SHMS Family Newsletter

Greetings Stuart-Hobson community,

Congratulations to all of this weekend's runners for competing in the different races of the 41st annual Capitol Hill Classic! Whether you ran the 10K, 3K, Kids' Fun Run, or any combination of the three you helped to support the Cluster PTA and our school community. Thank you runners, organizers, and volunteers!

We are happy to know that 60% of our current students have already re-enrolled for next school year. If you have not re-enrolled, please do so as soon as possible so we can achieve our goal of being 95% enrolled by June 1st! Also, if you were enrolled by May 6th, be on the lookout this week as we will be reaching out to our enrollment raffle winners to share gift cards, yard signs, and early enrollment in after-care for next school year. More raffles will occur throughout the Spring and early summer.

Lastly, and most importantly, I am deeply saddened, scared, and frustrated by this weekend's racist violence in Buffalo and mass violence in Milwaukee. We will work to build in time for students to talk about these incidents and related issues in upcoming advisory lessons. Also, I want to remind everyone that we have an incredible mental health support team available should any staff, students, or family members need individualized support while coping with senseless violence and tragedy.

In moments like this I am heartened to be part of this school community and know that we will navigate this moment as we have other challenges in the past, together with empathy, courage, and love.

Warm regards,

Eric Fraser

Principal

This Week:

'The 3-week DCPS meals menu can always be found here.

Monday

• A great instructional day!

Tuesday

• A great instructional day!

Wednesday

• A great instructional day!
• SHMS Mission & Vision Building Family Focus Groups, 6:00-7:30
  

Thursday

• A great instructional day!

Friday

• A great instructional day!
• Students vs. Staff Basketball Game (Pep Assembly Schedule)
  

Upcoming Dates

• May 9-27, PARCC Make-Up Testing

• May 23, Sky Zone field trip for reading classes!

• May 23rd, PTA May General Meeting on Zoom (8:00pm)
  

• May 27, Pep Assembly
  

• May 30, Memorial Day observed, no school
  
• June 2, Peabody-Watkins vs. SHMS Staff Basketball Game
• June 16, SHMS Summer Send-Off Social, 5:30-7:30 PM (tentative)
• June 17, Pep Assembly
  
• June 20, Juneteenth observed, no school
  
• June 22, 8th Grade Promotion, 10:00 AM
  
• June 24, Last day of school for students

Students that are 12 years of age and older must be fully vaccinated or submit medical or religious exemption forms to be eligible to participate. If exemption is approved, a weekly negative COVID test must be submitted to remain eligible.

Outdoor Track & Field

Monday: (Practice) 4:00pm - 5:30pm

Wednesday: (Practice) 4:00pm - 5:30pm

Thursday: (Practice) 4:00PM - 5:30PM

Boys Head Coach- Taurus McGhee - taurus.mcghee@dc.gov

Girls Head Coach- Mark Smith- mark.smith3@k12.dc.gov

Baseball

Tuesday: (Game) Stuart-Hobson vs. Jefferson MS @ Taft Field (1800 Perry St. NE) 4:00pm

Head Coach: Scott Campbell - Scott.Campbell@k12.dc.gov

Lacrosse

Wednesday: (Practice) 3:30pm - 5:00pm

Head Coach - Richard Strong - Richard.Strong@k12.dc.gov

Cluster Basketball Skill Developmental Sessions( Grades 4-7)

Friday: 3:30pm - 5:30pm (Girls)

Saturday: 10:00am - 11:30am (Boys) 11:30am - 1:00pm (Girls)

*Students interested must sign up with Mr. Henderson (email: Troy.Henderson@k12.dc.gov)

***March 25, 2022 UPDATE***

After further consultation with the OSSE, we have determined that we have met the full threshold of required instructional days and can end the school year for our students on that Friday, June 24 barring any unplanned school closures. The last day of school for staff will be the Monday, June 27 Records/PD Day. Updated calendars are available at this link.

Thank you to everyone who volunteered and/or raced in this weekend's Capitol Hill Classic! Also, a big shout-out to SHMS parent and race director, Jason Levine! This even is a major community event and fundraiser for the Cluster PTA. We hope everyone had a great race!

Shout out to Ms. Rosera and the SHMS students who participated in this weekend's Math Competition! SHMS teams took 3rd and 7th pace and had a student who competed in the finals as an individual!

