Wednesday, January 25, 2023 | |
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Happy Lunar Year!
We would like to wish a Happy Lunar New Year to those in the Carlos Rosario School Community who celebrate. Fun fact: this year, there are two zodiac animals. Many will celebrate the Year of the Rabbit, but Vietnam celebrates the Year of the Cat!
Happy Lunar New Year! Wishing you and your loved ones a year full of joy, good health, peace and prosperity!
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Spring Registration Highlights and Updates | |
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Last week was the first time in three years that we had Spring registration in-person, and the turnout was back to pre-pandemic levels! We were about to enroll more than 600 new charter students in 4 days! There is also a long list of applicants who are waiting for spaces to open up.
Our total charter enrollment is over 2,140!
Quick Highlights
- Assessment was able to support more than 800 applicants with placement testing before the week of open enrollment and 90% of those who tested returned for open enrollment.This helped reduce the strain on the testing station.
- Our beginning levels of ESL (Orientation to Level 2) and advanced levels (Level 7 to Advanced) are very full.
- We continue to see the greatest demand for our evening program classes.
A huge thank you to everyone who worked open enrollment last week, especially the Assessment, Registration Teams and IT teams. Registration is a huge collaborative effort at our school, and we are appreciative of everyone who helped support this initiative.
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Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging: Next Steps | |
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Thank you for engaging in last week’s “IDEAS 101” session!
To continue our DEIB journey, please save the date for optional DEIB Office Hours with our partners from IDEAS Generation (IG). The IG Team will be available for virtual office hours on February 23 at 1:00 pm. All are welcome to join, and more details to come in early February regarding the Zoom link and language support.
Upcoming Mid-Year Check-Ins
The period for Mid-Year Check-ins will start on Monday, January 31, and all Mid-Year Check-ins must be completed and submitted to HR no later than Friday, February 17, 2023.
The Mid-Year Performance Check-in is an opportunity for employees and supervisors to have transparent and timely discussions on performance, progress toward individual goals, and the ongoing contributions to the work of the strategic plan.
Please look out for an upcoming email with a detailed Mid-Year process and templates.
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Spring 2023 Saturday Spanish and Amharic Classes | |
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Carlos Rosario School is offering three levels of Spanish Conversation classes and an Introductory Amharic class. The classes are offered on Saturday mornings from 9:30 am to 12:30 pm virtually via Zoom.
The cost for the Spanish or Amharic class is $275 for the public but employees of Carlos Rosario will receive a 50% discount, only paying $137.50. If you are interested, please sign up here for the classes or reach out to Elsa Haile at [email protected] for any additional information or next steps. The community language classes are open to all residents of Washington, DC, Maryland, and Virginia.
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Have you reviewed the summary of the Fall Climate Survey yet? Take a couple moments out of your day to do so! This survey cycle, over 70% of Carlos Rosario School staff responded, and 77.5% respondents agreed/strongly agreed to survey items.
As a reminder, Departments are meeting from January 16th to February 6th to review a summary of the Fall Climate Survey and gather feedback from team members on the school’s focus areas. Department leads, please schedule time to have this important collaborative meeting with your teams!
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Student Board Member Nominations Process | |
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There is a vacancy for a current student on the School’s Board of Trustees. The vacancy is for the three-year term ending December 31, 2025. Please click HERE for information on the nomination process. An information meeting will be held via Zoom on January 25th at 5:00 pm for interested students.
To attend the Zoom meeting, please click here HERE.
Questions? Contact Robert Skelton at [email protected].
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Support with Software Purchases | |
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Are you considering the purchase of software to facilitate your work? Are you interested in signing up for a trial of a particular software?
This is a friendly reminder that any software (purchased or trial version) must be done in concert with IT Governance via Karen Clay. Getting started is easy. Just send an email to [email protected] with a link to the software program in which you are interested. Karen will get with you to ensure that we don’t already have that software and to guide you through the steps toward approval and purchase.
Questions? Email Karen or call her at ext. 2534.
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Please remember that Allison Kokkoros, CEO, is holding office hours for one-on-one, 20-minute chats with employees. These chats are opportunities to informally talk about anything that’s on your mind and for Allison to hear directly from you.
Upcoming Office Hours are:
- February 1 from 2:30 – 3:30 pm virtual or in-person at Harvard Street Campus
- February 6 from 1:00pm – 2:00 pm virtual or in-person at Sonia Gutierrez Campus
Contact Karla Vasconez, Executive Assistant at [email protected] to reserve your spot!
