Greetings MMS Families,

We had a full week of school! I have to say overall it felt great although the unseasonably warm weather may have helped my and everyone’s mood. We have another full week this coming week before we are back to a short week again! Please see the reminders below and enjoy the warm weather as long as it lasts.

We closed out our Black History Month Celebrations this week with some amazing events. Our Afro-Caribbean cultural experiences were outstanding Thursday. We had food from staff, community members, students and families, games and music and performances by Word Beats and Life. It was an amazing combination of inspiration, affirmation and celebration. Friday’s culminating BHM showcase was outstanding! Another pinnacle series of performances by our Mustang Musicians and our teachers, our Cheer Team and individual students and staff. We are also encouraging everyone to watch and share our Broadcast Journalism Club’s film celebrating Black History Month. – You can view/share it here: Stream. Thank you to all of our students, staff and family members who contributed to these events and our Black History Month celebrations all month long. We know these experiences will have lasting impact on our students and community!

Empowerment Shout Out – this pillar of our work at MMS took another significant step forward this week under the leadership of Mr. Novoa-Marcano, our partners from We Will All Rise and our students. They participated in focal groups during the ‘Shop’ sessions on Wednesday to share their insights into school and how we can continue to deepen our students experience and support their agency. This will help guide our path forward in student empowerment and ongoing building of our community, led by our young people. Thank you Mr. Novoa-Marcano for the hard work and persistence to keep this work moving forward!

Faculty Meeting 3.5 – no afterschool programming that day – students who need to wait for pick up may do so inside if need be.

Progress Reports are almost here! Teachers will be inputting progress report grades this coming week – this means we are already halfway through Term 3! Teachers will follow up with all students in danger of failing courses and advisors will prioritize these meetings when scheduling student led conferences.

IMPORTANT REMINDER - Student Led Conferences are coming up in March. Similar to our Fall engagement, we will have conferences scheduled with teachers in the evening at the dates and times below. There will be limited staff available on Thursday, March 13th as our administrative team is all assigned to professional development elsewhere. Please reach out directly to your Mustangs advisory teacher or class teachers to schedule an appointment. If you need support, please contact your grade level counselor or administrator. We look forward to seeing many of you for this crucial touchpoint during Term 3. Student Led Conference Dates/Times:

- Monday, March 10th 4:00-7:00pm

- Tuesday, March 11th 4:00-7:00pm

Have a great weekend,

Cooke

At DC Public Schools, we want every student to feel loved, challenged, and prepared to positively influence society and thrive in life. To reach this ambitious goal, every student needs to be in school every day. However, too many of the young people in our city are not coming to school every day.

The Office of the State Superintendent’s (OSSE) finds that one in four kids in DC are chronically absent from school – which means missing 10 percent or more of the school year. At some DCPS high schools, three out of four students are chronically absent.

DCPS believes that every day counts.

Students, families, and the community must be empowered to track our progress in helping every young person get to school. By being transparent about our challenges, our city can work together to reduce the barriers that too many students and families face.

Definitions

• Truancy: Measures the percent of students aged 5-17 who are considered truant. To be “truant” means that a student has 10 or more unexcused absences from school – with or without – parental knowledge, consent, or otherwise securing prior approval from the start of the school year.
• In-school Attendance: Measures the average percent of students who are attending school.
• Chronic Absence Rate: Measures the percent of students who miss 10 percent or more days in a school year from the start of the school year.
• Attendance Entry Rate: Measures the percent of classes for which a school has entered attendance.
• 60/40 rule: Students are considered legally absent for the day if they miss more than 40% of their classes.

Regular school attendance is critical for academic success. Our goal is to ensure that every student attends school regularly and on time. Daily presence in school has a huge impact on a student’s academic success, starting in kindergarten and continuing through high school. Even as children grow older and more independent, families can continue to play a key role in making sure students get to school safely every day and understand why attendance is so important for success in school and in life.

We realize some absences are unavoidable due to health problems or other circumstances. But, we also know that when students miss too much school—excused or unexcused—they can fall behind academically. Your child is less likely to succeed if he or she is chronically absent—which means missing 18 or more days in a school year. Research shows that:

Children that are chronically absent in kindergarten and 1st grade are much less likely to read at grade level by the end of 3rd grade. By 6th grade, chronic absence is a warning sign for students at risk of dropping out of school. By 9th grade, good attendance can predict graduation rates even better than 8th grade test scores.

Questions/Concerns:

If you have any questions or concerns please contact Ms. Claribel Salgado via email at claribel.salgado@k12.dc.gov or by phone at (202) 671-6033.

Attendance Excuse Notes:

If your student is absent for a legally approved reason please complete the Attendance Excuse Form at the link below.

https://forms.office.com/r/CzHTTvJCM9

Alternatively, if you are unable to submit the form you can email Ms. Claribel Salgado (claribel.salgado@k12.dc.gov) or direct your student to turn in their excuse note or official documentation to the main office.

