KidsGardening Earth Day contest winner: Sadie Alter, 4th grade
May 30: Holiday, SCHOOL CLOSED
School Calendar - Last Week of School Year 2021-22
Join us for the Celebrations of Learning (Expos) in June!
SY22 Summer Program Updates
Health & SafetyNEW! Asymptomatic Testing Program Canceled for this Week
Covid-19 ‘Test To Stay’ Program Available for Unvaccinated Individuals
New Weekly Covid-19 Screening Program: Concentric
Pfizer Booster Covid-19 Vaccine is Now Available for Kids Ages 5-11
Weekly Covid Dashboard
Weekly Class Status
Events & ActivitiesEngagement Conversation Session #3 - May 31
NEW! Exciting Growth at Calle Ocho Campus - Design Wishes and Wonders Session - June 2
NEW! Field Day Campus Wide - Save the Date!
Materials: Coffee with Principal Jenn, Calle Ocho Campus - May 27
Communications, Information & QuestionsNEW! Volunteer Opportunities for Recess - Calle Ocho Campus
Extended Day ProgramExtended Day Program May Payments
Extended Day Program Activities
Student & Family SupportsStudent Support Team (SST)
Community AnnouncementsNEW! ¡Celebración! - Save the Date! June 18
Garden Market - J.F. Cook Campus
UPDATE! PADRES 2022-2023: Officer Election Results
School Calendar and Upcoming EventsMajor Dates of SY22-23
SY21-22 School Calendar
ACADEMICS
Monday, May 30: Holiday, SCHOOL CLOSED
Hard to believe June is around the corner! We want to remind families that the schedule for the last week of school is different from other weeks.
Monday, June 20 - Federal Holiday (Juneteenth) school is closed.
Tuesday, June 21 - Regular school day, last day students are in school.
Wednesday, June 22 - Parent Teacher Conferences all day. Teachers will conduct end of year conferences with parents and caregivers to close the school year. Students do not come to school.
Students will show families and teachers what they are learning and doing in school. The Expo may include artwork, research results from experiments, written work, tests, and other projects.
J.F. Cook Campus
Kinder: Thursday, June 9
1st grade: Wednesday, June 8
2nd grade: Wednesday, June 8
3rd grade: Thursday, June 16
4th grade: Wednesday, June 15
5th grade: Friday, June 17
Calle Ocho Campus
Kinder: Friday, June 10
1st grade: Friday, June 3 & Friday, June 10
2nd grade: Wednesday, June 8
You will receive more information from your child's teacher.
Deadline to Submit Registration Fees, May 31
Families who have completed the Summer Program Interest Form and have received an invitation to participate in the program, must pay the registration fees by May 31.
Waitlist
If you received a waitlist letter because you have an outstanding balance for the Extended Day Program, we encourage you to either payoff balances or enter into a payment arrangement in order to be eligible for the summer program.
Students Eligible for Extended School Year Services (ESY)
Students eligible for Extended School Year Services (ESY) may attend the program free of charge.
Questions?
Email your questions or concerns to summer@mundoverdepcs.org.
HEALTH & SAFETY
Due to the holiday, there will not be doing asymptomatic testing with Mobile COVID LLC this week. There will be randomly testing 20% of the student population using Shield T3 or rapid antigen test as required in addition to any Test-To-Stay participants. PreK and Kinder families, please continue to submit your weekly rapid tests results provided by the city.
Calle Ocho Campus: https://mundoverde.tfaforms.net/316
J.F. Cook Campus: https://mundoverde.tfaforms.net/317
Testing with Mobile COVID LLC will be resumed Monday next week.
‘Test To Stay’ testing for individuals who have been notified that they are a close contact happens within 24 hours of the notification and is then repeated 5-7 days later. Only unvaccinated individuals participate in the ‘Test To Stay’ program. Please see the Health and Safety Policies here for full details.
The school does not administer repeated testing every day after a close contact notification. Individuals receiving a close-contact notification are welcome to test additionally on their own. DC residents can pick up free rapid or mail home PCR tests at participating DC libraries.
