Dear Lafayette Families –
March has arrived and we are headed toward spring. There are many exciting events and opportunities on the horizon…but first, an update on our budget for the 2024-2025 school year.
Last Friday, our final budget was submitted in accordance with DCPS timelines. Through the budget assistance process we were able to secure an additional $319, 340. While this amount was helpful, it was only about 15% of our budget shortfall ($2 million). The remaining budget deficit resulted in widespread cuts in all teams except for our special education team, our mental health team and our multi-lingual learner team.
While drafting the final budget, the goal was to stabilize infrastructure for programming across the building, maintain safety (eg. daily lunch/recess supervision), maintain strong environments for learning, and be sure that both students and staff have the resources they need in academics and social emotional supports. I also balanced feedback from the staff and community. This has been our most challenging season by far – and the following positions were cut from our budget from the upcoming school year:
- Spanish (from 1 –> 0 positions)
- 1 Reading Interventionist (from 3 –> 2 positions)
- 1 Math Interventionist (from 2 –> 1 positions)
- 2 English Language Arts Instructional Coaches (from 3 –> 1 positions
- 1 Director of Strategy and Logistics (from 1 –>0 positions)
- 1 Office Staff member (from 3 –> 2 positions)
- 1 Custodian (from 7 –> 6 positions)
Additionally, we are reducing the number of overall classroom teachers which will create slightly larger class sizes in Grades 2, 4, and 5. While the class size will be slightly higher than this year, it is still at a level we have had historically (25/26 students per class). In grades K, 1 and 3 we still anticipate class size around 22/23 students per class. Here’s the full slide deck that outlines what is/isn’t included in the final budget: Final SY25 Budget
Our LSAT and HSA have also compiled several resources if you would like to learn more about the budget process across the city: https://lafayette.dev.cavendoclient.com//how-can-i-advocate-for-our-schools-budget-needs-lafayette-lsat-hsa-guidance/
In lighter news, March is Arts and Music in our Schools Month! Be on the lookout for announcements and events from the Art and Music Rooms. There are incredible displays across our building and performances are on tap! There are also volunteer opportunities to support the art room – specifically helping with the 5th grade quilt!
Feeling the itch to get involved??? Here’s what’s coming our way:
Drop Off Line – 4th Grade has March!
HSA Informational Mixer – March 5th @ 7:30 pm
ASL Club “Signing Town” Event – March 7th, 5:30 pm – 7:30 pm
Pi Day Recitation – During the school day for grades 1 – 5
DGS/DPR Community Meeting – Future of the surface of the field – March 13, 6 pm – 7:30 pm
HSA Belonging Committee: “Dream Town” Book Event with the Author – March 28th, 7 pm
HSA General Meeting and Informative Speaker Series; “How to Talk to Your Kids about Disability” – April 8th, 7 pm – 8 pm; Zoom
Spring Auction – May 4th – Save the date
-May 9th – PK/KDG/1st Grade
-May 16th – 2nd/3rd Grade
-May 23rd – 4th/5th Grade
As always, I could not be prouder of how we continue to grow and move forward as a diverse and vibrant (and huge!) community. Thank you to everyone for your support, grace, care, and involvement. Together we create a beautiful place for our students to learn and grow.
Happy (Almost) Spring,
Dr. B