Dear Janney Community,

I hope you enjoyed the long weekend and I hope you found Friday’s Parent-Teacher Conferences to be informative.

Please be reminded that DCPS will host a family-facing Virtual Public Health Panel tomorrow, Wednesday, October 14 at 6:00pm. You can join the event on Teams by clicking here.

We are a little less than four weeks away from our anticipated re-opening date of Monday, November 9.  We still plan to host family-facing information sessions during the week of October 19.  We will most likely host these sessions in grade level bands on Zoom: PK-K; 1^st -3^rd grades; and, 4^th-5^th grades.  Final dates and times will be emailed out via a community blast later this week, but the tentative plan is to host the sessions Tu,10/20 – Th,10/22 at 9:15am.

I want to spend the bulk of this newsletter sharing what we know about the student selection process and the process for staffing our in-person learning classrooms.  The next few weeks will move quickly, and you will receive a lot of information.  My hope is that we’ve given you as much information as possible before the October 23 release of the lottery spots for in-person learning.

As a reminder, families do not need to take any action to be considered for in-person learning or for a spot in a CARE classroom – all enrolled students are automatically entered into this lottery.  Families will be notified if their child is offered a spot in our in-person learning classrooms beginning October 23.  Here are three important points to consider as we plan for in-person learning:

1. Once an in-person learning spot is offered, you will have two business days to make a decision on whether your family will accept or decline this spot.  This makes for a quick decision and you will likely still have a few questions before we ask you to make your final decision.  A reminder that our Pre-K and Kindergarten in-person learning classes can host up to ten students per class and our first through fifth grade in-person learning classes can host up to eleven students per class.  We are aiming to offer one in-person learning class per grade level.
2. You will likely not know who your child’s in-person learning teacher will be at the time of your decision.  As each one of our student’s home situations is unique, each one of our teacher’s home and personal situations is unique as well – and this impacts their ability to provide in-person instruction.  DCPS HR is currently determining staff availability for in-person learning at each elementary school site and I am required to follow a specific process when assigning staff to in-person or virtual learning.  There will be little to any principal discretion with regard to staff assignments.  Rest assured that the in-person learning teacher will be a Janney grade level homeroom or a grade level co-teacher with other staff available to support.
3. We will have to place some students at each grade level in a new homeroom class.  We have worked very hard this year to make sure that classes across a grade level are aligned in terms of following the same daily schedule, teaching the same core content, and communicating with families in a similar way.  We knew that this year would continue to offer us some surprises and it was important to ensure alignment within a grade level so that any transition would be as smooth as possible.  We also know that each teacher has worked hard to build relationships with students and families in their class, and that changes in class placement will be challenging.  I will share more information on how we will place students in a new homeroom for the second advisory in an upcoming newsletter.

As I mentioned last week, there are many questions surrounding CARE classrooms and I am still learning more.  As with in-person learning, families do not need to opt-in to the lottery for CARE classrooms – all enrolled students will be considered for a spot in a CARE classroom.  Families will be notified if their child is offered a spot in our CARE classrooms beginning October 30.

Thank you for all of your continued support and please be on the look-out for more information about our family-facing information sessions that will take place next week.

Sincerely,

Alysia Lutz, Principal