Enhancing our capacity to identify cases and outbreaks early, we have added another Covid-19 screening program to our weekly Covid-19 testing. This new program, Concentric, will be provided at no cost and is a program that uses pooled analysis of nasal testing showing if anyone in the testing sample is infected with Covid-19, but it does not show specifically who is infected. If a pooled sample is positive, the swabs from each individual included in that pool will then be tested individually. This is in addition to our Shield T3 saliva-based test and weekly asymptomatic Mobile Covid-19 testing.
To participate in this testing, guardians must provide new consent for their children regardless of prior consent to our other Covid-19 testing platforms (Shield T3, and Mobile COVID testing). This consent form records the consent process and the test participant's agreement to participate in the testing process. The process can take up to four minutes to complete.
Positive individuals will be contacted by medical staff from Concentric as well as a member of our Covid-19 team. Results are typically available for review within 48 hours of testing and can be obtained directly by families via the student's consent portal.
The Pfizer booster Covid-19 vaccine is now available for kids ages 5-11. We strongly encourage families to speak to their healthcare provider or check out a free DC COVID center at coronvirus.dc.gov.
For up-to-date information and statistics on how we are containing the spread of Covid-19, visit the Health & Safety section on the website.
EVENTS & ACTIVITIES
Tuesday, May 31, 7:00-8:30pm
We are deeply grateful to all parents and caregivers that over the past couple of months have joined session 1, session 2 (or both!) of our series of four Engagement Conversations sessions. Your insight and input has been invaluable in helping us think about structures and practices that can best facilitate caregiver and school leadership partnership with each other within and across campuses.
We are eager to engage in our third session this Tuesday May 31, to continue discussing how the school can support parents and caregivers in building welcoming, diverse and inclusive spaces. Our commitment is equitable engagement, and we are grateful to be doing this work with you.
The agenda will consist of an overview of the vision for equitable engagement for summer and into SY23, with specific topics for discussion:
Welcoming New Families. Discuss ideas on how to create an environment of belonging to help newly enrolled families come on board to Mundo Verde throughout the summer and fall.
Increasing engagement throughout the school year. Discuss ideas on how to reach as many families as possible, creating opportunities for all to engage either from home or at school.
Staying connected. Discussing access to information for all and possible ways in which the school can support the distribution of information as well as streamline channels of communications among caregiver and parent organized efforts.
Fundraising. Discuss Mundo Verde’s overall approach to fundraising as well sharing ideas on how to best allocate funds towards creating welcoming, diverse and inclusive spaces.
All parents and caregivers across both campuses are invited to participate regardless of having participated in previous sessions.If you still haven’t registered to participate in session 3 this Tuesday, May 31 please do so in this link. A date for session 4 will be announced soon, we plan to host it before the end of the school year.
June 2, 7:00-8:30pm
Our students are getting older and our campus needs to grow with them! Based on extensive planning, we will add more space to our Calle Ocho Campus, and input from parents and caregivers is important as we begin to design our future spaces. Please join our Calle Ocho Campus Growth Project Team on Thursday, June 2 from 7:00-8:30pm. RSVP here by May 31.
A brief update on where we are in the project will be provided, and parents/caregivers will engage in a conversation and have an opportunity to discuss likes, wishes and wonders as we start the building design process. This will be an interactive session, and connecting via a computer is recommended if possible.
Project updates will be provided periodically and information will also be posted on the web on the Calle Ocho Campus Growth.
As we approach the end of SY21-2022, it's time to CELEBRATE! Students have persevered through a challenging school year. Let's have some fun, in community!
J.F. Cook Campus: June, 14
Calle Ocho Campus: June, 16
Students should come prepared with:
Water bottle: Although there will be water stations, having a water bottle will ensure that students will be well-hydrated.
Sunscreen: Please make sure to apply sunscreen to your children before arriving at school. Due to health regulations, the school is unable to provide sunscreen to children or allow students to share sunscreen.
May 27
Thank you to those families who were able to join us on Friday. Please find the link to the presentation from the Coffee with the Calle Ocho Principal on Friday, May 27 below:
COMMUNICATIONS, INFORMATION & QUESTIONS
Calle Ocho Campus
Parents and caregivers are invited to show appreciation to our teaching staff by supporting recess. This opportunity is open for:
Wednesday, June 1
Thursday, June 2
Friday, June 3
Be on the lookout for more information and a sign-up from your Classroom Liaisons.
