March 22, 2023 1 Week to the Gala Edition :)
In this week's bulletin....
- 18th Annual Spring Gala & Auction - 18th Annual Spring Gala Appeal - Check-in Volunteers for Gala - SESSA Instructors Available for Gala Babysitting - DCPS Panorama Survey - Strengthening School's Behavioral Health Survey - DCPS Boundary Study Update - Upcoming Events - March All School Morning Meeting
- Shepherd's Spring Musical: Aladdin, Jr!
- Coffee at Drop-off Hosted by the Family Engagement Committee
- Ways to Give Back - Shepherd PTO Board Nominations
- Box Tops for Education
- Community Offerings - Teacher Appreciation Program (TAP) - Shepherd 180 Fund - Other Important Dates
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| 18th Annual Spring Gala Only 10 days until the 18th Annual Shepherd Gala on April 1st and we've crossed the $40K threshold for donated items, not to mention priceless experiences! As we approach the event, we want to remind families that all tickets must be purchased in advance and ticket sales are scheduled to close Friday, March 24th. In addition to being our biggest fundraiser, it's a fun night out! There will be a live DJ, Photo Booth, Open Bar & Bites provided by Occasions Catering. Even if you cannot attend the event, registering with the Handbid site will allow you to virtually bid on items like: - Summer Camp, Classes and Birthday Party experiences with Camp Barrie, HoopEd, Flagstar Football, Petite Ballet, Steve & Kate Camp, Urban Adventure Squad, Kids Elite, KOA Sports, ZavaZone and much more.
- Special Day Out with Ms. Scott or Ms. Caola and Principal, Assistant Principal, and Music Teacher for the Day.
- Gift cards to many local retailers such as Millies, Due South, Denizen's, Tail up Goat etc.
- Ten seats to a Friday night show at Bobby McKey's Dueling Piano Bar at National Harbor.
- Tickets to multiple sporting events and theater productions
- A year of free before and after care with SESSA
- A $1,000 gift certificate for orthodontics and much more!
Please reach out to the Gala Committee if you have any questions or would like to volunteer! We hope to see you there! |
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Check-in Volunteers for the Gala Do you know a high school student looking for volunteer hours? We are looking for two volunteers to assist with Gala guest check-in at MLK Jr. Memorial Library in DC from 6 to 9 PM. This is a fun opportunity to earn community service hours. Alternatively, if you are or know a Shepherd Community member who has not purchased a ticket, but may consider volunteering in return for entrance to the main event after or before their volunteer shift, please reach out! If you know someone who would like to volunteer, please email sesgala@shepherd-elementary.org. |
Gala Appeal Annually as part of the Gala, there's a specific "appeal" for funding that will benefit an earmarked project. This year's appeal will be earmarked to benefit improvements to the multi-purpose room for performances like the holiday show, school musical and other in-person events. The goals would be to invest in a new sound system and a new stage curtain. If you would like to donate funds specifically to this cause, look for the appeals section on the handbid site or raise your paddle at the auction! |
SESSA Instructors Available for Gala Babysitting The PTO reached out to SESSA to see if they would have any trusted staff available for babysitting the evening of the gala. The following instructors (Alexa Ferguson, Ty Williams, Ayana Kelly and Shan Shan Cartwright) will be available and open to babysitting pods of up to to 5 children each. If interested or looking for more information, please email lizdaly86@gmail.com. |
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| DCPS Panorama Survey Attention Shepherd ES Families! DCPS has launched the 2023 Panorama Survey, which measures social emotional learning, satisfaction, and engagement across staff, families, and students. Share your perspective by completing the survey: bit.ly/dcpsfamily. The survey will close March 31st. Shepherd only has 35 family responses so far and your input is important so please fill out the survey if you have a chance! |
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Strengthening School Behavioral Health Survey Thru March 31st, schools are being asked to administer brief online surveys of students, families and school staff regarding their perceptions of school behavioral health services. The Shepherd ES Community is strongly encouraged to participate in the surveys to enhance its ability to make data-driven decisions about meeting the behavioral health needs of students, as well as helping DCPS and other stakeholders understand the behavioral health needs of schools across the city. If your family is interested in providing valuable feedback, please complete the survey here. |
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DCPS Boundary Study Update The feeder pattern / boundary review process is underway after a delay of about three months. The committee was just named. Only three parents from all of Ward 4 were selected for the Committee. While we - Shepherd ES- don’t have direct representation on the Committee, we are not disheartened and intend to stay engaged and keep the community informed throughout the process. If you’d like to be directly engaged, please join our Community Engagement / Advocacy Committee - contact Amber Romine at azromine@yahoo.com |
