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From the Principal
I really can't imagine how challenging it must be to be raising children in the Internet age. When my children were growing up and had a question about something I sent them to look it up in the World Book Encyclopedia...
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Please Read:
DCPS Attendance Protocol
1) The Office of Youth Engagement now identifies students who accrue 10 unexcused absences as "chronically truant."
2) Students must be referred to court once they have reached 15 unexcused absences.
3) Students must be at school 80% of the entire school day in order to be considered "present".
Reminder
The only excusable reasons for a student's late arrival and/or absence from school are:
- Illness or medical cause (a doctor's note is needed for 5 or more absences)
- Medical or dental appointment
- Death in the student's immediate family
- Summoned to attend in judicial proceeding
- Religious holiday
- Lawful exclusion or expulsion from school
- Failure of DC to provide transportation
- Emergency or circumstances approved by LEA
In order to be acknowledged as "excused" the student must provide a note to the attendance counselor (written or electronically) from the parent and/or guardian citing at least one of the reasons listed above.
If you have any questions please contact the office and ask to speak to Ms. Bright, or email her.
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Mark Your Calendar
June 4 (Wednesday)
5th Grade Overnight Trip to Gettysburg
June 5 (Thursday)
HSA Pre-Meeting Dinner, 6:00 p.m.
HSA General Meeting (Vote on Budget), 6:30 p.m.
Internet Safety Talk, 7:15 p.m.
June 6 (Friday)
Rain Date for Field Day (grades 1-5)
See full school calendar
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From the HSA
Gayle Moseley & Hope Scheller, co-presidents
Did you ever think your kid would make it into the Guinness Book of World Records? Well, it just might happen!
On Friday after Field Day, Student Council President, Doug Cohen, counted down ". . . 3 . . . 2 . . . 1 . . . POP!" Over 600 students began popping bubble wrap and continued for two minutes to break the world record of most people popping bubble wrap at one time. If Guinness approves, Lafayette will go into the record book!
While our kids exhibited great patience by not popping the bubble wrap in their hands until it was time to do so, Lafayette parents are being asked to be patient as well. The Principal Selection Panel, ready to go before Spring Break, finally interviewed four candidates last Tuesday and unanimously recommended one of those candidates to be our new Principal. We are now waiting to see if Chancellor Henderson will extend the job offer to the candidate and if she will accept. If DCPS does not agree with our recommendation or the candidate does not accept the offer, we hope we will have the opportunity to interview a second panel of candidates before the end of the school year.
We are also waiting to see who will be the architect assigned to Lafayette's modernization, which is scheduled to begin in June of 2015. We were told the architect would be chosen towards the end of April. It is now the beginning of June and a decision still has not been made. The S.I.T. (School Improvement Team) was informed that one would be chosen and be ready to consult with us by our next meeting on June 11. As you can imagine, our patience is wearing thin. Perhaps we can glean some willpower from our children?
Coming up this week is our last General HSA Meeting of the year. We will be presenting the annual Marquis de Lafayette Awards to those who have provided outstanding service and assistance to the school. This year's recipients are: Kathryn Baldwin, Barbara Noguera Frye, Edward Hall (our crossing guard), Betsy Hallstrom, Nell Jeter, Judith McClanahan, Gretchen Paul, Laura Scalzo, Gwendolyn Spears, Beth Taubman, Kristin Willsey and Sue Longo Wright. We hope you can attend to show your appreciation for these people who are special to Lafayette.
Also at this meeting, we plan to vote to accept the HSA Budget as a whole for next school year. Thank you to the many parents who have given us feedback. We've made a few revisions since the last meeting. Please click HERE to review the Budget before you come to the meeting on Thursday. We do need a quorum of 35 to vote, so please come to the meeting if you can. Just as with the last four meetings, we will offer pizza for $1/slice (salad, drink and dessert included) beginning at 6pm. Free babysitting and the meeting will begin at 6:30.
We will also have a special presentation by iKeepSafe, an area non-profit organization whose core vision is to see generations of children grow up safely using technology and the internet. As our children become exposed to the internet at increasingly younger ages, many parents have concerns about cyber-safety. Please come learn how you can help your child become a responsible, ethical digital citizen with healthy online relationships.
Have a great week and we hope to see you at Thursday's meeting!
Hope & Gayle
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 Field Day News
What a great day. The weather was mostly cooperative. The kids had an awesome time. The day ran smoothly thanks to all the volunteers. Thank you to everyone who pitched in to make this a wonderful day. I am always so impressed with the support the community gives. We had over 65 parent volunteers! Way to go parents.
There are so many people to thank and with out their efforts we could not pull this day off. From all the parents, teachers, staff and Mrs. Main thank you all so much. I greatly appreciate your time, effort and commitment.
Margie McClure
Physical Education Teacher
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Carpool Line--Thank You!
With three short weeks to go until the end of the school year, we  want to say THANK YOU to all of our volunteers who have helped us with the Carpool Lane this year. You came, you stood in the rain and sunshine, you opened doors and made sure the children got into the building safely. Thank you for your support!
Lastly, a HUGE and very special THANK YOU to Mr. Peter Otunba for his amazing commitment to oversee the Carpool Line this year. There were very few days, if any, that you did not see Mr. Otunba opening doors at the Carpool Line. We are grateful for your time and efforts to keep this very special service at Lafayette on track.
