We’d like to get your feedback on a proposed “Bike Rodeo” in Glover Park this coming spring. The tentative location is the basketball court at Guy Mason Recreation Center. Proposed dates include April 28th (Saturday), April 29th (Sunday), May 5th (Saturday) and May 6th (Sunday).

Bike Rodeo is the term Washington Area Bicyclist Association (WABA) uses for a *fun* hands-on exercise using bikes and an obstacle course to teach kids the skills they need to safely stop and control their bikes. Anyone with a bike is welcome to participate, although WABA finds that kids up to age 12 are most interested in the event. Kids with training wheels are encouraged to participate too.

When WABA hosts a Bike Rodeo, most to all of these events are included: bicycle inspection, mounting, dismounting, straight line control, stopping ability, signaling turn, weaving & maneuvering (cones), small turning radius (“figure 8”) and slow speed control. Each participant usually takes around 15 minutes to complete the fun, interesting, educational, memorable course. Participants have fun while gaining hands-on safe biking training.

WABA instructors would host the event including design and setup of the course itself. The cost would be approximately $1,300-$1,500 ($975 for WABA instructors and equipment, plus permitting, insurance, and other expenses). If there is sufficient interest, we plan to approach ANC3B for funding.

The event would be open to participants from nearby neighborhoods assuming we are well within the 300 person event capacity.

If you or your family would be interested, please complete this very brief survey: http://goo.gl/TbVlo

Feel free to contact me with any questions or concerns. And, if you would like to assist with event organization or promotion, please send me an email.

Mitch

mwander[at]gmail[dot]com

As we come down the home stretch, the students are still busy with many exciting events. What a marvelous Science Fair. You could tell immediately that our students have studied the scientific method, learned how to conduct research, and know how to present their findings. It was so wonderful to have the new big gym to display all of the projects. To me all the students were winners! Thanks to you for supporting your child in this important experience. Many huge thank-yous to the parents, teachers, and guests who helped judge the entries! The lower grades enjoyed their afternoon of science experiments too. The students were engaged in many exciting projects. Huge thanks to the parents who helped with this also

The upper grades had their Awards Day this Friday. The teachers presented awards to many students for citizenship; improvement; outstanding achievement in reading, math, science, and in all subjects; student council, safety patrols; creativity; writing; and other achievements. Presidential Awards were presented to 5th graders who achieved a high grade-point average and also scored Advanced on the DC CAS or DC BAS test C. The certificates presented to the students were signed by President Obama, and the students also received pins of recognition. I am sorry that some of you did not receive notification of the event, as you are always welcome to join us for school events. The lower grades’ Awards Day will be held June 17 at 1:30 p.m.

Parents of 5th graders, the Promotion Ceremony is June 16th at 9:30 a.m. in the gym. Please help spread the word. There will be some student performances, short speeches, and the presentation of the promotion certificates to the students. Light refreshments will be served in the back of the gym. After the ceremony, you may certainly check out your child to be with family. School will be in session and your child can remain with us, if you wish. Promoted fifth-graders are also welcome on Friday, June 17th and for the half-day of June 20th – school will be in session and they may come. Several parents have asked if they can come back on Friday and Monday – of course they are welcome.

Here I go yet again: Please REGISTER for next year. Many of you have done so, but there are still some families at EVERY GRADE LEVEL who have not registered. Please help us this week before school is out. When you register, it means we can do real planning this summer and be ready to open in August.

THANKS to each of you for helping make this a terrific year for the Stoddert Wolves. We have almost finished our first year in the new Stoddert school. The class of 2011 will be the first to be promoted to 6th grade in our own gymnasium. Wow, are we not very fortunate? Please accept my sincere thanks for all that you do for the teachers, students, and your principal to make Stoddert ES successful.

You know where to find me or reach me, all summer too: marjorie[dot]cuthbert[at]dc[dot]gov.

It was a short week, but a very busy and productive one. Did you get a chance to come to the talent show? It was fun to see pianists, dancers, vocalists, gymnasts, and adorable students performing on the new and wonderful stage. I hope that we can plan many more all-school performances and grade-level plays, productions, and celebrations. Speaking of celebrations, the three Kindergarten classes performed for parents and sang Mothers’ and Fathers’ Day appreciation songs. After performing in the gym, all the families had a picnic out by the garden. It is really quite amazing to see the spaces, which were once only drawings on blueprints, being utilized by students, teachers, and parents. Go Stoddert families!

It was fun to journey down to Fillmore on Friday to see all the students in grades 1-5 performing for each other and for the family members who could make it. There were demonstrations of drama, dances representing different styles and countries, instrumental performances by the violinists and guitarists, and selections by the vocalists. We are fortunate to have our Fillmore teachers and principal work with us to foster the love of the arts.

