Originally delivered on 9/7/2023 8:35 am

SUBJECT: Shepherd PTO Bulletin - 09/07/23

Shepherd PTO Bulletin - September 7, 2023


Welcome Back!


In this week's PTO Bulletin...

- Welcome to New Families

- 2023-2024 Room Parents Needed

- Fall Family Photo Shoot Fundraiser

- Star Achievers Board Positions Open 

- Upcoming Events

  • Coffee & Conversations
  • 1st PTO Meeting
  • Back to School Night 
  • Boundary Study Townhalls
  • Fall Fest (Save the Date)

- Giving Back Opportunities

  • Giving Back through ShopRaise

- Teacher Appreciation Program (TAP)

- Staying Connected

- Shepherd 180 Fund

- Other Upcoming Important Dates

  • Indigenous People's Day (No School): October 9th
  • Fall Family Photo Fundraiser (Save the Date): October 14th - 15th
  • Parent Teacher Conferences (No School): October 19th
  • Professional Services Day (No School): October 20th
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 any new Shepherd Families to register for A to Z connect so they can receive these weekly bulletins and stay connected to the PTO.

2023-2024 Room Parents Needed

Like many public schools, Shepherd relies on its parent community to help bring out the best in our classrooms and community. While many room parent positions have been filled, we still need room parents for the following classrooms: 

  • Kindergarten Ms Deane
  • 1st Grade Ms. Saxton
  • 2nd Grade Ms. Murali
  • 3rd Grade Ms. Denmark-Lawal
  • 3rd Grade Mr. Dogbe
  • 5th grade Ms. Caola
  • CES Ms Patel
  • CES Mr Smith
  • CES Ms. Monaga

If you would like to volunteer as a room parent or in another capacity with the PTO, please complete this volunteer form.   

Any questions can be directed to info@shepherd-elementary.org. Thank you!

Fall Family Photoshoot Fundraiser

Join Shepherd PTO to raise money for Shepherd and have beautiful family photos ready for your holiday cards and gifts! 

We are partnering once again with the AMAZING Katie Jett Walls for morning and afternoon mini-sessions on October 14th and October 15th. Mini-sessions will be offered at the following dates & times.

  • Saturday Morning, October 14th: Blagden Alley in DC (artsy urban setting) 8-11AM
  • Saturday Afternoon, October 14th: Rose Garden at Walter Reed (our 2021 location), 3-6PM
  • Sunday Morning, October 15th: Dale Drive Neighborhood Park in Silver Spring, 8-11AM

$125 fee will secure a spot, with $50 of the fee applied to any photo package (digital or print) purchased. 

If you are interested in signing up for a sitting fee, please complete the form here

Sign-ups will be first come, first served based on paid sitting fee, with families requested to provide timing and location preferences for mini-sessions when registering. 

After completing the form, please proceed to the PayPal site to make the $125 donation.

If you have any questions, please email fundraising@shepherd-elementary.org.

Star Achievers Board Positions Open

SESSA is currently looking for parents and community members to volunteer to join the SESSA Board of Directors for the 2023-2024 school year.


SESSA is a parent and community member led board of directors. While SESSA has professional staff to lead and run the day-to-day programming, a small board of Shepherd Elementary parents and community members oversees the organization, its staff and operations. The board is critical to the success of the program! 


The board provides essential functions such as:

  1. Financial oversight, growth, health and sustainability 
  2. Staff hiring and retention for program management and operations 
  3. Professional staff training and development 
  4. Collaboration with Shepherd ES administration and DCPS officials to advocate on behalf of SESSA
  5. Oversight and investment of SESSA curriculum and enrichment programs such as chess, soccer, dance and robotics
  6. Ensuring Shepherd Elementary students have a safe, educational, inclusive and fun before-school and after-school experience 


The time commitment is minimal, approximately 2 hours a month at most. 


