Happy New Year, Tigres!

I hope the return to school has been joyful. This week we want to share several reasons for gratitude and pride in our community.

The week before break, Officer Rodríguez and Officer Barrientos visited our Kindergarten class. Officer Barrientos (known as Jane here) was a student at Oyster-Adams in the early years of our school, and took her picture next to the beautiful childhood portrait featured in our hallway! Officer Barrientos, you haven't changed at a bit. Nowadays, her nephews (Santiago and Sebastian) are students at OA and will continue the family legacy. The Kindergarten class enjoyed the presence of her police dog, named TIGRE! Once a tiger, always a tiger.

Our second reason for gratitude was the Annual Winter Concert at Oyster-Adams this year. Thanks to Sr. Hernández, we had a concert with more than 15 bilingual songs celebrating all the traditions in our community, and we boasted over 600 people present at the event. In my own house, my son had "Burrito Sabanero," on replay even at the turn of the New Year.

Our third reason for pride is the incredible solidarity of our families. This Friday at 7pm we have a special workshop organized by Amica in person at the Meyer campus to inform families about their rights as residents here in Washington DC during immigration raids. There will be childcare, and the session will be in Spanish. We will also discuss how to set up a safety plan. Check out the bulletin here.

And finally, we want to congratulate Mr. Hawkins on his new position as assistant principal at Jackson-Reed. As we shared in Friday's letter, we have been incredibly fortunate to have him in our community for the past two and a half years. Help us show him how much he has meant to us by sending notes, cards, or thank you emails to Carla Ferris (carla.ferris@k12.dc.gov) and/or Delicia Fullington (delicia.fullington@k12.dc.gov) before Friday, January 10. They will be included in an album that will be presented to Mr. Hawkins on his last day at OA, Friday, January 17. Notes from OA alumni are also welcome! Let's give Mr. Hawkins a warm farewell from OA Tiger... even if we plan to visit him at Jackson Reed 😊

Un abrazo fuerte,

Carolina Brito, Proud Principal of OA