Dear Lafayette Families –
This week we mourn the loss of a pioneer and a warrior for women’s rights, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. The year 2020 continues to provide us with countless invaluable lessons on resilience, civic responsibilities, and the power of community working together. This fall, there will be a multitude of civics lessons playing out in our back yard from a presidential election to the process for appointing Justices to the US Supreme Court.
These are just two additional experiences that our children are “living through history”. To provide our students with instruction and social emotional learning to process the COVID 19 pandemic and the continuing racial injustices across our country, DCPS has created a “Living Through History” cornerstone experience for all students. DCPS has designed this series of lessons to “act as global citizens by documenting, sharing, advocating, and reflecting on their personal experiences during the pandemic and a time of increased awareness and response to racial injustice”. Click here to see the full description provided by DCPS in English and in Spanish.
As hard as it is to believe, this week marks the 4th week of the school year. In true 2020 form, every week feels a little like a month. Thank you for your patience as we used the first two weeks to build relationships, routines and procedures with our students. I was blown away by the partnerships that were built between home and school that continue to flourish. Last week, we ramped it up a bit and academics and our full master schedule began. I know you may have felt it as parents….but you’ve got this! This week the routine and flow should start to emerge. For those of you with 1st – 5th graders, start to build the independence with your students by helping them to set timers or reminders of when to be online, creating a schedule together, learning to read a digital or analogue clock, and encouraging (expecting!) students to be responsible for their own logins. As a point of reference, all of our 1st graders within the building can log on by themselves by week 6 of the year. It may not be quick (or pretty!), but they can do it! We promise! As always, if you or your child are struggling with something, don’t hesitate to reach out to your child’s teacher.
A huge thank you goes out to our room parents, who are gearing up to build those social connections for parents and for students. Because the teachers cannot provide parents with other parents’ contact information, we need your help! Please be on the look out for this link from your child’s teacher – Please complete this form so your room parent has your information for the virtual potluck, virtual play dates, virtual parties or other virtual social gatherings! We don’t want you or your child left out of the classroom community and fun!
Contact Information for Room Parents
Finally, some housekeeping items for us as a community:
- If you still need a device please email We have a new round of devices available for students who don’t have a working device. Please note that these devices are not available as an “upgrade”, but only for students who may still need a device.
- We will be in a virtual posture at least until 11/3/2020. Recently, there have been several news articles indicating that students will be returning to the building prior to that date. At this time, there is no change in our virtual status at Lafayette.
- As soon as I have guidance on planning for a possible return to hybrid instruction (or remaining virtual) after November 3rd, I will be in touch with the community. If/When we begin hybrid instruction:
- It is reasonable to expect that not all students will be able to return at one time.
- It is also reasonable to expect that parents will have the option to choose an all virtual option.
- While I do not have confirmation, I would not be surprised if some students were prioritized in the order of their return to in person learning. As soon as I have details that will help us plan, I will share with the community.
Here’s to a great first day of Fall! I hope you are all doing the best you can with what you have – that’s all we can do. I’ll leave us with a quote from the Notorious RBG, may she rest in power.
“To make life a little better for people less fortunate than you, that’s what I think a meaningful life is. One lives not just for oneself but for one’s community.” -Ruth Bader Ginsburg