| March All School Morning Meeting The March All School Morning Meeting will be held Friday, March 31st at 9:00 am. It will be hosted by Kindergarten and the meeting will be a celebration of Women's History and Francophonie Month. You can connect virtually to the event here. |
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| Aladdin Jr Tickets On Sale Now! We are only 2 short weeks away from Shepherd Elementary's spring musical: Aladdin Jr.! The production will be held Thursday March 30th and Friday March 31st at 6:00 pm in the Multi-purpose Room. Due to limited capacity, everyone who attends must have a ticket. There will be 250 available seats per performance. Tickets will be available for $5 each and can be purchased on the Shepherd Elementary Aladdin Jr. website. All ticket sales will proceed Shepherd Elementary’s curriculum and music/drama programs so that the school can continue producing these incredible creative performances. For the day of the event, please note the entrance will only be accessible via Jonquil Street. Doors will open at 5:30 pm and we ask that you arrive early as we expect lines to form at the entrance. We hope to see you there! |
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| Coffee at Drop-Off Hosted by the Family Engagement Committee Please join the Family Engagement Committee for monthly coffees outside the school. Coffee will be available on April 3rd, May 8th and June 5th from 8:20 am - 9:00 am. After dropping off your students, please take a moment to enjoy the morning pick-me-up and briefly socialize with other families. |
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2023-2024 PTO Board Nominations Do you have a passion for communications and engagement? Are you a strong financial analyst? Are you good with documenting rules and procedures? We are starting to look ahead to our 2023-2024 PTO Board elections and will have some board positions that will be vacated. If you would like to consider applying for one of the many rewarding positions, you can find more information on the responsibilities here or email questions to elections@shepherd-elementary.org. More information about elections will be released in the coming months! |
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| Box Tops for Education The Box Tops for Education app is a quick and easy way to give back to Shepherd. Simply follow these steps: Download the "Box Tops for Education" App Create an Account Search for "Shepherd Elementary" under "Find a School." Then select the Shepherd school associated with 7800 14th Street NW. Scan paper receipts into the app within 14 days of purchase. The app will automatically recognize Box Top Products Sit back and watch Shepherd's earnings grow!
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Looking for More Ways to Give Back? The Shepherd Website has a comprehensive list of ways to contribute through donations, volunteering, shopping, and sponsorships. Please visit the website for a complete list of vendors and more information on how you can help enrich the Shepherd experience. |
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| Teacher Appreciation Program (TAP) Congratulations to Ms. Shepherd and Mr. Wimberly as our March TAP winners! The Teacher Appreciation Program, or TAP, gives parents an opportunity to recognize a teacher at Shepherd for their great work and dedication. TAP invites parents to write a letter of appreciation recognizing a teacher who has been especially helpful or admirable in the classroom. Once a month, a special teacher will be selected from the nominations to receive a Wishlist fund bonus. The recognition letters will also be shared with the selected teacher and school community. TAP a teacher today by submitting a nomination here. |
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Time to Support the 2022-2023 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 child care at events, 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 - we're looking forward to getting back to BETTER THAN NORMAL! |
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Many, Many Thanks to our 180 Fund Donors! |
Archer Family Arellano Family Beridon Family Biswese Family Bowie Family Boykin-Chase Family Bykowski Family Carroll Family Cannon Family Cartmell-Mayorga Family Clair Family Coble Family Daly Family Davies Family D'Angelo Family Fagen Family Faulman-Coffey Family Fessler Family Frias Family Gilberg-Prince Family Goletiani Family Goodman Family Henderson-Parker Family Homer Family Howard Family Jabaily-Messing Family Joswick Family
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| Ju Family Krill Family Landau Family Learmonth-Davies Family Lipton-Marnon Family Ma-Holdridge Family Marchand Family Marrkand Family McNeil Family Mokodean Family Molseed Family Pariser Family Prabhu-McDonald Family Raglani Family Rijmen Family Riley Family Roberts Family Romine Family Sanders Family Snyder-Johnson Family St.Clair-Flemming Family Tivol-Kaufmann Family Tyson Family Walejko Family Williams Family Youssef Family Zettle Family
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Upcoming Events Spring Musical: Aladdin, Jr.! Spring Musical: Aladdin, Jr.! March All School Morning Meeting Morning Coffee at Drop-Off 5th Grade Coffee & Conversations Shepherd Open House |
| Dates Thursday, March 30th Friday, March 31st Friday, March 31st Monday, April 3rd Tuesday, April 11th Wednesday, April 12th
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