Help us keep the program running! We greatly need more board members to join in the coming year. Without parent or community member involvement there is no Star Achievers. We would especially like to encourage parents of younger students to join so you can have a day in the growth and development of SESSA as your child ages through the school.


Will you consider joining today?  Please reach out to the SESSA Board of Directors for more information and an application at sessaboard@gmail.com.


Fun fact: you don’t have to be a Shepherd parent to join. Aunts, uncles, grandparents, cousins, neighbors or Shepherd ES alums are all welcome to join.  


Thank you for your continued support and consideration! 

Upcoming Events
Coffee & Conversations

The first "Coffee & Conversations with Principal Russell" be held on Tuesday, September 12th from 8:15 am - 8:45 am. This year, these monthly conversations will be open to all families and not dedicated to any specific gradeThe location will be announced in Principal Russell's Friday newsletter. We hope you can make it!

September PTO Meeting

Please mark your calendars for the first PTO meeting of the year on Wednesday, September 20th at 5:30 pm. More information to come! 

Back to School Night

Please mark your calendars for the Back to School Night on Wednesday, September 27th from 4:30 - 6:00 pm. More information to come! 

Upcoming Boundary Study Townhalls

The Office of the Deputy Mayor for Education (DME) is conducting a Boundary and Student Assignment Study 2023 ("Boundary Study") to review DCPS boundaries and feeder patterns and District-wide public school student assignment policies. 


The 2nd of 3 rounds of virtual community Townhalls have been scheduled for September. This is an opportunity for the Shepherd Community to provide input and feedback on the value of the current feeder patterns (Deal & Jackson Reed). 

  • Tuesday, September 26 at 12 p.m. - 1:30 p.m. Click here to register for this virtual town hall.
  • Wednesday, September 27 at 6 p.m. - 7:30 p.m. Click here to register for this virtual town hall.


If you would like to join the Shepherd PTO Community Engagement/Advocacy Committee or learn more about the DME DCPS Boundary Studies and how we can advocate as a community, please email azromine@yahoo.com

Giving Back Opportunities
Giving Back through ShopRaise

With the recent phaseout of Amazon Smile, Shepherd PTO is proud to announce a partnership with ShopRaise to support for our cause. Have you already placed your school supplies order? If not, consider buying supplies from Wal-Mart, Office Max, or one of the other 1,000 covered retailers through ShopRaise and support Shepherd Elementary while you shop!

ShopRaise is an easy way to make philanthropy part of your online purchases. From groceries and apparel to technology and travel – a percentage of almost everything you buy goes to support our cause. The best thing is the program is free, you do not pay any more for the items you buy, and you get access to all the best coupons and deals.

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! When you search for a particular retailer in the app, take a look at the % below their logo and you'll see how much of a rebate will be returned to Shepherd thanks to shopping through ShopRaise. 

Please note, ShopRaise works best through the app and not browsers. 

Teacher Appreciation Program (TAP)

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.

Staying Connected

A to Z Connect Directory

Did you know you can use A to Z Connect to contact other families? When you log into A to Z Connect, look for "Directory" on the left hand side. Then you can search by Parent Name or Child Name and A to Z Connect will pull back all relevant records. While it will only pull information for families registered in A to Z, it's a great starting point to connect with other families in your child's grade, set up play dates, send birthday party invites, etc. 

Shepherd Elementary Groups.io

Also 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.

Social Media

You can follow Shepherd Elementary on Facebook and Instagram!


Time to Support the 2023-2024 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

Coffee & Conversations

September PTO Meeting

Back-to-School Night

National Walk/Bike to School Day

Indigenous People's Day (No School)

Fall Family Photo Fundraiser 

Parent-Teacher Conferences (No School)

Professional Services Day (No School)

Fall Fest

Dates

Tuesday, September 12th

Wednesday, September 20th

Wednesday, September 27th

Wednesday, October 4th

Monday, October 9th

Sat October 14th - Sun October 15th

Thursday, October 19th

Friday, October 20th

Sunday, October 29th

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)

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