Use this form to shout out a staff member or team. Shout-outs will find their way into staff meetings, newsletters, and mailboxes. Thank you!

You can find the latest edition of our student paper, The Panther Gazette, online for easy access anytime and on-the-go!

Our Local School Advisory Team (LSAT) is recruiting Parent Representatives for each of our school campuses (Peabody, Watkins, Stuart-Hobson). The LSAT is a group of elected parents, teachers, and staff charged with advising the principal on matters that promote high expectations and high achievement for all students. Please CLICK HERE to submit a nomination. All nominations should be submitted by Sunday, May 15, 2022.

The Cluster Local School Advisory Team (LSAT) is recruiting parent representatives for the 21-22 school year. The LSAT is a team of parents, teachers, and community members that assists with setting school priorities and advises the principal on a variety of school matters such as budget, culture, and family engagement.

Three seats for LSAT positions are open for nomination:
1) Parent rep from Peabody (2-year term)
2) Parent rep from Watkins (2-year term)
3) Parent rep from Stuart Hobson (2-year term)

Please consider this opportunity to serve our school community and let your voice be heard. Nominations will be accepted from May 6th - to May 15th. Voting will take place beginning May 17th through May 26th. We will introduce the newly elected parent representatives during our next LSAT meeting scheduled for June 7th.

The Cluster PTA Board is made up of approximately 30 people who aim to make Peabody, Watkins, and Stuart-Hobson stronger through building community, fundraising, communication and advocacy. We are looking for parents and caregivers to join our diverse and dynamic team for SY 2022-2023! Please see our two attachments for more information, including full descriptions of the open positions next year.

The deadline for PTA Board nominations is Friday, May 27, 2022. This year’s PTA elections will be held electronically the first week of June.

See the flyer above and detailed position descriptions attached at the end of the newsletter. We hope you will consider joining the PTA or nominating another parent for one of these positions!

Thank you for helping us move to almost 50% of our enrollment goal in the opening month of enrollment season! We aspire to enroll 70% of families for next school year by the end of next week! See below for ways that you can help us hit that target!

The Stuart-Hobson Middle School team looks forward to welcoming your rising 6th, 7th and/or 8th grade student into our diverse and dynamic Capitol Hill Cluster School community. You can also learn more about our school by viewing our school's recorded Open House webinar.

Enrolling can be quick and easy for families, and we encourage you to enroll as soon as possible. For your convenience, visit this website to complete your enrollment online: dcpsenrollment. Families are also invited to complete enrollment by visiting our SHMS main office between 8:00 am-4:30 pm Monday through Friday. See above for extended Friday night hours.

Our signature enrollment events will be our Special Saturdays. We are excited to invite interested Watkins, JO Wilson Ludlow-Taylor and in-boundary students with a completed DCIAA medical waiver to join us for our Cluster Basketball Clinics on Saturdays. Bring your children for engaging athletic practice and skill building while family members are invited to complete enrollment in our school main office. See the graphic below for details. Contact Athletic Director Mr. Strong or Basketball Coach Troy Henderson for more information

We welcome all parents to make the school choice that best suits their child and family needs. If your student will not be joining our SHMS community, please contact the main office informing our team of your student's new school. We will provide you with appropriate documentation to be removed from our school roster and mailing list.

We look forward to supporting our families through this enrollment season and welcome you to contact AP Turner with questions.

**The information below is new or an updated version of something announced previously! **

You can find previously released newsletters and information here.

The most current version of the Student & Family Handbook is linked on our website.

SHMS Summer Opportunities for Math Acceleration

We are excited to share some emerging plans for summer learning and support at SHMS. Please see below for some in-person offerings that we have planned for rising 6th, 7th, and 8th graders in Math. Please note that these are not mandatory and are aimed at supporting students in getting a jump start with content that they will encounter during SY 2022-23.

Session 1 (w/Mr. Broome): 2 weeks, 7/11-7/22

• Math 7 Readiness (9am-11am)
• For rising 7th graders and rising 6th graders interested in taking Math 7
• Math 6 Readiness (12pm-2pm)
• For rising 6th graders

Session 2 (w/Ms. Rosera): 2 weeks, 7/25-8/5

• Math 8 Readiness (9am-11am)
• For rising 8th graders and rising 7th graders interested in taking Math 8
• Equations Boot Camp (12pm-2pm)
• For Algebra 1 students

Please note that students must be enrolled for SY 2022-23 to participate in these opportunities. Please complete this interest survey so our team can begin planning for these sessions. Lastly, should we have any capacity challenges we will use date of enrollment / re-enrollment to prioritize students for participation.

