Lunch Time - Calle Ocho Campus
Checklist to Get Ready For the New School Year
Family Directories & Class Lists
SY22-23 Class Group Rotation
Reminders for Arrival & Dismissal
AcademicsAttendance Reminders
New Attendance Email Addresses for Each Campus
Events & ActivitiesBack to School Night - Mark your calendars! Students Are Invited!
NEW! Board Meeting - Save the Date! Sep 29
Communications, Information & QuestionsNEW! Tell Us What You Are Thinking!
NEW! Classroom Liaisons and WhatsApp
Health & SafetyNEW! Covid-19 Test to Return After School Breaks and Holidays
NEW! Correction on Covid-19 Policy
School ServicesImportant Updates About Purchasing Uniforms
Extended Day Program Updates
Community AnnouncementsQ&A Sessions for New Families at J.F. Cook!
NEW! Immigration Advice and Referrals by Ayuda
School Calendar and Upcoming EventsFamily Handbook
SY22-23 School Calendar
BACK TO SCHOOL
Checklist to Get Ready For the New School Year
To facilitate the access to forms, fees, instructions, and make sure your family is ready for the new school year 2022-23, you can find a checklist in the Family Portal for viewing and to get a printable version here. Please keep in mind this checklist will continue being updated daily until the new school year starts.
**OJO!** The Family Portal now has a NEW password: crew
New classmates, new friends! Everyone in our school community should experience a sense of belonging. Click here to find the family directories on the school website (Families portal password: crew).
Please remember, to update your contact information, please log into your Infinite Campus Parent Portal in English and Spanish - Instructions: How to guide
If you have any questions, please contact us at communications@mundoverdepcs.org
If you only need to find your child’s class list, click here. Class lists are also available in the families portal.
Class Rotations are only for 1st through 4th grades. Click here: SY22-23 Class Group Rotation
Students are more engaged and productive when they start and end their day confident that they are known well by others in the community and that they have a clear understanding of what the community expects from them. Arrival and dismissal routines help establish these two points of reference for their school days.
Please review the Arrival and Dismissal Procedures document. This is a key resource for parents and caregivers, especially for the first few weeks of school. It includes arrival and car line procedures, arrival and dismissal times, recommendations for drivers, pedestrians, and bikers, and dismissal locations and procedures:
Arrival & Dismissal Reminders:
Students are only released to authorized pickups
Authorized pickups should be prepared to present photo ID
School day starts at 8:30am, and the day ends at 3:30pm
The car line is open only for arrival time
Continue parking a few blocks from the campus
Avoid using alleys to exit the neighborhood
ACADEMICS
Prompt and consistent attendance is critical to learning and success in school. While PreK is a non-compulsory grade, Mundo Verde encourages families to establish attendance habits during a child’s first years of school. Attendance policies apply to all students in PreK-5th grade, although the DC Compulsory Attendance Law only applied to grades K-5.
If your child misses large amounts of school due to health or medical concerns, please set up a meeting with your teacher to discuss your child’s needs.
Attendance in the first few weeks of school is also critical to each student’s enrollment status. DC laws considers any student between the ages of 5 and 13 to be truant when they have accrued 10 unexcused absences. Mundo Verde is required to report students who accrue 10 full-day unexcused absences to CFSA for educational neglect. Mundo Verde works to prevent truancy by identifying students at-risk of accruing a high number of unexcused absences and providing interventions using several points of engagement.
For more information, please review the “Attendance and Truancy” section in the Family Handbook in English, page 64 or Spanish, page 68.
If you know your child will be late, be absent, leave the school early, or there are changes with pick-up, email your campus using the dedicated email address.
Each campus now has its own email address. We ask that you begin to send attendance emails to the following campus addresses:
J.F Cook: cookattendance@mundoverdepcs.org
Calle Ocho: c8attendance@mundoverdepcs.org
Please note the attendance@mundoverdepcs.org email address does not longer exist.
EVENTS & ACTIVITIES
Students Are Invited!
After two years of virtual back to school nights, we are all looking forward to welcoming you in person! Mundo Verde is committed to leveraging every opportunity the school year brings to create spaces to strengthen a sense of belonging and build community among students, families and staff. It is in that spirit that we are adding a new element to back to school nights: we are inviting students to join parents and caregivers as they visit their classroom, allowing with this an opportunity for them to participate with you as you meet other families in the class, meet teachers and get to hear more about the school day and how to engage in the academic life of your child.
Join us as we celebrate the start of the year and take advantage of the opportunity Back to School Night offers parents and teachers to connect and collaborate in support of the academic and social-emotional success of the students.
In order to accommodate families in person, Back to School Night sessions are staggered by campus and by grade. Look carefully at the schedule below and identify your blocks so you can mark your calendars. Please note that since students are invited to join their families, there will not be after school programming provided during September 20 at Calle Ocho, and September 21 and 22 at J.F. Cook.
Calle Ocho Campus - Sept 20
PreK & 3rd grade: 4:30-5:20pm
Kinder & 2nd grade: 5:30-6:20pm
1st grade: 6:30-7:20pm
J.F. Cook Campus - Sep 21
Kinder & 4th grade: 4:30-5:30pm
2nd & 5th grade: 6:00-7:00pm
J.F. Cook Campus - Sep 22
PreK: 4:30-5:30pm
1st & 3rd grade: 6:00-7:00pm
Sep 29, 6:30-8:30pm
The Mundo Verde Board of Directors will be holding a regular Board Meeting on Thursday, September 29. All regular and special board meetings are open to the public, providing the opportunity for stakeholders to observe board operations. The meeting will take place virtually from 6:30 to 8:30pm.
For questions related to the meeting, email board@mundoverdepcs.org.
