Good Morning Murch Families,
I hope that you all have had some time to relax and enjoy with your friends and family over the summer. Our teachers and staff report back to work on August 19, and I am sure they will be excited to welcome back our learners and families. There is still a great deal of work to complete between now and the 19th. This email is full of what I hope you will find to be useful information. I’ll be sharing several more emails between now and the 19th.
- There is a new app we have access to, provided by the district. The app is called Remind. https://www.remind.com/ We are all in the process of learning how to use it. This gives us another way, and I hope an additional and more effective way, to communicate with you. A reminder about contact information; please make sure that the welcome center has your most current email and phone number. If you made any recent changes to either, please contact the welcome center to provide this new information.
- We appear to be entering the endemic phase of covid and there will be several changes to the covid protocols that we have had in place and followed over the past few years. These changes will be shared when finalized by DCPS. A few things I can share are:
***Pre-K 4 will continue to eat lunch in their classrooms. Kindergarten will eat lunch in the commons and grades 1-5 will eat in the cafeteria. I am strongly encouraging our teachers to continue the practice of having lunch outdoors when possible.
***We will continue to have breakfast served to any student who would like one. The change is that breakfast will be served in the cafeteria instead of grab and go. If you would like for your child to have hot lunch, the district is going back to payment for lunches. They are no longer free for the entire student body.
More evolutions/changes to covid regulations will be shared as they are made available to principals.
Put Vaccines on Your-Back-to-School List
To attend school, families are required to submit their student’s up-to-date immunization record by the first day of school. Vaccinations are critical for preventing disease and reducing the dangers that can come with being exposed to certain diseases. You can find a list of required immunizations for your child according to their age by viewing this helpful flyer from DC Health.
If you have not already submitted your child’s immunization records to your school, here is what you need to do now:
- Make an appointment with your child’s doctor. DC offers resources to help you find a health providerif you do not have health insurance.
- Have the doctor complete DC’s Universal Health Certificate, available here.Your health provider may also provide a different proof of immunization document or an exemption explanation.
- Submit your immunization paperwork to your child’s school. You can drop it off at your school or call the school’s main office if you have questions about how to submit your form.
Where to Obtain a Vaccine
The best place for DC families to access childhood immunizations is at their primary medical provider. If a family does not have a health care provider for their child or has difficulty securing an appointment before the first day of school, they can select one from a list of pediatric locations, located in every ward. There are DCPS School Based Health Centers to consider on that list, and mobile units that will visit schools through August and September.
For more information on obtaining immunizations by the first day of school, visit dcpsreopenstrong.com/vaccines.
- All student class placements have been finalized. Student classroom assignments will be sent to you electronically on August 15. Along with the placement, you will receive a student profile form that you are being asked to complete and to email to your child’s teacher prior to August 19th.
Mr. Hawkins and I will be hosting in person evening events to share information about the upcoming school year as well as listen to concerns you may have or questions that need to be answered. The schedule for these evening events are:
***Tuesday, August 16th, grades K-2 – 5:30-6:30
***Tuesday, August 16th, grades 3-5 –6:45-7:45
***Tuesday, August 23rd, Pre-K4 – 5:30-6:30
Finally, we have several new staff members who will be joining us this school year. They are:
- Elizabeth Hagan, Kindergarten
- Monique Webber, Kindergarten
- Kyle Buza, 2nd grade
- Loretta Ingebrigtsen, 5th grade Math/Science
- Allison Birgfeld, EL teacher
- Tarah Keeley, Social Worker
- Cristina Wurster, Math specialist
- Mr. Travitz will be moving to 1st grade and Ms. Crabtree will be moving to 3rd grade math/science.
- Ms. Carney Hagan and Ms. Kopin are moving from their grade level positions to becoming reading specialists.
That’s all for now!!! I’ll be in touch several times over the next few weeks. We’ll continue to send out helpful info! Please enjoy these last three weeks of summer!!!!!
Regards,
Principal Cebrzynski