Thank you, parents!  

I want to say a sincere thank you to all the parents who have found me to say hello in my new role as principal. This has been quite a week to join the Ludlow Taylor community and it has been a chance to see the joy this community embraces. Students came in with great pride this past week with their spirit gear and their costumes this past Friday. The Fall Festival was a great break from our regular routines and a chance to reconnect with friends and community. Thank you to the PTO for their organization of the pumpkin patch! If we couldn’t go to the pumpkin patch, it was brought to us! 

In my short time, it has become very clear that this community values Ludlow Taylor and what we do for students. Our teachers are so dedicated to your children. Parents are asking for ways to do even more, and I have a big request: please consider helping the school by applying for your substitute teaching license or your instructional aide license. As you may or may not know, there is a shortage of these positions across the city. Many schools are struggling to fill these vital roles. Ludlow Taylor also needs consistent people in these roles who share our values. If you are looking for an important way to help the school, here is the information for instructional aides. Here is the information for substitute teachers. I want to thank you for considering helping Ludlow Taylor in this important way.  

IMPORTANT – the LT absence email is not working at the moment. If your child will be absent, please email Ms. Brittney Thompson at brittney.cloyd@k12.dc.gov. If the absence is related to COVID exposure, please email Ms. Penelope Miller at penelope.miller@k12.dc.gov until further notice. Thank you for your cooperation with this.  

DCPS Information 
Tuesday, November 2 is a non-instructional day for students and teachers 
Friday, November 5th is a non-instructional day for professional development and records keeping for teachers 

Provide Feedback on the Proposed DCPS Calendars: 
Click Here to Review and Provide Feedback 

Parent University
Join us November 16 at 5:30pm for the next installment of DCPS Parent University discussing our social emotional wellbeing and mental health RSVP at bit.ly/dcpsparentursvp 

Parent listening sessions 
I will begin a series of parent listening sessions on November 10, from 6-7 pm via Zoom. Your input and feedback is vital to our functioning as a community. These sessions are open and the format will be question and answer. The dates and topics will be: 
November 10 – Parents New to School 
November 17 – Parent’s Hopes and Dreams 
December 1 – How does this new math work, anyway?  
December 8 – How do I support my student with reading?  
December 15 – How is our (the school’s) communication? 
Zoom Link: Penelope Miller is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting. 
 
Please download and import the following iCalendar (.ics) files to your calendar system. 
Weekly: 
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/tZEld-Cvrz8vGNcVVZLGq0wRCG0jpDTGTPX3/ics?icsToken=98tyKuGtpjsjHdWRtRuERpwMGoigXe3zmClYjY1eqinfLwdCMhTEFcUSOKJbJP_k 


Join Zoom Meeting 
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85809714523?pwd=SmVkT3Z4TFVHSklQQlN3V2xYR0tQdz09 
Meeting ID: 858 0971 4523 
Passcode: dSTTF8 
 
Thank you again for your support,  
Penelope Miller ​

Dear Ludlow Families -
 
I want to personally thank everyone in our community and the PTO for the wedding well wishes, cards, and words of affirmations/encouragement about marriage over the last two weeks.  It has been a joyous experience and last Saturday was nothing short of amazing.  My favorite gift was a book the students created for me, which had me laughing for much of the weekend as I shared it with my family.  Their words and drawings were the sweetest.  It lets me know they pay attention to you as caring parents/adults in their lives.  They watch you!  
 
Special Education:
I do not think it comes as any suprise that our special education department has had some struggles this school year with staffing and support and I have discussed this with a few families.  I just want you to hear from me, our special education students mean the world to us and we are working feverishly to provide consistency and structure to these classrooms with the help of additional LT staff as well as district support.  I have been a frequent visitor/sub in one of our self-contained classes and what a joy it is to see school through their eyes.  We want to welcome a new addition to our team, Coordinator Mable Sweeny, as she will be guiding the team moving forward.  We look forward to getting to know her more in the coming weeks.
 
Foodprints:
Our Foodprints program will begin this month with students visiting our outdoor garden on a pre-determined schedule.  Please see a below from their leader.  We are so excited to continue this learning partnership.
 
Move Night:
We look forward to seeing you tomorrow on the fields!
 
COVID Testing Sites:You have many options listed at this website: https://coronavirus.dc.gov/testing.  In addition, here are a few more:

• https://curative.com/
  
• http://samedayhealth.com/ 
  
• https://www.cvs.com/minuteclinic/covid-19-testing/covid-assessment 
  

Upcoming Key Dates (No School for Students):
November 2
November 5
November 11
November 24-26 Thanksgiving Holiday
 
Best,
 
Dr. Rachel Williams-Lacey
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MESSAGE FROM FOODPRINTS:  

Dear Ludlow-Taylor Families,

We are so happy to share that FoodPrints is ready to start classes at Ludlow-Taylor in October! FoodPrints is a food education program that incorporates gardening, cooking, and nutrition into lessons that connect to DCPS units of study and national standards at every grade level. We have partnerships with 19 DCPS elementary schools, and value our partnership with Ludlow Taylor so much.