COMMUNICATIONS, INFORMATION & QUESTIONS
To enhance community dialogue and as one means of informing school decision-making, Mundo Verde sends every family a monthly survey with one or two short questions. These questions can be answered via the web or a text message, and in either English or Spanish. The survey also offers parents and caregivers a chance to share thoughts and ask questions. Please use this opportunity to tell us your thoughts and ideas and raise questions that may be on your mind. The surveys are sent through Possip, and unless you choose to share your name, all responses are anonymized.
Deadline to share your thoughts is Monday 9/12!!
Click here now to have your voice heard: English | Spanish
We do ask, please, that questions that are very specifically about an issue related to your child/ren’s day at school (about a meal, an assignment, a late arrival, and so forth) please be addressed directly to the appropriate member of the staff. To see who best to contact with topical question, please visit the Who to go for What in English or Spanish.
Mundo Verde is happy to see so many families utilizing and expanding the WhatsApp framework that the school created in SY21-22. Many parents and caregivers have also volunteered to serve as classroom liaisons, and they have been hard at work updating WhatsApp groups for the new school year. (Learn more about classroom liaisons below.)
We encourage everyone who continues to use WhatsApp to follow the initial guidelines that can be found here. Classroom liaison and corresponding WhatsApp groups for each campus can be found at these links:
Classroom Liaisons are volunteer caregivers that support their child’s classroom by creating and maintaining community connections between fellow caregivers and classroom teachers; by creating a welcoming and inclusive environment; and by embodying the spirit of crew (all Mundo Verde community members working actively together toward shared goals).
To further enhance family-to-family communications on both campuses, as well as communication with the school, we also ask all families to keep an eye out for a forthcoming invitation to join the new ParentSquare communications platform. As the new platform to center communications between the school and families, ParentSquare will be maintained by the school’s communications team.
HEALTH & SAFETY
Test to Return is designed to reach entire school populations after vacations and school breaks, when travel and gatherings (and thus potential exposure to Covid-19) may be more likely. Both, vaccinated and unvaccinated students are expected to participate. All families are encouraged to submit a test result to the Rapid Test Submission Portal before returning to school after a break or holiday. Students are encouraged to use the test kit previously distributed by the school.
Any positive Covid-19 test result should be immediately reported to covid19@mundoverdepcs.org, where a member of our Health and Safety team will make contact to provide you with information on the isolation process. All questions regarding Covid-19 and our current campus policies should be directed to covid19@mundoverdepcs.org, where a member of our trained Health and Safety team will support your needs.
For more details on the school Covid-19 Policy, click here for English and Spanish.
We want to clarify that Asymptomatic Testing is happening during the first month of classes at the school for all students except those whose parents submited waivers to skip testing. After one month of school, Mundo Verde’s Health and Safety team will provide random antigen tests not PCR tests as it was stated in the Covid-19 policy.
Please see the Covid-19 Policy here in English and Spanish.
Asymptomatic Testing - To ensure we start the 2022-23 school year as safe as possible, Mundo Verde will test students weekly asymptomatic testing for the first month unless parents submit waivers to skip testing. After one month of school, Mundo Verde’s Health and Safety team will provide random antigen tests in a tiered strategy as follows:
Low community spread - no weekly testing
Medium community spread - 10% student and staff testing
High community spread - 20% student and staff testing
SCHOOL SERVICES
In order to better manage inventory, and ensure that our front desk team is fully available to support families and school staff with immediate needs, beginning this week, we will be transitioning t-shirt uniform sales to be exclusively available through the online store via Infinite Campus. As we are consolidating the majority of our inventory in the warehouse, T-shirt sales will no longer be available for purchase at the front desk.
We will continue to pair important school events with free shirt opportunities (e.g. Teacher Parent conferences). Families that are having trouble with the online store or that have a financial hardship should still feel free to request support from the front desk team!
NO After School Program during Back to School Night
There will be NO After School Programming during the Back to School Night events. These days of services will not be reimbursed:
Calle Ocho Campus - Sep 20
J.F. Cook Campus - Sep 21 and 22
After School Program Designated Pick-Up Times
Please follow the designated pick up times.
Pick-up windows on Mon, Tue, Thu, Fri 5:15-5:30pm and 5:45-6:00pm.
Pick-up windows on Wed are 3:15-3:30pm, 5:15-5:30pm and 5:45-6:00pm
Extended Day Program Questions
Email extendedday@mundoverdepcs.org with any questions or concerns.
COMMUNITY ANNOUNCEMENTS
If you are a new family (or any returning family with lingering questions), please join one of three open Q&A sessions hosted by existing parents. There is no set agenda so come prepared with any/all questions!
Tuesday, September 13, 8:30-9:30pm Zoom (specifically 1st - 5th grades)
Thursday, October 6, 9:00-10:00am Zoom (all grades)
Please note that on September 13 the session will specifically be targeted for parents/caregivers of new 1st-5th graders.
If you can't make one of these sessions, please reach out to Erin with any questions at erin.fackler@gmail.com.
Ayuda will be offering free immigration advice and referrals over the phone on Friday, September 23. Clients who are interested should call (202)787-5311 on September 16 between 10:00am and 2:00pm to schedule a phone appointment. Flyers with more information can be found in English and Spanish. This virtual clinic is part of their ongoing effort to provide free, low-barrier consultations for clients who want immigration screening, brief advice, and referrals.
Questions about the clinic should be directed to Irfana Anwer at Irfana.anwer@ayuda.com.
Upcoming Events:
Sep 20: Back to School Night - Calle Ocho Campus
Sep 21: Back to School Night - J.F. Cook Campus
Sep 22: Back to School Night - J.F. Cook Campus
Oct 7: All Staff Professional Development, NO SCHOOL
Oct 10: Holiday, SCHOOL CLOSED