The upper grades’ science fair is coming this next week, on June 9. We still need parents to help judge the entries. If you can help, please email Ms. Prosser: mary[dot]prosser[at]dc[dot]gov. May I give you a friendly reminder? Science projects are due this Monday, June 6! The lower grades will have their science day on June 10. Watch for details from the teachers.

Parents of 5th graders, the Promotion Ceremony is June 16 at 9:30 a.m. in the gym. There will be some student performances, short speeches, and the presentation of the promotion certificates to the students. Light refreshments will be served in the back of the gym. After the ceremony, you may certainly check out your child to be with family. School will be in session and your child can remain with us, if you wish. Promoted fifth-graders are also welcome on Friday, June 17 and for the half-day of June 20 — school will be in session and they may come. Several parents have asked if they can come back on Friday and Monday — of course they are welcome. You may also have heard that on June 10, from 2:15 to 3:15 p.m., the 5th graders will have a promotion/graduation party in the gym. They will return early from Fillmore, enjoy their time together, and leave school at the regular dismissal time. DPR will also host an all-ages, end-of-year dance party from 4:00 p.m. until 5:30 p.m. on that same day.

Here I go again: Please REGISTER for next year (if you have not) or tell us if you are leaving. We need to plan the use of spaces and make staffing decisions for another successful year for the Stoddert Wolves. THANKS!

You know where to find me or reach me: marjorie[dot]cuthbert[at]dc[dot]gov

It has been another busy and exciting week for the Stoddert Wolves. Thanks to the support from you through the PTA, the whole school was treated to a performance by the Lesoles Dance Troupe. These very talented dancers, some of whom are natives of South Africa, performed three different dances. The performers chose students from the audience and taught them short dances that they performed to the delight of the other students. The troupe also taught the students a few words in the languages of South Africa. Please ask your child for more details. The students were wonderfully behaved and enjoyed this performance. Thanks again, parents and PTA!

Please come by and re-register your child for next year, if you are returning to Stoddert. It is so important that you register now so that we can anticipate staffing for next year. We are very fortunate that we did not have to excess any of our wonderful staff so far, but the entire budget for next school year is based on students who are actually registered, not those indicated on an intent form. Yes, you do have to register every year. For returning parents, you should have received packets in the mail. If you have lost or misplaced the packet, all forms are online on the DCPS website. We also have copies of them in the main office. The only way we can really plan for next year is to know how many REGISTERED students we really know are coming. You are the key to our successful planning!

Each Friday morning in May before school, outgoing PTA President Mary McLaughlin will be outside the building to encourage everyone to register, to answer questions, or to chat and share ideas for next year. I will join her every other Friday (I serve on a DCPS committee alternate Fridays). Please say hi when you are dropping off your children and heading into the office to officially REGISTER! Currently, only 25% of those indicating intent to be at Stoddert next year have registered and shown proof of residency. (You do not have to turn in your medical and dental forms now. Although we’d like them as soon as possible, they can be turned in throughout the summer as you are able to get medical and dental appointments for your children.)

The following are friendly reminders about upcoming dates.

• We’ll have Career Days in late May: Pre-K through 2nd Grade on May 19; 3rd Grade through 5th Grade on May 20.
• The Science Fair for 3rd- 4th-, and 5th-graders will be June 9; times to be announced.
• Science Day for Grades 1 and 2 will be held on June 10.
• The 5th-Grade Promotion is June 16 at 9:30 a.m.—in our marvelous new gymnasium!
• [CHANGE] The last day of school is June 20. Students will be dismissed at 12:15 p.m., as the afternoon is used for teachers’ record-keeping.

I can always be reached at marjorie[dot]cuthbert[at]dc[dot]gov. Please enjoy this gorgeous weather with your families.

• Annual Art Show

(all Fillmore West art students): Friday, May 20, 5:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. in the Fillmore hallways and classrooms

• Spring Concert

(band, strings and chorus; 3rd grade and up):  Monday, May 23, at 7:00 pm in the Fillmore/Hardy Auditorium

When students return from Spring Break, they will be putting finishing touches on projects and polishing performances. We hope you will use some of your vacation to visit an art exhibit, see a performance, practice your instrument and have fun being creative.
Thanks,
Katherine Latterner
Director, Fillmore Arts Center

It has been a busy week for the Stoddert Wolves. We began our week with a kickoff for the Student Council’s drive for leukemia and lymphoma, “Pennies for Patients.” A representative of the foundation came and told our students about cells and how they need us to support research to find ways to stop the blood cancer cells. Your child should have brought home a little green box where we are attempting to collect money for the drive. Thanks for helping the students make this a success.

