Dear Lafayette Families –
The end of the school year is quickly approaching!
Calendar Extension
Just a reminder that our snow days earned us two extra days at the end of the school year! Wednesday, 6/13 and Thursday 6/14 are now full days of school. Friday, 6/15 is the last day of school with student dismissal at 12:15 pm. You can find more information here as well as updates to next year’s calendar.
Arts Night
Arts Night is here! One of the most time-honored traditions at Lafayette is this week. Please join us Thursday, May 10th at 6 pm to enjoy our PK4 – 1st graders’ artistic endeavors. Each grade level will perform a musical number. After, please join your student on the first floor to locate their artistic masterpiece. Every child will have a piece of art on display. Arts Night II for our 2nd – 5th graders will follow next week, Thursday, May 17th.
LSAT News
Looking to get involved next year? The LSAT (Local School Advisory Team) needs you! The LSAT is an elected team of parent and staff representatives that help advise me on issues of student achievement, our comprehensive school plan, and our budget priorities. Elections will be held June 7th during the HSA general meeting. We will elect 4 parent representatives. Click here for the full DCPS description. If you are interested in running for LSAT, please submit your name and email here.
PARCC Testing
This Tuesday, our 3rd – 5th grade students will begin our PARCC testing. The students will only be testing for one session in the mornings (75-90 minutes) and then will resume their regular day. All testing will be completed by next Thursday, 5/17. While we recognize that there are many opinions about standardized testing, we also recognize that it can be valuable information for our students and our school. For example, PARCC results are calculated into our overall school performance rating as well as into teachers’ evaluations. We also use the PARCC scores at the beginning of each year to track student growth, look at trends in overall achievement, and identify areas of relative strength and weaknesses for instructional planning. For example, two years ago we noticed a relative weakness in writing for our students: students who were scoring well above proficiency in reading were scoring below proficient in writing. Since then, we have been able to hone our writing instruction and our students continue to show amazing improvements as writers. If you would like to learn more about PARCC, please check out the link here.
Thank You!
The rest of May brings many many fun events. Many of which need you – to volunteer in the art room, to volunteer for field day, and to volunteer for end of the year field trips and parties. Thank you in advance for all that you do every day to support us as a school community. That includes the big things like Staff Appreciation Week (this week yay!), as well as parent readers, supplies, notes of praise, supporting teachers at home, and a countless myriad of other ways. Together, our whole is greater than the sum of our parts (Thanks Aristotle!).
Here’s to a quick end to allergy season and many happy May memories,
Dr. B