LSAT Team – we will have our extended meeting Monday at 4:00pm – see invite sent this week.

8th Grade/All Parent resource from Ms. Castro – please see attached HS Season One-Pager in English and Spanish.

Greetings Families,

High School Season has transitioned from On-Time Lottery Applications to Post-Lottery Applications. What does this mean? This means that every high school application received starting from 12:00 am February 4th, will be reviewed in the order that is submitted.

In total, we had 119 applications submitted with 115 on time and 4 post-lottery applications. Of these applications, we had a total of 203 applications to selective high schools! For the first time, due to the abundance of applicants, we will be hosting Phelps Architecture Construction and Engineering High School staff on Thursday, February 27th for in-person interviews and timed essays. Recommenders have been and continue to work hard on their recommendations. Our deadline is Monday, February 10th. Reminder that results are released on Friday, March 28th.

It is our recommendation that every student complete high school research and applies to at least one high school. While this is our recommendation, we understand that many of our students want to enroll at Roosevelt. With this in mind, we will be visiting next week on Wednesday, February 12th. If a secondary visit is needed, it will be scheduled at our earliest convenience. Additionally, we have also rescheduled our visit to Dunbar to Wednesday, February 26th.

Thank you all so much for your continued support!

REMINDER - Anti-Racist/Student Empowerment Work – as we continue to work to strengthen our school community and our work in this vein there are some important next steps being coordinated with our partners We Wil All Rise:

- Teacher/Staff Focus Groups: These are scheduled for March 19th, between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m., with 6-8 participants per group. If you are interested in participating please email Edgar/Cooke directly.

REMINDER - Spring 2025 Panorama Surveys Open February 24 (3/28) The Spring 2025 Panorama surveys for students, families, teachers, staff, and school leaders will run from Monday, February 24 to Friday, March 28. Administration details will be sent next week. Student-level SEL data will update in the Student Success platform on an ongoing basis throughout the survey, while SEL scale results will be available immediately after the survey closes.

REMINDER - Summer Bridge for New Mustangs 8.5-8.8 (Tu-Fri) – Yes – it’s a long way off, but we are always asked about Summer Bridge early in the year, and we are sharing our dates now so you can plan for your newest Mustang or share with feeder school partners and friends.

REMINDER - 4.28-5.9 – CAPE Testing – All students – our biggest test of the year – students will test each morning and have a modified schedule.

Parent Resource – REPEATED - As a new administration moves into our federal government, we know that some of our vulnerable communities and families may have concerns or seek information related to possible immigration actions. We have attached multiple resources for our families to review and are actively collaborating with our partner schools and central office to offer more workshops and resource support. If you have any questions or a specific need, please reach out to Mr. Novoa-Marcano – edgar.novoa-marcano@k12.dc.gov

4.9.25 – 4th Period/5:00pm for families – Spring Arts Showcase

4.28-5.9 – CAPE Testing – All students

6.6.25 – 4th Period – EOY Talent Showcase

8.5.25-8.8.25 – Tu-Friday - Summer Bridge for New Mustangs 8.5-8.8 (Tu-Fri)

Shout Outs and Celebrations: Please check out a few shout outs to MacFarland community members who are embracing our belief that we are one MacFarland!

Shout out to Ms. Sargent for her coordination and leadership of Thursday’s Bruce Monroe visit! We had a groups of about 50 students, staff and families come through and visit MacFarland on a rainy Thursday morning. It seemed like they had a fun visit and it was a pleasure to see some future Mustangs moving through the building! Thank you to Mr. Novoa-Marcano, Mr. Kirkpatrick and Mr. Ellison for supporting on tours and movement and our custodial team for quick adaptations related to the visit. This is great work to share the amazing MMS experience!

I had the pleasure of seeing 3 of our 4 self-contained teaching teams in action this week and had highlights from all of them. Dr. Lee and his team had great team alignment and station-based teaching to engage each set of students in grade level content as well a solid launch of a 7th grade IM lesson. Ms. Chapman and Mr. Clark both had students engaging in learning about key figures and events from Black History Month to deepen their understanding, content and comprehension skills. It was great to see the engagement, questions and conversations with our Mustangs!

A group of MMS students had a special night this week when they went with our staff to Wednesday’s Wizards game against the Trailblazers! Although the Wizards did not prevail (and for other basketball fans like myself you know that’s not a surprise this year) community building did! We are thankful to our staff who coordinated and chaperoned this experience for our Mustangs – Mr. Pretlow, Mr. Knotts, Ms. Parker, Mr. Kirkpatrick, Mr. Ring and Mr. Dance – thank you team!