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The Carlos Rosario International Public Charter School Board of Trustees will hold its regular quarterly meeting on Wednesday, February 8th, 6:00 pm – 8:15 pm virtually via Zoom. All are welcome to attend the meeting. Advance registration is required to attend. A formal Notice of Board Meeting (including the meeting agenda) will be posted on the School’s Public Information webpage at least two (2) business days before the meeting.
If you are interested in attending the meeting, sign up using this Zoom Webinar Registration link. We encourage you to sign up as early as possible. Please make sure to sign up at least 24 hours in advance so your registration can be processed, and webinar access details sent to you in time. We will do our best to complete registrations after that time but cannot guarantee that last-minute registrations will be processed in time.
For more details about the board meeting please click here. Reach out to Robert Skelton if you have any questions.
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Update on Changes on COVID Vaccination Data Collection Requirement | |
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On November 22, 2022, DC Council passed, and the mayor signed an emergency bill, postponing the date by which students must be vaccinated against COVID-19. The requirement is delayed until School Year 2023-2024. In keeping with this legislation, we will be suspending all COVID-19 vaccination data collection efforts until further notice.
We would like to take this opportunity to sincerely thank all staff, teachers, and the Carlos Rosario School community for supporting the previous COVID-19 vaccination data collection using BenefitsApp.
We are proud to report that we were able to collect vaccination information on approximately 70% of our enrolled students. We will continue to provide vaccination site information, health education, and distribution of COVID-19 rapid antigen test kits provided by DC Health and OSSE. Please reach out to the COVID team if you have any questions, Daniel Nigussie at [email protected] or Carmen Ramirez at [email protected].
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Arts Integration & Culture | |
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CR Online Black History Month Celebration Watch Party
Carlos Rosario School’s online Black History Month Celebration will take place virtually on Tuesday, February 28th at 2:30 pm. We invite you to join the Zoom watch party as we celebrate Black history, heritage, culture, and pride in our school community.
Following this year’s national theme of “Black Resistance,” this online event will feature music, artwork, dance, culinary arts, remarks, and other contributions from Carlos Rosario students, staff, and community.
Here is the link to the Zoom Watch Party. If you’re not able to attend the watch party, the celebration video will also be available on our CR YouTube page beginning on February 28th. CR teachers are also encouraged to watch the video with their students during their regular class time.
Call for participants: You are invited to share a short video - about 3 minutes long - to be included in the celebration. Some ideas are: a song, a poem, a dance, art, a story, sharing a cultural tradition, a cooking demo, or anything that shines a light on Black history, heritage, culture, and pride in our school community. Videos can be submitted by individuals (faculty, staff, students), or groups (departments, classes, etc).
The last day to send in a video is Friday, February 17th.
Questions? Please contact Tim Gibbon, Arts Integration & Culture Program Manager at [email protected].
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Kicking off the CR Song Project | |
Around Our School and Community | |
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Welcome back to school for Spring 2023 Semester! We are so excited to see all our students back in class. Wishing everyone an exciting, memorable, and successful Spring semester.
As you begin the new semester, please remember to send photos of activities, classes, programming to Donald Ndebeka at [email protected] so that we may share them with our school community.
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Personal Memorials inspired by Maya Lin | |
ESL 5 students were immersed in an experiential learning unit focused on memorials, inspired by the work of artist & architect Maya Lin. Students toured the One Life: Maya Lin exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery, visited the Maya Lin-designed Vietnam War Memorial on the National Mall, and created their own personal mini-memorials out of clay. The unit was a collaboration between ESL 5 Teachers Caitlin James, Hugh Beshers, Monika Copelmayer, and Arts Integration & Culture Program Manager, Tim Gibbon. | |
Culinary Arts Recipe Corner | |
Yuca con mojo is a Cuban side dish made by marinating yuca root (also known as cassava) in garlic, lime, and olive oil. Also known as one of Cuba's national dishes. Thank you to the Culinary Arts team for sharing another delicious recipe with the team! | |
CR Bi-Weekly Bulletin Reminder | |
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We will continue to bring important updates to you via this internal bulletin on a bi-weekly basis. Please expect to receive our CR Bulletin every other Wednesday. The next bulletin will come out on Wednesday, February 8th. Remember, you can submit information and/or feature your class activities to [email protected].
Our bulletin is not possible without the contributions, support and ideas from our team members. Please consider what you’d like to share with our staff community, and encourage your team to do so. Thank you for reading the bulletin, and helping to create an impactful and informative communication channel for our team.
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