I am sure you have had a similar set of experiences. In the end, we all share a common goal, the success and well-being of your children.

At this Thanksgiving season I would like to take a moment to express how grateful I am to be associated with the families and faculty at Murch.  As an administrator, I am thankful for students who cheerfully and consistently work hard to learn, parents who encourage, and teachers who are dedicated and truly care about each child. I am thankful for the support of the parents in creating an outstanding partnership for our students.   I am thankful for our HSA and LSAT who do all they can to make Murch a great place to be and attempt to bring “community” to the forefront.  I am truly grateful for the opportunities I have experienced here over the past ten years.  Thank you for your help, support, understanding, and patience.  There is no other place I would rather be.

In these most difficult and challenging times, we see dedicated and tireless individuals going above and beyond to make sure that great things happen in our school. They do make a difference, and the children, in their own individual ways, benefit from those efforts.

Most importantly, I am thankful for all of you, the parents, and guardians of our incredible students, who have kept the faith in us.  You continue to share your most valuable possession with us and work hard and tirelessly advocate to be a partner in your children’s education, safety, and well-being. It is not easy work, and it is tiring. For this, I am ever so thankful.

I would like to wish all of you and your families a happy, healthy and relaxing Thanksgiving holiday!

Principal Cebrzynski