If you have any questions about SHMS Summer Math, please reach out to Ms. Rosera at Bethany.Rosera@k12.dc.gov .

​DCPS Summer Pre-Algebra Opportunities

If you're interested in a more intensive experience, here is a summer math option for students provided at the district level who are interested in pre-algebra topics. Successful students will be more prepared to tackle grade level math content and continue towards an accelerated path to build a strong foundation that will better prepare them for Algebra I by the end of their 8th grade year.

The course will run from July 5th to August 5th at Jefferson Academy. If parents or anyone would like to sign students up for the course, the link is here. Space is limited for this opportunity, so please sign up ASAP if you are interested.

This summer, DCPS CTE is offering a new and exciting summer enrichment program for middle school students. Students will have a chance to explore four types of tech including Apple coding, Raspberry Pi, Robotics, and graphic arts at three different middle schools across the district. We look forward to hosting your young scholars this summer and are excited to give them this opportunity! Please see the flyer below for more information as well as course descriptions.

There are only a limited number of slots available, so encourage your students to sign up soon using this link, https://bit.ly/3KTp7iY. or they can visit https://dcps.dc.gov/summer.

As we are all aware, middle school is a period of incredible development. Students are busy exploring and making sense of the world and much of that learning is influenced by the diverse communities they belong to in and outside of school. We also aspire to maintain a safe school environment that is free from any discriminatory, biased, or hateful language or interactions with and among students. Thus, it is important for us to teach students about acceptable and appropriate language, especially as they begin to explore and make sense of new aspects of their own and classmates' identities.

We have been incorporating opportunities for students to learn about appropriate language into our daily advisory lessons. We expect that these lessons will help students learn about ways that their communication and exploration of new subjects can be done safely. We encourage all adults in our school community to support students in learning and using language that is free from any harmful -isms, e.g. racism, sexism, ableism, genderism, etc. Attached to this newsletter you should find two brochures that outline DCPS' approaches and policies for supporting our LGBTQ+ community. We will continue this work throughout our time with students and thank everyone for supporting us outside of the school day too!

As a reminder, Mr. Thrift facilitates our Panther PRIDE group and is our school point of contact for LGBTQ+ programming and questions. You can reach him at john.thrift2@k12.dc.gov

We will be reviewing our school's mission and vision statements this Spring and summer and are planning opportunities for all members of our school community to participate in that work. Students will do this work during the school day and staff will have opportunities during our professional learning time.

Because of the generous donation of an anonymous member of our school community, we will be able to engage with parents and families with a specific focus on how race and equity show up and influence our work with students. Using the affinity group format, we will have three facilitated discussions where we will discuss how our mission and vision building, with race and equity in mind, can improve all students' sense of belonging and well-being at SHMS. We are so excited to begin this work and hope you will save these dates so you can join us:

March 30, 6:00-7:30

April 27, 6:00-7:30

May 18, 6:00-7:30

We are so excited to begin this work and are grateful to the PTA, our anonymous donor, and the Race & Equity Committee for supporting us here. We will share more details in upcoming newsletters.

Starting Monday, February 7, 2022, DC youth 18 years and younger or parents or guardians on their behalf, are eligible to receive multiple-day meal kits from one of 10 DCPS open meal site locations every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 10:00 am - 2:00 pm.

Launching the New Assessment Guide for Families!

The DCPS Assessment Guide for Families is a resource to assist families with understanding their student’s assessment results. This guide provides an overview of the uses of diagnostic and curriculum-based assessments.

Aspen Family Portal accounts have been available since the week of August 23rd. Returning families should be able to access their account using their username and password from last school year. New families will receive an email from Aspen Family Portal when their family portal account is available to use (check your junk and spam folders for the invitation).

The Portal allows you to keep up with progress in school - including grades, assignments, attendance, and more. The goal of DCPS' new digital portal is to create an open line of communication between home and school.

To Access the Portal:
1. Visit https://aspen.dcps.dc.gov
2. Make sure pop-up blocking is disabled for your browser
3. Your user name will be provided via email
4. Your temporary password will be provided via email
NOTE: Both user name and password are case sensitive
5. Click Log On to access the system. You will be prompted to fill out some information to change your password so that in the future you can click "I forgot my password" to receive a new password.