This year, Melissa Klein (Ms. Melissa) will be taking over as Lead FoodPrints Teacher at Ludlow. Ms. Hannah will continue to support FoodPrints at Ludlow through Ms. Melissa’s transition and through the school year.

---- Hello from Ms. Melissa: I look forward to meeting everyone as we begin the FoodPrints program this October. After the challenges of the past school year, I hope the garden will be a place for children to connect joyfully with the natural world. I also welcome hearing about everyone's family food traditions and finding ways to share them. While you are playing on the playground or heading to the field for practice, feel free to walk through and explore your school's beautiful garden - it is a space for all of us to share and enjoy.

A little bit about me: My background as an educator includes two decades in schools and community programs, working with a range of learners - from preschoolers to women transitioning from incarceration. I’m a DCPS graduate and current parent. I love using storytelling, puppetry and art to enrich learning and build community.

---- For FoodPrints this year, we plan to see each class about once a month, for 60 minutes. Currently, we will be doing outdoor, garden-based lessons without the cooking component due to COVID-19.

Please check in with Ms. Melissa if you are interested in volunteering with your student’s class and/or in the garden! Looking forward to the year ahead, Ms. Melissa - melissa@freshfarm.org.

Happy Friday Ludlow Families!  Fall is upon us and I know you are all thinking about pumpkin decorating and Halloween costumes already.  October is sure to be a fun month for our community.
Here are the updates for this week:
Custodian Appreciation:
We want to shout out our amazing custodial team, Mr. Brown, Mr. Thompson, Mr. Benson, and Mr. Blake. I know they were very surprised to see the banner created this morning for them at the front of our school.  These guys have been working overtime during the pandemic to keep our school clean and safe.  This is all in addition to their regular duties and coming off of a summer renovation project.  Please make sure to thank them if you see them around campus. 
Welcome Back and Transition:
We want to welcome Mrs. Roman back to her second grade class.  She has been out enjoying her new baby while Mr. Walker has stepped in.  We know the students will be excited to see her return, but sad to see Mr. Walker move up.  We appreciate Mr. Walker filling in during her absence.  We look forward to his transition on October 12th to Mrs. Francis’s 4th grade class for a few weeks. We are so thankful for our long term substitute teaching staff. They truly are our family.
PTO Meeting:
Thanks to all of our families who attended our first virtual PTO meeting this week via Zoom.  It was great to see so many new and familiar faces on the call and hearing about all the wonderful things our parents are planning for our school community this year.  We appreciate all of our parent volunteers and the time commitments they make to enhance our school.

COVID Testing:
This week we tested upwards of 60 plus students with a few staff, during asymptomatic testing.  All tests were negative!  This is proof our mitigation measures are working inside the building.  All of our positive cases this year have come from outside our school setting.  Next week, with students being out of school for three days, we ask that you remain vigilant about social distancing and mask wearing.  We know cases always tend to creep in an upwards trend after a long break.  You might be pleased to know myself, along with a few staff have already received the Pfizer COVID booster on our own, as it is now open to educators.  DCPS reported today, the asymptomatic testing positivity rate for the district is 0.6%. 

Nut Free:
This is just a friendly reminder Ludlow is a nut free school.  Please do not send anything in food related, that would compromise the health and safety of our staff and students, who suffer from severe allergies. 

Immunizations:
All student immunizations should be updated by October 12th.  If not, that is the official day a student will be unenrolled from a DCPS school.  Reminders have been sent home, but if you have any follow up questions or concerns, please call our nurse, Ms. Ursula. 

Key Date Reminders:
Students do not report to school October 7-11, 2021 due to the long holiday weekend.
October 6th-PTO Movie Night on the Fields
October 7th -Conference Day
October 8th-DCPS Professional Development Day for Staff
October 11-Holiday

Just a reminder, I will be out of the office beginning at 4:00 p.m. on Tuesday, October 5th and return on Tuesday, October 12th at 7:30 a.m.  I will not have access to email or phone during this time.  Ms. Ejechi will be the administrator in charge in my absence.  Her email is Natalie.Ejechi@k12.dc.gov.  Feel free to call our school for any immediate needs. Anything related to COVID-19 will need to be directed to her as well. 


Have a restful weekend!   -Dr. Williams