Principal Communications
Newsletter - August 21st
Dear Oyster-Adams School Family,
We’d like to wish everyone a warm welcome back! I’ve always been fond of the first day of school, of work, or at a new place. I always think about and cherish the new challenges, opportunities, and goals. I personally had an amazing and productive summer, and I hope everyone had a similar experience.
During the summertime, we’ve been working hard to ensure that the school is ready for staff and students. The opening of a new building turned out to be more challenging and complex than we originally expected, but we’re excited about the new swing space and meeting new families and students. Please express your gratitude to our custodians, Dr. Fortson, and OCC (especially Stacia Cardille) for all they did to help us to be ready for school.
We wish everyone a great year... I cannot wait to see how much we’ll accomplish!
Please take a few minutes to go over the following announcements, reminders, and additional information.
Welcome to our new families!
We’d like to welcome our new Oyster-Adams families. We’re encouraging our returning families to make our new families feel welcome and part of our community. At Oyster-Adams, we believe we all are part of the school community no matter how many days we have been at school (1 or 1,000). It doesn’t matter if we speak Spanish or English at home or if we live in the neighborhood or far away.Becoming
Oyster-Adams was selected to be a pilot school for a districtwide initiative for next year. The name of the initiative is Becoming and is derived from the previous work we’ve done with Whole Child. You will hear more about the program and how it fully aligns with the work we’ve done around Conscious Discipline. This year, we’ll aim to increase our tigers’ sense of belonging so that they feel loved at school and foster strong and authentic relationships. At the beginning of the year, we’ll also focus on having clear and high expectations, norms, and routines for all.Communication
This year, we’ll continue working to make our communication structures clearer and more efficient. You’ll see more alignment and consistency at campuses and more specific and shorter messages (except for this one). Please let us know what works and what doesn’t in our communications, so that we can improve them.
Our written communications will be the primary form of communication at school, but we will also continue inviting parents to our monthly cafecitos at each campus. Parents can also reach out to the school at any time.
We take pride in having transparent communication practices and we will continue doing that. We also want to encourage everyone to come directly to school administration if you have any questions. We are committed to providing all information that is available and that we’re at liberty to share with all families.
For this year, please always assume our best intentions and refrain from jumping to conclusions judging others.
Please remember that the weekly bilingual Principal’s messages will go out every Monday. Just for this week, we will send additional updates on Friday and not have a weekly note next week.
Congratulations to our new Assistant Principal for grades 4 and 5
We have great news for our school community! We have a new assistant principal for grades 4 and 5: Daniela Morad. Please join us in celebrating AP Morad into her new role at school. Take a few minutes to read some highlights of her professional journey and accomplishments.
Ms. Morad was born and raised in Colombia. After graduating high school, Daniela came to the United States to continue her education. She graduated from the University of Central Florida with a bachelor’s degree in digital media and completed her master’s degree in education from Johns Hopkins University. She has over 14 years of experience in education and has taught elementary, middle, and high school students in 3 different countries. Daniela has been a member of the Oyster-Adams community serving as Dean of Students at Adams for over 5 years.
Additional reminders and announcements
- Here are the details of the transportation (information and bus schedules) to and from Meyer.
- Some of our neighborhood students will ride two buses from Oyster to Meyer (the swing space for Adams). The buses will be parked on Calvert Street early in the morning, and this may require you to park at a different location during arrival or dismissal time. You’ll receive some additional information in the upcoming communications.
- We want to remind parents that in order to volunteer at school they have to meet all DCPS requirements.
- DCPS has a new visitor’s policy. Take a few minutes to review it.
- On Friday, we sent hard copies of student placement letters by regular mail. In addition, we sent emails to all families in elementary school. For middle school students, check out the ASPEN Parent Portal.
- The creation of schedules and cohorts at OA is such an intentional and structured task that involves all teachers and the student growth team. They look at all factors, including specific and unique parts of students' records. Please be patient and trust the decisions of the teams that participate in the decision making.
- One of the District priorities for this year is math, and the length of math classes has increased in elementary.
- To keep all members of our community safe, we highly recommend that you make sure your student meets all immunization standards outlined by DC Health. For additional questions, please reach out to the school.
- Here are the Free and Reduce Meal information forms in both languages: English and Spanish
Reminders for this week:
- Oyster’s New Parent Orientation: 8/24 in person from 9:00 to 10:00 a.m.
- Adams’ New Parent Orientation: 8/25 in person from 9:00 to 10:00 a.m.
- Adams’ Student Orientation: 8/25 in person as follows: 4th and 5th graders from 10:00 to 10:30 a.m. and Middle school students from 10:45 to 11:15 a.m.
- If new parents cannot attend one of the meetings, we’ll share the presentation in our weekly communication.
- The rest of our community is invited to participate in our Beautification Day at each campus and see the new building. This will be on Saturday, August 26 from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.
This is all for now--please do not forget to reach out directly to school if you have any questions.