How to Navigate the Portal:
This flyer gives you the Parent Portal basics:

• What you need to know about the Parent Portal
• Lo que necesita saber sobre el Portal de Padres

Also, we recommend that families download the Grade Corner app to their smartphones or other devices. This app was created by an SHMS parent, requires an Aspen login, and allows you to see all of your student's grades in one place. In addition to seeing report cards, it is a quick and easy tool for keeping tabs on your student's progress.

Social distancing doesn't mean fashion gets thrown to the wind. Show your Panther pride during your next class, meeting, or virtual friend meet-up. Check out the clothing and gear that are available at our new school store!

Families, staff, and students will be able to buy custom Stuart-Hobson Panther gear. You can find the latest name brands on your custom SHMS gear.

If you have any questions, please contact Mr. Howard, devin.howard2@k12.dc.gov

Attendance Corner:

Welcome to the Attendance Information Corner for Stuart-Hobson Middle School. My name is Ms. Hargrove and I will be providing attendance updates to families in this corner. Parents, it is crucial that you get your child to school on-time and attending all classes. Please take a moment and read the 80/20 rule below. If you have any questions or concerns, please reach out to me and I will be able to discuss it with you.

80/20 Attendance Rule:

This rule states that a student must not miss more than 20% of their day to be marked present. If a student misses 2 classes in a day, that student has missed 20% of the day and will be marked absent without a valid excuse. Please do your best to have your student present and on-time for school. If your student has a valid excuse for being late, please provide documentation to Ms. Hargrove by email:Clara.Hargrove@k12.DC.Gov, by text: 202-494-9747 or by calling the main office at 202-671-6010. If you need additional information on DCPS Attendance Policies, please go to the see the attached website: https://dcps.dc.gov/sites/default/files/dc/sites/dcps/publication/attachments/Attendance-and-Truancy-Policy-SY%202021-22.pdf.

Attendance Celebration:

At Stuart-Hobson Middle School, we like to celebrate our students’ achievements for attendance. We will host a monthly attendance celebration for perfect and improved attendance by our students. Perfect attendance is described as no tardies or absences from classes for the month. I want to thank the students that had perfect attendance and participated in the Jeans & Jersey Day on November 1, 2021. Our next attendance incentive will be our Annual Perfect Attendance Pancake Celebration on Tuesday, November 23, 2021. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.

While some students regularly receive scheduled counseling and support from the many members of our mental health team, we want to remind everyone that all students are eligible to check-in with a social worker or counselor on an as needed basis too. If at any point in the school year you think that your student would benefit from the opportunity to meet or speak with a member of our team, please reach out to them directly or connect with a grade level administrator. We often help students navigate hardships like loss, grief, and change individually and in groups. Please reach out to a member of the team at any time if you would like to learn more!

Molly Smith, Social Worker, molly.smith@k12.dc.gov

Jessica Thompkins, Social Worker, jessica.thompkins@k12.dc.gov

Kimberly Harrington, DBH Social Worker, kimberly.harrington@dc.gov

Montrice Williams, CIS Social Worker, mwilliams@cisnationscapital.org

Jessica Schimmerling, Guidance Counselor, jessica.schimmerling@k12.dc.gov

Tomicula Willams, Guidance Counselor, tomicula.williams@k12.dc.gov

Kristin Dezen, kristin.dezen@k12.dc.gov

Craft and Chat started in Spring 2020 during distance learning and continued strong last school year. We are ready to start in-person and are excited for any and all students to join us! No art or craft experience necessary! Students are welcome to bring their own project but we will have art supplies available. This is an opportunity to slow down after the school day, be creative, and have community with others at Stuart-Hobson MS.

Craft and Chat will meet on Tuesdays from 3:45-4:30pm in classroom #G03 (Ms. Kensey’s room) starting Tuesday, 9/21/2021.

Any questions? Contact DBH Social Worker Kimberly Harrington (kimberly.harrington@dc.gov). See flyer above for more information.

Students can drop in as they can and we look forward to growing a joyful and creative community of students as the school year continues.

Email: eric.fraser@k12.dc.gov
Website: www.stuart-hobson.org
Location: 410 E Street Northeast, Washington, DC, USA
Phone: 202-671-6010
Twitter: @StuartHobsonMS