It has been a great and intense week, with NHD coming to a close, cheer championships, Saakumu in the house, pi recitation, Speech and Drama competition, an 8th grade ski trip - lots of busy children. For our bulletin this week, however, I would like to review our parent "compact" - the informal agreement made between families and school that holds us mutually accountable for the shared education of your children. As the principal, my job is to make school a safe and rewarding academic environment by putting the right people and programs in place and making sure that we stay connected to the community. In exchange, we ask for your support in keeping us on our toes as well as making sure that the system's requirements for your child are met.

Attendance. Thank you for contacting our attendance counselor when your child is absent, following up with notes, and making sure that work is done ahead of time. As a school we have been challenged by the increased expectations for reaching out to families for absences; we keep working at getting better. On your side, I need you to send in the notes as soon as possible, work with the attendance counselor, hold off on unnecessary trips out of school, and reinforce the need to get to school on time. Attendance is a critical marker for future success; we can do better here.

Afterschool. We love having clubs, sports, and activities after school, and continue to grow these as much as possible. Thank you for picking up your child as soon as their activity is over or for giving them a way to get home from a club. Thank you for enrolling your child in our aftercare program, for creating a car pool with another family, and for showing up with your child for evening events. With Spring somewhere in the vicinity, I need to stress that when clubs are over, your children need to leave the building and go home. Please do not pick a child up one and a half hours after a club has ended - they don't know what to do. I completely understand traffic jams or broken plans - but please have a backup. All of the safety features we have in school end at 3:30 except for clubs and activities, and at 4:30 our teachers and security team are gone for the day. I worked with WMATA to provide an afterschool bus that goes near our D31/33/34 routes, leaving at 4:40. We love your children, but safety requires that they be under someone's care at all times - they are still quite young.

Immunizations. Part of our larger compact with society is that we make sure that we don't expose each other to potential illnesses. Thank you to all who have kept up with their immunizations, who have called in to our nurse to figure out where the forms are (!), and who let us know when your child is going to be out for an illness. Each year, however, our immunization rate (percent of children with up to date immunization records) is far below what it needs to be - which is as close to 100% as possible. At Deal, we are 1,400+ children and adults in the same building. We need to make sure that all of us are doing all that we can - including making sure our children are fully immunized - for our shared health.

For each of these three items I am sure that are things that we do that frustrate you, upset you, or are just plain confusing. We are trying our best and believe that you are trying your best as well. Let's just support each other.

James Albright

PS - Our first ever effort at PARCC testing starts this week. At the ADCA meeting on Wednesday, I reviewed our efforts to be ready - but in the classroom and in testing situations - and let the members know that I am confident that our teachers and test coordinators have us where we need to be. That said, there are bound to be challenges but we are a persevering lot and will deal with them if and when they arise. 6th and 8th grade this week; let me know if you have any questions or concerns.