Dear Mundo Verde parents and caregivers,
As we look to the start of a new school year, I am excited today as I was 29 years ago when I started teaching. The energy and enthusiasm I perceive as our professional development with all staff progresses on our campuses is tremendous. I welcome all new families, leaders, teachers, and staff to Mundo Verde’s 12th year, during which we will serve over 1,000 students across two campuses in grades PreK-3 through fifth grade.
Mundo Verde offers a unique experience to students and families. We are an Expeditionary Learning (EL) Education School dedicated to education for sustainability and biliteracy. As a public school, Mundo Verde is free and open to all Washington DC students and actively promotes equity and inclusion for all.
In the Spring of 2022, the school leadership examined the views of our stakeholders alongside student performance and teacher/student retention. Below you will find some additional insight into how that data informed the four organizational priorities you learned about in Executive Director Kristin’s letter last week:
Drive improved learning for students - Student learning is core to our work. We have particular commitment to creating a quality, equitable learning experience for students who have been historically underserved.
Creating strong staff culture - Our people are the most critical resource. Key to the sustainability of our people is a strong school culture. Feedback from staff during the 2021-22 school year highlighted these areas as key cultural areas of growth for us.
Strengthening systems - Family, leader, and staff feedback and third party evaluations have made clear that we need to improve in these areas. A foundational part of setting us up to succeed here is continuing work we have begun to get the right systems in place and ensure they are used consistently.
Promote anti-racism and equity - Racism and all other intersections of oppression shape opportunity and access in U.S. society. Everyday, people of marginalized groups will face the brutal realities of systemic oppression, stereotype threat, and micro-aggressions in their everyday pursuits. It is critical that we work together in the school to dismantle racism — individual, institutional, and structural — in service of equity and justice for all**.
As has been announced, changes are underway that will further support students and teachers and allow principals to better engage with the parent and caregiver community.
The addition of academic deans to our campus leadership structure is strengthening individual teacher support, recognition and accountability; establishing strong school culture and climate; and upholding high levels of academic achievement throughout the entire school. The lower school deans will work with PreK to 2nd grade teachers and students (one at each campus), and the upper grade dean will engage with 3rd to 5th grade (at J.F. Cook campus, and as Calle Ocho campus grows we expect to have an upper grade dean as well). In addition, two newly appointed directors and two managers of teaching and learning are now improving our campuses by strengthening the curriculum consistency and quality, and leading professional development all year long - on Wednesdays, and in other settings and formats. Mundo Verde believes in grassroots growth of our employees. As such, many of our new leaders have been with Mundo Verde several years.
Mundo Verde is also pleased to announce program enhancements that will ensure the most vulnerable students are fully served. We are launching a classroom that will be specially designed to meet the unique needs of students with autism, while still aligned to education for sustainability and biliteracy. In addition, across the grades, special education teachers will be working closely with general education teachers as we transition to co-teaching in classrooms in support of the social, emotional and academic development of all students.
Mundo Verde understands the success of our school is only possible with the support of parents and caregivers. During the first six weeks of the school year, teachers will be working with students to establish expectations and routines that ensure the foundation is laid for a productive and cooperative year of learning. Even as teachers are experts on curriculum and pedagogy, we know that parents and caregivers are experts on their own children—how the children absorb information, what delights them, how they show that they’re upset, what comforts them. In the coming weeks, teachers will also be working to establish a climate of respect, trust, and collaboration with families, as valuable partners in the emotional development and learning of students. (Please visit the first six weeks of school section in the Family Handbook in English-page 15 or Spanish-page 16 to continue learning more.) The Meet and Greet this coming Monday, teacher and family Welcome Meetings, and Back to School Night are all part of how teachers deepen relationships with parents and caregivers.
I want to thank the organized caregiver groups for their recent collaboration and encourage all families to learn more about these active groups. In the spirit of CREW (where none of us are simply passengers), I look forward to ongoing engagement with parents and caregivers, and hope to see everyone at our school events and activities.
Thank you for being part of Mundo Verde. Thank you for your support. We are excited to see our smiling students soon.
¡Adelante Mundo Verde!
Joseph Rodriguez
Interim Chief School Officer
**This organizational priority is grounded in and extends SY21 and SY22 org priority – Mundo Verde is committed to a focus on belonging and uplifting the experience of Black students, families and staff to ensure equitable access to student achievement. The rationale was informed by Overcoming Racism and The Equity Lab