Thank you all for the support over the past couple weeks with many student days off; the good news is that there is a full week upon us! Please see the updates below, with a few key announcements regarding support for families during the federal government shutdown and a couple key event dates that have been modified.
Support for Families during the Federal Government Shutdown:
- Temporary Free Meals: DCPS families who are affected by the partial federal government shutdown or have experienced a recent change in income are encouraged to resubmit a Free and Reduced Meal application to determine eligibility for temporary free meals. Please contact food.dcps@dc.gov with any additional questions.
- Temporary Afterschool Support: Please contact Mrs. Thomas directly at Brenda.Thomas@dc.gov for any family that might need support for afterschool fees for the months of January and February
- Community Resources: Please see the “resources” attachment for a variety of support throughout the DC area.
- Student/VIP Spring Fling Dance – In years past we have had two separate nights for family member/student dance/date nights, but are planning to move to one dance for all students at Sherwood Recreation Center (640 10th St NE, Washington, DC 20002), tentatively planned for Friday, March 29th. For this evening, each Ludlow-Taylor student can bring one Very Important Person (family member) – music, light snacks, and deserts will be provided for a $10 donation. This event will replace the two previously scheduled dances
- Pancakes and Literacy has been moved to Thursday, March 7th (the night after the original night it was scheduled)
Building Updates: Over the upcoming summer, we will be receiving mobile classrooms/trailers out on our field to accommodate our growing student enrollment. In essence, we will need three extra classrooms over the next three years to ensure we have “three classrooms” per grade level. For any facilities specific questions, please reach out to the project lead, Amanda Ou, at Amanda.Ou@dc.gov. Furthermore, there will be a community feedback session on Wednesday, February 13th in our multipurpose room at 6:15 p.m.
LT Food Allergy Policy: Per our health and wellness policy, please help us in ensuring that LTES remains a nut-free school. Over the past few weeks, we have had a few potentially dangerous scenarios that were luckily avoided as nuts were accidentally shared. Please support us in the following key points of the policy:
- Nut-free policy extends to after-school and field trips
- Avoid the following foods we continue to see: granola bars, peanut-butter and jelly (field trips mostly), reeses pieces/peanut butter cups, almond packs
- For student birthdays, we have a monthly celebration with snacks for all kids coordinated through teachers at the end of the month. Parents are more than welcome to send non-food items on the actual day of birthdays.
- For those students missing peanut-butter and jelly, many families have found sunflower seed butter a great replacement for school lunches
- If any special accommodations are needed for students to eat specific nut-based products, please ensure that is cleared with the classroom teacher and principal
2019-2020 School Calendar – If interested, DCPS has opened a feedback form for various calendar options for the 2019-2020 school year at https://dcps.dc.gov/page/dcps-calendars
Lost and Found – Our collection of lost and found items seem to be growing (please see if any items might belong to your family) in the front atrium. We do our best to get coats/hats back to students, so please make sure that student names are in all coats!
Upcoming Events: Visit https://www.ludlowtaylor.org/calendar.html to see all upcoming events.
- Thursday, January 31st – Summer Camp Fair at JO Wilson Elementary (660 K St NE, Washington, DC 20002, USA) , 6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.
- Wednesday, February 13th – LT Summer Expansion Community Meeting, 6:15 – 7:15 p.m.
- February 18 – 22 – February Break – no school for students
- March 7th – Pancakes and Literacy
- March 29th (tentative) – LT Family Spring Fling at Sherwood Rec Center
Sincerely,
Principal Smith