| Welcome New Shepherd Families! We want to extend a warm welcome to all new Shepherd Elementary Families and, of course, a Welcome Back to those currently in our community! These Shepherd Bulletins are released weekly during the school year as a way for the PTO community to remain informed on news, correspondence and events. Please encourage Shepherd Families to register for A to Z so they can stay updated! |
|
|---|
|
|
| "Boo-Hoo" Breakfast for Pre-K 3/4 Parents On Thursday, August 29, there will be a breakfast for Pre-K 3 and Pre-K 4 families to celebrate their first day of school. Please stick around for a cup of coffee and meet/mingle with other families. We will also be doing a smaller gear sale with sizes specifically for these grades. |
|
|
|---|
|
|
1st LSAT Meeting The first LSAT meeting will occur on Wednesday, September 4 at 4:00 PM. Please use this link to access the Zoom Meeting (Meeting ID: 864 6515 8110; Passcode: mustangs). The Local School Advisory Team (LSAT) is a group of elected and appointed members that exists for every DCPS school. The team consists of parents, teachers, non-instructional school staff, a community member, and, in some cases, students, to advise the principal on matters that promote high expectations and high achievement for all students. |
1st PTO Meeting The first PTO Meeting will be held on Wednesday, September 18 at 5:30 PM, both in person and virtually. We will tackle a range of subjects from budget to upcoming events to committees. We hope you can join us! More details will be available soon! |
| 4th Annual Shepherd Park Weed Wrangle You are cordially invited to the 4th Annual Shepherd Park Weed Wrangle on Sunday, September 22, from 2:00 PM - 4:00 PM at Shepherd Field! In celebration of National Public Lands Day, we'll be planting native trees, shrubs, and other perennials on the slope where we've been removing invasive plants and building a walking path. All are invited—bring your family or a friend, and bring gloves and a shovel if you have them. No planting experience is needed. Light refreshments will be provided. If you haven't been to the field in a while, we hope you'll stop by on the 22nd to check it out. The native plants we've planted over the past four years are really starting to thrive! |
|
|---|
|
|
Playdate Success! Thank you to all the parents and families who joined us for our Back to School Playdate! With nearly 100 attendees, it was a fantastic opportunity for everyone to connect, mingle, and kick off the school year together. We look forward to more fun events in the future! Here’s to a wonderful school year ahead! |
Room Parent Sign-ups Less than half of the Room Parent volunteer spots have been filled. Please consider signing up to be a Room Parent for your child's classroom. The weekly time commitment is just about 1 hour, making it a fantastic opportunity for dads, moms, or guardians to support their child, their teacher, and the school community. Please sign up here. Questions? Email info@shepherd-elementary.org. |
| Fall Fest Event Leads Needed! The PTO Executive Board is looking for two volunteers to lead this year's Fall Fest on Sunday, October 20, 2024. Fall Fest is an important fundraiser for the school and a fun day where the community comes together to enjoy family-friendly activities in support of Shepherd. The time commitment is short-term, and we have received support from previous Fall Fest planning efforts to assist our new volunteers. If you can support this key community project, please email info@shepherd-elementary.org. |
|
|---|
|
|
| 2024-2025 Committee Chairs The school year is quickly approaching, and the Shepherd PTO is looking for Committee Chairs to support its annual engagement, advocacy, and fundraising activities! These Committee Chairs are critical to the execution and planning of many of our PTO efforts. We are grateful that a handful of Committee Chairs plan to return, but our goal is to secure co-chairs for all committees next year, so we are always looking for more volunteers. More information on the committees can be found on our website. If you are interested in chairing a committee for the 2024-2025 year, please sign up via our Sign-up Genius. Any questions can be directed to info@shepherd-elementary.org |
|
|
|---|
|
|
Shepherd Elementary School Star Achievers |
| SESSA Board Needs You! Shepherd Elementary School Star Achievers (SESSA) is currently looking for parents and community members to volunteer to join the SESSA Board of Directors for the 2024-2025 school year. While SESSA has professional staff to lead and run the day-to-day programming, a small board of Shepherd Elementary parents and community members oversee the organization, its staff, and operations. The board is critical to the success of the program! The Board meets virtually monthly. The time commitment is minimal, estimated at no more than 2 hours a month. We welcome anyone interested in joining, especially if you have grant-writing and/or fundraising experience! Without parent or community member involvement, there are no Star Achievers. Please contact the SESSA Board of Directors for more information and an application at sessaboard@gmail.com. |
|
|---|
|
|
Welcome Back, Principal Russell Principal Russell is set to return from maternity leave on September 30th! We have all missed her and look forward to welcoming her back to our school. In the meantime, we want to extend a heartfelt shout-out to Assistant Principal Coles. Thank you, AP Coles, for your hard work and leadership! |
| Uniforms Shepherd Park Elementary is a uniform school. Students wear the following Monday - Thursday: - Bottoms: Navy
- Tops: White
- Sweaters: Matches Uniform
On Fridays, students can wear their Shepherd Mustang Gear. |
|
|---|
|
|
Uniform 'Shopping for Shepherd' Are you currently looking for uniforms? Shepherd Elementary partners with Lands End to receive up to 3% rebates back to Shepherd when purchases are made through their websites. Use School Code 900131202. |
| Giving Back through ShopRaise We've partnered with ShopRaise to earn rebates for everyday purchases. Please help us support and promote our program by doing these 3 simple things: - Click this link to get the ShopRaise app
- Use tools in the mobile app to share it with family and friends
- Shop online to support and help us reach our fundraising goals!
|
|
|---|
|
|
Shepherd Elementary Groups.io As a reminder, the Shepherd PTO has a Groups.io that can be used to communicate with the community. To actively join our Shepherd Elementary School Parents groups.io, please click here and select the blue button that says "Apply for Membership in this Group." If you have any questions, please email info@shepherd-elementary.org. Shepherd Elementary Calendar You can also add the Shepherd Elementary Google calendar to your personal Google account. Log into your Google account and navigate to the Shepherd Elementary Calendar website. In the lower right-hand corner of the calendar, there's an icon that says "+ Google Calendar." If you click this icon, it will redirect you to your personal Google calendar and prompt you to "add" the Shepherd Elementary calendar. More detailed instructions can be found here. |
Time to Support the 2024-2025 Shepherd 180 Fund Help the Shepherd PTO fund lots of great events, initiatives, and extra circular efforts at Shepherd this year by donating to the 180 Fund. It's called the 180 Fund because there are 180 instructional days in the school year and your donation of a dollar a day per student helps the PTO support sending students on offsite field trips, funding teacher educational wish lists, putting on school plays and concerts, updating outdoor playground equipment, funding additional academic supports, and hosting school-wide events! This budget really helps us give our students even more unique, meaningful and enriching opportunities each year. Any contribution is always much appreciated. And as a reminder, your contribution is 100% tax deductible. Thanks for your support! |
|
Upcoming Events First Day of School (Prek-3 & 4) & "Boo Hoo" Breakfast Labor Day Holiday 1st LSAT Meeting Back to School Night 1st PTO Meeting Shepherd Park Weed Wrangle |
| Dates Thursday, August 29
Monday, September 2 Wednesday, September 4 Thursday, September 12 Wednesday, September 18 Saturday, September 22 |
|
|---|
|
|
| Follow Shepherd PTO on FB and Insta Keep up with the latest updates, events and fun things going on at Shepherd by following our FB page (@ShepherdElemPTO) and Instagram (@shepherd_elementary). |
|
|---|
|
|
|
|