The Carpool Line will be back next year and we will need your help again! :)
We appreciate all of your support and assistance this year,
Jen Lanoff & Shannon Behm
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Community Meetings on Boundary Changes
Hundreds of community members have participated in community meetings across the city to discuss student assignment and school choice policies, including school boundaries and feeder patterns. Now, the Deputy Mayor for Education and the Advisory Committee for Student Assignment will present their draft recommendations and get your feedback. Your feedback will be used to develop final recommendations.
The upcoming community meetings will be held in three locations throughout the city. At each meeting, participants will hear an overview of the proposed citywide policies and then break into one of three groups to discuss how policies would impact specific communities and schools. Each discussion group will focus on one high school and its corresponding proposed elementary and middle schools that feed into it. The meeting for the Lafayette area will be held on Thursday, June 19 at Takoma EC, 7010 Piney Branch Rd NW (nearest metro station: Takoma) from 6 - 8PM. Break Out Groups for Coolidge, Roosevelt, and Wilson will be held at this meeting. Click here for more information. |
One World Service Club Update
Many, many thanks to the Lafayette community for the generous donations provided for our Syrian Refugee Children Clothing Drive! The much needed clothing, blankets, toys and art supplies will be well used and appreciated by Syrian refugee children. We packed 15 large boxes of your donations which are en route to Beirut, Lebanon, and will be distributed to Syrian refugee children in Lebanon by our partner organization, Sawa 4 Syria. We also want to thank the children who took the time to send pictures and write heartfelt and thoughtful letters to Syrian children, wishing them a speedy return to their country. It was a wonderfully personal way to show Lafayette cares!
We would like to conclude this year with one more, local, service project opportunity. Some of our environmentally-minded children suggested a clean-up of the school grounds. Ms. Main has given us permission to collect trash on the playgrounds at Lafayette during recess on Monday June 9, from 11-2pm. Garbage bags and gloves will be provided. Parents, if you'd like to help, we would love to have volunteers to help monitor the pick-up. Please contact Katie Burke ([email protected]) for more information or questions about this project.
And stay tuned for more service projects in the coming school year, like our planned orchard visit to pick fruit and vegetables to feed the homeless!
Katie Burke, Debbie Bocian, and Sumaiya Hamdani
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From the School Nurse
Parents, please pick up your children's medications before the last day of school. We cannot store medications over the summer and have to destroy them if they aren't picked up. Thank you so much! To all, have a safe and fun summer break.
Chris Cockrell, RN, BSN
Community Health Nurse, Ward 4
e-mail: [email protected] |
Call for Ads: Lafayette Directory
This year we will once again work with AtoZ Directories to produce a quality School Directory, and we'd like to invite our Community families and area merchants to purchase advertising space. 
The directory is used by almost every family in the school and is checked many times each week when arranging play-dates, contacting room parents, scheduling volunteer activities, and the like. There are full page, half page, and business card advertising opportunities available.
Premium advertising spaces are also available and, as is customary, we will hold a lottery before the end of school for these prime locations. Parents interested in a premium location or a regular ad should complete this form and send it to AtoZ Directories by June 10, 2014. Once the lottery is held, AtoZ Directories will contact you to let you know your location and all the other details you will need. There is no need to send payment or artwork until your location is finalized. Please feel free to pass it on to local merchants that you think might be interested in advertising.
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 Buy a WLES Shout Out
Have a custom message read to your child during the morning announcements. It is a great way to say "Happy Birthday," "Good Luck" or just send a fun message to your child at the beginning of the school day. Print and fill out this form, place it and a payment of $15 (checks made out to Lafayette HSA) in the WLES Shout Out box in the Great Hall. Announcements and payment must be received at least seven days prior to the announcement date. Please contact Eden Burgess for more information.
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Community Notices
Summer Tutor Available. I am a Lafayette special education teacher who is experienced in elementary math, reading and written expression. I have 7 years of tutoring experience. I can work in your home or we can meet at the library. Certified in Touchmath, Read Naturally and Wilson Fundations. I have a flexible schedule over the summer. Contact Kerry Cassidy.
Camp Carpool. The Reeves family would be interested in carpooling with any Lafayette families who have kids attending Washington Animal Rescue League day camp during the week of June 23rd. Please email [email protected] if interested.
Experienced Summer Tutor/Coach Available. I offer individualized English language arts, pre-algebra, and admissions test preps to students in grades 4 to 6. I'm a licensed and lifelong Lafayette neighbor with an advanced degree in linguistics, decades of experience, and outstanding community references. I'll be pleased to prepare two-month and summer-long packages tailored to the needs and interests of students continuing at Lafayette, Deal, and Latin, and applying to private schools. Contact Maggie Ronkin at 202-316-2263.
Thank you from Margaret Quinn! On May 3rd and 4th, my daughters and I participated in our fifth Avon Walk for Breast Cancer here in DC. We walked 39.3 miles over 2 days to help fund breast cancer research and treatment here in the DC area, and raised $10,199 - this year's DC walkers raised a total of over $4 million!! Thank you so much to all the staff, teachers and parents who donated to my fundraising campaign; your generosity was amazing, and helped me exceed my fundraising goal. As always, the love and support of the Lafayette community helped fuel my steps ... 2015, here we come! |
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Thank You Lafayette Sponsors!
These organizations support Lafayette through a generous annual donation- please support them!
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Make a Submission
Submissions for next week's issue should be emailed to [email protected]. Submissions are due by 3:15 p.m. on Friday. Submissions received after this time will be included in the following issue, unless instructed otherwise. Please keep submissions brief. Longer articles may be truncated at the editor's discretion, with a link to the full text.
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