EXTENDED DAY PROGRAM
We remind families enrolled in the Extended Day Program that payments are due on the 10th of each month. Payments are made via your Infinite Campus Parent Portal. For more detailed instructions please click here in English and Spanish. Please do not forget to make your May payment if you have not done so!
Students in the After School program are working on the guiding question: How can plastic bottles be recycled?
Students are transforming and repurposing plastic bottles and paper rolls. Some of you may have received an embellished flower vase made from a repurposed plastic bottle! If you get a chance, we recommend you to read the book “The Adventures of a Plastic Bottle,” a story about recycling by Alison Inches.
STUDENT & FAMILY SUPPORT
The work of the Student Support Team (SST) is one manifestation of Mundo Verde’s mission, values, and operational commitment to diversity. The Student Support Team of more than 50 professionals provides an array of services for students and their families to support positive academic, physical, social/emotional, and behavioral outcomes for students.
Please visit the Student Services Page on the school website to read more about the services provided for students who may be experiencing social, behavioral, and/or mental health challenges; may require either physical or academic accommodations; may require on-campus support during classes, at recess, and/or during lunch; may be homeless; and many other challenging circumstances.
If you feel that you or your child may need these kinds of services, or you have questions, please contact Norma Villanueva, Director of Student Services, at nvillanueva@mundoverdepcs.org.
COMMUNITY ANNOUNCEMENTS
June 18, 10:30-12:30 at Garfield Park
(1-299 South Carolina Ave SE, metro & bus accessible)
PADRES and Comunidad, the parent and caregiver associations from both Mundo Verde campuses, invite all students, teachers, staff and their families to a celebration of the end of the school year!
PADRES (J.F. Cook) and Comunidad (Calle Ocho), have partnered with Corazón Latino, a nonprofit organization founded by current Mundo Verde parent, Felipe Benítez, to host this event full of fun activities, music, treats and community building across campuses.
PADRES and Comunidad were both formed in part to foster a sense of belonging and shared experiences among families in our school communities. Corazón Latino regularly hosts events meant to generate social, environmental and conservation initiatives - we are thrilled about this natural partnership! https://www.corazonlatino.us/
Please mark your calendar to join the cross-campus celebration! And let us know if you plan to attend HERE so we can ensure adequate water and treats.
The school is excited to provide support to make Celebración successful, though this is not a school-sponsored event. If you have any questions please contact J.F. Cook parent/caregiver Christina Scarlato at christinascarlato@gmail.com, and Calle Ocho parent/caregiver Laura Malaguerra lauramalaguerra@gmail.com.
J.F. Cook Campus
Our Garden Market at J.F. Cook Campus opens on Tuesdays from 3:30-4:30pm! Join us to purchase healthy food from local growers and producers. Run by Ms. Carissa, Sustainability Manager and fifth grade Garden Market interns. Please come by to support them and our school – and get some great, nutritious food!
Thank you to all who participated in last week's PADRES election. The newly elected executive committee members are:
Kathrin Frauscher (President)
Jacqueline Walters (Vice President)
Natalya Scimeca (Treasurer)
Concetta Aires (Community Lead)
Ori Fox (Secretary)
PADRES is the Caregiver Association dedicated to building community and representing parents’ input regarding the school. All Muno Verde J.F. Cook parents and caregivers are welcome to contribute their ideas and energy. To learn more visit https://www.mundoverdepadres.com or email mvpadrescomms@gmail.com.
We look forward to representing you and working with you over the coming year!! We will be in touch within two weeks to schedule a call with the school community and invite you all to join working groups/ongoing efforts.
Major dates for our school year 2022-23 calendar are finalized.
Upcoming Events:
May 30 - Holiday, School Closed
May 31 - Engagement Conversation Session #3
Jun 2 - Calle Ocho Campus Growth Design Wishes and Wonders Session
Jun 11 - 5th Grade Promotion Ceremony
Jun 16 - Board Meeting
Jun 18 - ¡Celebración!
Jun 20 - Holiday, School Closed
Jun 22 - Parent Teacher Conferences (Last Day of School)
Jul 11 - First Day Summer Program
Aug 10 - Last Day Summer Program