Happy Friday and Halloween Weekend Murch Families,
Parent volunteers – I received many inquiries about whether parents can take advantage of volunteer opportunities in school. At this point I think it would be possible to begin having parents do so if the COVID regulations are in place: being vaccinated, social distancing, and wearing a mask. In my mind, the logistics for this can be daunting. I will initiate a conversation with HSA and room parents to see if we can coordinate with them to handle the logistics of the requests. Some examples of volunteers that we’ve already granted are helping supervise at recess in kindergarten and helping put up bulletin boards after school with kindergarten teachers. I am not requiring parents to go through a background check for these types of volunteer opportunities. Once again before we can start wholesale, logistics will need to be worked out. Thank you in advance to all the parents who have expressed their interest and are willing to help our teachers through volunteerism.
Specials rotation switch – Starting in the 2nd quarter, on November 8th, there is going to be a change in how we do specials rotations. This is because the district shared with me that we were being non-compliant with the Healthy School’s Act in DC by not providing PE on a weekly basis for students. Please keep in mind, the schedule I presented for approval to the district was approved prior to the start of the school year. Instead of one class having art and music for four days a week, two classes will have art and music for two days a week for the entire quarter. Teachers will communicate which specials class your child will have starting on November 8th.
4th grade basketball tryouts– We will be hosting boys’ basketball tryouts for 4th grade on Thursday, November 4th at 3:30 PM. Due to the constraints placed on us by the DCIAA, we can only have 15 players for each game. The final teams, both boys and girls, will be comprised of both 4th and 5th grade students.
End of the first quarter – In looking back at the first 8 weeks of school, heading to the end of the first quarter, a few things that stand out is the transition time it is taking many of our students to move back into an in-person model of instruction and getting accustomed to classroom routines and procedures. By no means is this inhibiting learning and teaching from happening, however, it is something teachers spend a great deal of time thinking about and planning for. If your child is continuing to experience stress or anxiety, we want to help. Our teachers and mental health team have been working hand in hand to address these concerns as they come up and have been doing a stellar job. But there are still students who we need to help. Feel free to reach out to Lauren Miller, our school counselor, or your child’s teacher if we can be of assistance.
After School Tutoring – Lastly, our afterschool tutoring program is going well. We have 8 instructors and 47 students attending regularly on Tuesdays and Thursdays. If we can add additional teachers for the 2nd quarter, we will add additional students. It’s all about keeping the teacher/student ratio at a certain level. Please feel free to reach out to Assistant Principal Hawkins if you have any questions.
Principal Cebrzynski