Bears Bulletin

April 2021

A Message from Principal Jackson

Hello Miner Families,

As we reach the mid-point of April and the end of Term 3 I hope that everyone can recharge and reset. Today at 3:30pm, we started the Spring Break for students. Whether our students are learning in-person or at home they have been doing an amazing job during the pandemic and they (and you) deserve some time to rest and relax. My hope is that everyone can find time to disconnect from technology and enjoy some nice spring weather.

Our teachers and staff have been working so hard and they are also unplugging to refocus for the final push - term 4.

This week Term 4 ended. Teachers are working on preparing grades and report cards for students. The school will be sending them home to families the week of April 26th.

With term 4 comes some changes to our in-person learning. I want to thank all of the members of the recovery community corp who engaged in the discussions and planning. Ultimately, we had a wide range of ideas and hopes. For Term 4, Miner will be expanding the seats in our current in-person learning classrooms to meet the new DC Department of Health Guidelines of 3 feet of social distance between students instead of 6.

As a result, we will be offering new seats out to families beginning next week. We ask that families keep an eye out for calls, emails, and remind messages so that we can work to fill those seats as quickly as possible.

We have made equity a major focus of our plan in Term 3 and will continue to place that at the forefront of our efforts. We will continue on the list that was used in Term 3 and pick up where we left off. As students accept and decline seats we will move through the list. In some grades we have offered large percentages of families seats and in others we have not.

While the decision making on term 4 was not easy and will certainly not make everyone happy, we did try to focus on a few things:

1) Equity in supporting those students with the greatest need first.

2) Health and safety of all of the individuals in the building including students and staff

3) the demand levels from families and

4) The quality of instruction for those students who will not be returning to the building and will be remaining virtual.

We will continue to work to support all of our students to the best of our ability through term 4 as we work towards the planned full-reopening of schools in the fall that the Chancellor communicated this week.

We appreciated all of the patience and support that families have demonstrated and, while we understand there will be mixed emotions about the decisions I wanted to share the thought process behind them.

Lastly, as many of you know, I will be getting married next week so I will be out of the office from April 14th through April 26th. If you need any assistance during that time, please reach out to Assistant Principal Lee (Antwan.lee@k12.dc.gov) in my absence.

Have a great weekend and an awesome spring break!

Respectfully,

Principal Jackson

Assistant Principal Appreciation Week

Today concludes Assistant Principal Appreciation Week! Please join us in celebrating AP Lee and all that he does for the Miner ES students, staff, and families. Without his leadership and dedication this year we would not be where we are.

Thank you, AP Lee!

Spring Break

There will be no school next week (April 12th - April 16th) for Spring Break. School will resume at 9am on April 19th, 2021. Have a safe and enjoyable break.