We had two great trips to the Air and Space Museum for 6th grade this week on Wednesday and Friday thanks to the leadership and coordination of Ms. Parker and the 6th grade team. Our students were clearly excited to go and had a great time on these trips and we appreciate the hard work and detail orientation of Ms. Parker and Team 6 to make this happen!

Saturday School deserves a shout out every time it happens for all of our teachers and staff who get up and get in here on Saturday mornings to further and deepen our Mustangs’ growth each week. It’s actually a great vibe if you’ve been here on a Saturday and positive community building, but certainly hard work to get it done! And of course a huge shout out to our young people who get themselves up and in to make it happen each Saturday as well!

Via email or by appt. – lucas.cooke@k12.dc.gov

Next Curbside Coffee – TBD – we are working on coordinating with our next in person PTO meeting.

February PTO Meeting – 3.11 – 6:00pm - PTO Meeting

City Kids Wilderness Project is a DC-based youth development nonprofit that offers 6+ consecutive years of entirely FREE out-of-school time programs focused on utilizing outdoor spaces and experiences to build social, emotional, leadership, and college and career readiness skills to small cohorts of DC-based middle and high school youth in both the DMV area and Jackson Hole, WY. We take our youth to do everything from whitewater rafting to rock climbing to hiking in the Grand Teton mountains!

City Kids is currently recruiting our next cohort of 6th grade youth for the SY24-25 program year.

Please see below to learn more about the City Kids program, including what we look for in 6th grade applicants:

• The City Kids Journey: 90 second overview video of the City Kids Program
• City Kids Annual Report
• City Kids Recruitment Flyer

Below is the calendar of faculty meetings for the school year. There will be no afterschool activities on these days.

24-25 Faculty Meeting/PD Days Dates:

• February 5th
• March 5th
• April 2nd
• May 7th
• June 4th

Afterschool programming began on Monday 9-9-2024. Tutoring and clubs commence at 3:30 and end at 4:45. Students will have supper then go with their perspective teachers. All students will be dismissed at 4:45 to go home.

Students will need to fill out the emergency contact form prior to attending after-school activities. Students will also be able to list their club choices on the emergency contact form.

• https://dcps.nutrislice.com/menu/macfarland-middle-school

Please use this form to refer a student to the MMS Wellness Team. / Utilice este formulario para referir a un estudiante al equipo de bienes.

https://forms.office.com/r/S6pRi9yLRt

WELLNESS TEAM MEMBERS: Ms. Raphael, Social Worker Ms. Virginia, Mary’s Center Therapist Ms. Kent, Psychologist Ms. Sargent, 8th grade counselor Ms. Castro, 7th grade counselor Mrs. Thompson, 6th grade counselor LAYC: Ms. Rachel & Mr. Raul

The allergy season is here and many individuals who suffer from frequent asthma attacks are beginning to feel the impact of the various allergens and irritants in the air. For students and families, we are sharingthis link to Children’s National -- https://www.childrensnational.org/get-care/departments/impact-dc-asthma-clinic -- as a resource for helping to manage your students’ asthma related-illnesses. If your child suffers from asthma, be sure to complete and submit the Asthma Action Plan and Medication Plan and Procedure to the Nurse. The Anaphylaxis Plan must be completed for acute allergy sufferers who need to be administered an Epi-pen. Also, if your child is on any medication during school hours—including over-the-counter medications—a Medication Plan and Procedure Form must be completed and submitted to the Nurse along with your child’s Medication Treatment Administration Form, signed by your child’s primary care physician. All these documents must be provided to the Nurse by parents, along with the medication/s your child is taking during school hours. Students are not permitted to self-carry or self-medicate. All the forms mentioned in this message are attached, for your convenience.

For Mental Health Support Resources in English and Spanish for Students, Parents, and Teachers. Topics include: Stress, Grief and Loss, Anxiety, Suicide and Self-Harm, Healthy Relationships, Social Media, and much more! -- Mary`s Center (maryscenter.org)

This school year, DCPS is partnering with Children’s National Hospital to support our students’ health and attendance through the Collaborative for Attendance Resources in Education and Health (CARE-H); CARE-H is now available in all DCPS schools. Through this program, parents or guardians can give permission to DCPS to securely share attendance information with their child’s doctor(s), nurse(s) and medical office staff. This information will help these healthcare professionals to provide special outreach and medical attention to children that might be missing school and their families. Information about this initiative can be found here.

POC: Andrea.Allen@k12.dc.gov

The MacFarland PTO has set up an email list for discussion and connection among current and enrolled MacFarland families. Any family member or guardian of a MacFarland student can join by either of these methods:

Attention families, anyone with a child that would like a Kids Ride Free SmartTrip Card can sign up for one in the main office. We will process and distribute on a rolling basis.