The Local School Advisory Team, LSAT, met this week to begin working with the school budget. Our official budgets are due May 18. It looks like we will be able to cover the positions that we now have. There are some new requirements, e.g., each school must have at least a part-time social worker, a particular number of custodians to cover square footage in the building, and certain numbers of teachers to be in compliance with special education requirements and English language learner ratios of teachers to students. The LSAT is working hard on advising me on their thinking. We are clarifying some issues with DCPS, exploring options through the petition process, and learning what our earned status of autonomy can do to make our staffing the best for our population. Please stay tuned for updates as they become available. The next LSAT meeting will be March 17, if you wish to give input to the members of the team, or me.

Speaking of March 17, the “State of the Schools: Ward 3” meeting will be held from 5:30 p.m. – 8:30 p.m. at Deal MS, 3815 Fort Drive, NW. It is for parents and community members and is a meeting co-sponsored by DCPS and Councilmember Cheh. Come join us if you wish to learn more about Ward 3 DCPS schools.

Please continue to help us find our new families and encourage them to register quickly. All lottery winners should have received their letters by now. We have had quite a few parents turn in their pre-K Intent to Enroll forms. All are due by April 1st or the reserved slots go to the next ones on the waiting list (many on this list). Unfortunately, we have some in-boundary families who are still waiting for a Pre-K seat, so please help those you know get their papers in to hold their seat, or we will offer them to the waiting parents.

Additionally, please let everyone know about the upcoming open houses. There will be one March 17 at 9:30 a.m., and another March 24 at 9:30 a.m. We have had terrific turnouts at all of our open houses and know that our lottery winners will want to see their new school.

I need your help to make sure that those who will not be coming back next year let us know. Quite a few families are leaving our 4th grades and have been accepted at various other schools for next year. We really need to know if they will accept their offers and not return to us. Getting our best estimates of who will return will help us establish staffing for next year. Please help spread the word that we need to know of our new Kindergarten students too. As you know, we had many families join us last year during the summer. As soon as we know the numbers in our grade levels, we can plan for teachers, proper teaching rooms, and supplies.

It is also time to update our Comprehensive School Plan. This is a document that we create at the beginning of the school year where we set some goals and go forward trying to reach them.  We set three ambitious goals that we are trying to meet. The chart below may help you see the three main goals and our progress toward them to this point. If you have further questions please contact me. I believe this information will be posted online by DCPS at some point. [Ed. Click the graphic to read a larger version.]

Remember, if you need me: Call for an appointment or share your thinking at marjorie[dot]cuthbert[at]dc[dot]gov.

Please enjoy your weekend and enjoy some quality family time.

WOW!! It was great to see so many families at Academic Night. Thanks to all the PTAers who arranged to have pizza and gym play for the children while parents attended many academic sessions. The teachers freely gave of their time to present ideas that they thought parents might want to know for themselves and to help their children. So, from me to teachers and parents — THANKS — you are the major contributors to the success of our Stoddert Wolves!

The garden area behind the amphitheater is fenced in and will become a reality very soon. Sponsors, parents, and teachers updated the faculty this week on all of the progress and asked that all begin planning their varied and different involvements. So many teachers, students, parents, and neighbors are interested in incorporating different aspects of the garden into instructional units, planting, maintenance, etc., and pure enjoyment. Create a garden and they will come!

This week, the faculty was asked for additional input into the design of the natural play areas that have been drawn for us by several of our professional landscape-architect parents. The basic plans include ways for students to interact with natural materials and enjoy imaginative play outdoors. Thanks PTA for supporting ideas from which students can benefit and enjoy.

As per usual, I want you to be thinking about upcoming dates so you can look forward to them.

• I am sure you are planning on attending the Family Fun Night on Saturday, February 26 from 5:00 – 7:00 p.m. for pizza, playing in the gym, and playing board games.
• If you have not already signed up for your parent teacher conferences on February 28, please do so. The teachers have different ways of making times available for you, so please ask if you do not already know how to get signed up.
• It seems impossible that the 28th will end February already. Having said this, please page over to your March calendar and put in the PTA meeting for March 3 at 6:30 p.m. I will want to talk with you about the newly proposed Scorecard that will be online—a snapshot to update you on many aspects of the school, including data, survey results, etc. DCPS is asking teachers and parents for input on what all groups think will help keep all stakeholders informed about our school.

No word has come to us yet on the proposed budget for next school year. I am sure you are all following the budget news, at all levels of government, and know that many cuts must come to all given that we are starting from a huge deficit. Your Local School Advisory Team (LSAT) will work closely with me and get news to you when we know. Stay tuned!

— Dr. Marjorie Curhbert

As it turns out, we had another short week thanks to Mother Nature’s “thundersnow” display. I was sorry to hear that many of you were without power for quite a long stretch. I am hoping that when the school’s power resumed on Thursday afternoon, yours did too! If you see our custodians, please tell them thanks for all the very hard work they did to help us prepare for school.

As you know, we were scheduled to give the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) on Thursday, our snow day, to our fourth-grade students. Ms. Zachary, our testing coordinator, was told that it would be rescheduled sometime within the next two weeks. We will let you know when we know.

I also would like to update everyone on news that parents of our Kindergarten students already know. We recently learned that DCPS was able to fulfill our request for an additional teacher for our Kindergarten students to alleviate the swell of students we experienced this year. Ms. Lindsey Devore has joined our staff. Kindergarten parents will receive their placement letters very soon and the new classroom will begin. The new classroom is being created in the large room originally designed as a music room.

Please remember to look for report cards on February 4, 2011. On this same evening, there will be a performance of dance, musical theater, and theater at Fillmore starting at 7:00 p.m. The performers will be the Stoddert and Hearst students. Also, here comes another friendly reminder to mark your calendars for February 8th for the Stoddert Academic Night. If you have not heard, teachers will present on reading, writing, and math ideas.

Please remember that if you need to reach me, you are always welcome to call the school. If I am out and about, please leave a message, make an appointment, or let me know your thinking via email; I believe that you have it but here it is again for anyone who needs it, marjorie [dot] cuthbert [at] dc [dot] gov.

As always, thanks for your involvement and support of all of us at Stoddert ES!

It was a short week, but a terrific week. Once again, I saw quality instruction happening and students engaged in all kinds of learning activities. Many of our teachers were being observed by the Master Educators (MEs), a group of teachers who observe twice a year and rate our teachers as part of their evaluation system called IMPACT. All of the MEs would see quality interactions between the teachers and the students, differentiated activities to meet skill levels, and students engaged in learning. The teachers never know when they might be observed, but it is not a worry at Stoddert, as quality instruction is ongoing. Go Stoddert teachers!

I wanted to give you a quick update on the budgeting process for the next year. As I mentioned in an earlier Blast, your Local School Advisory Team (LSAT), a group of elected parents and teachers/staff who advise me on many issues including budgeting, will begin working on the proposed budget for FY 12. The LSAT met on 01/04/11 to look at projected enrollments and to become familiar with the expectations of its role for preparing for the next school year. We have not met again as I have not received the allocations for Stoddert for next year; DCPS is waiting to see what the amounts given to education from the city will be. We are anxious to get started with planning, but have to wait for our allocations. Stay tuned.

As you know, Stoddert is a green school and we are using the actual building as a teaching tool. This week, students in grades 3-5, and later the teachers at their faculty meeting, learned a lot about the fine acoustics that we have in our building. Two acoustical engineers who worked on our building, Christopher Pollock and Geoffrey Sparks, presented information about why our building is so quiet with demonstrations on reverberations, decibel levels, and materials to absorb sound. It was very informative and teachers take this information and incorporate it into their science units. Over the year we are having a series of presenters who help us learn about our green building.

I always like to mention a few dates that are coming up. On January 25th, our top spellers will compete in the school Spelling Bee to see who will represent Stoddert at the next level of competition. We are fortunate to have many talented spellers. On January 27th our fourth graders will take the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) test. The NAEP is the largest nationally representative and continuing assessment of what America’s students know and can do. Please read more about it if you wish at http://nces.ed.gov/nationsreportcard/about/. Please mark your calendars for February 4th for report cards coming home and February 8th for our Stoddert Academic Night, where teachers will present on reading, writing, and math ideas that will inform you about what our students are learning and how you can help them. We will have many concurrent sessions from which you can choose.

Please check out the completely adorable welcome mat at our front doors. THANKS parents, your PTA purchased this for us. It is so………cute, and needed!

— Marjorie Cuthbert

The group has been invited to sing for the 9th Annual DAR Christmas Open House on Wednesday, December 8 from 5:30 to 7:30. Students need to be at Fillmore by 4:15. A bus will take them to the DAR and back to Fillmore. Students will sing twice and will be provided a light dinner.  Parents are welcome to this event which is open to the public.

The Fillmore Winter Concert is Monday, December 13 at 7 pm in the Hardy/Fillmore auditorium and will feature the chorus, and string and band students in grades 3-5. Students are to arrive by 6 for warm-up.

Dress for both occasions is dark (blue or black) slacks or skirts and white tops.

Questions?
Chorus: anita[dot]carson[at]dc.gov
Band: michael[dot]bowie[at]dc.gov
Strings: denna[dot]purdie[at]dc.gov