​Welcome to Miner Elementary School! The Miner staff members are investing long hours shaping Miner into a community school focused on preparing students to thrive personally, socially, and academically deep into the 21st Century. Our staff takes positive steps daily towards translating our mission into day-to-day activities and instruction that results in substantial student achievement.
As always, if you have questions or concerns please feel free to reach out to me at bruce.jackson@dc.gov or call the main office at 202-397-3960.
We are slated to get a $1.5 million upgrade to our outside space that is currently the field and K-5 play structures. Please stay tuned for additional opportunities to provide input over the next few months. Thank you to those who attended the first meeting to discuss this exciting project.
The ECE Playground is slated to open soon! We are currently waiting on a few parts to be completed. Once the new gates are installed we will open the play structure for our Pre-K 3 and Pre-K 4 students!
Sports and Clubs are starting. The school has developed a list of teacher and staff led clubs and activities for students in K-5 to sign up and participate in. In addition, DC Scores Soccer is ready for their first game of the season. Thursdays are game days! Clubs and activity permission slips will go home at the end of the week. Students must have signed permission slips to participate in clubs after school. DC Scores Soccer and PAL programming will continue to run as normal.
I look forward to seeing everyone on Thursday at 5:30pm for Back to School Night!
The year is off to a strong start. Students and teachers are establishing consistent routines and expectations on a daily basis. Instruction is in full swing, and our students are prepared to do great things this year.
As we establish these routines in classrooms we also have to ensure that we do the same thing as a building. We conducted two required drills this past week - a fire drill and a lockdown drill. While it is always our hope to never need either drill rest assured that our students did an excellent job with both.
Last week we sent home information about the upcoming Grandparent's day celebration being held on this coming Thursday. We want to celebrate our student's grandparents for all that they do for our scholars. We ask that you complete the RSVP form so that we can ensure that we are prepared for our guests.
On September 11th we will hold our first PTO meeting of the school year and we would love it if you could join us. The Miner PTO is an amazing support for the school and our students and it would be an honor to have you join us and take part in all of the work we have planned for this school year. I hope to see you all there.
The time has come! The staff and I are so excited to get to see our students and families beginning on Monday and Thursday! We hope each family had a great summer and are ready to set off on the journey ahead along with the rest of the Miner Family.
My Bears Bulletin newsletter will go out every two weeks to the entire school email list. The hope is that our families receive it as a way to keep everyone informed of the happenings at school.
The ECE Playground work is well underway! It is scheduled to open to our PK3 and PK4 students when we return from Labor Day weekend. In the meantime, alternative arrangements have been made for the students to still receive their recess time for the first weeks of school.
Miner will embark on a redesign of the K-5 playground structures and surrounding grounds beginning in early September. The recent city budget included a substantial allotment for us to make upgrades and reimagine the space. The school will have a committee working on this that includes 3 parent representatives. Those interested in sharing opinions should reach out to the PTO leadership at minerpto@gmail.com.
Painting - This weekend Miner's common spaces and hallways are getting a repaint. Next weekend the 2nd floor, cafeteria, and the gym will also be painted.
Attendance - Classes begin each day at 8:45 am. Students wishing to eat breakfast should arrive by 8:30 am. Any student arriving after 8:45 am will be marked tardy.
Uniforms - Miner is a uniform school. Students should wear navy blue bottoms (pants/skirts/shorts) and either white, navy blue, or light blue polo style shirts.
Drop Off (K-5) - Students enter the building from the cafeteria doors. Parents are welcome to stay in the cafeteria up until 8:40 am.
Drop Off (ECE) - Parents drop off students in rooms 101 and 105 in the mornings with the classroom paraprofessionals.
Pick Up (1st - 5th) - Parents will pick their children up at 3:15pm each day directly from the gym. If someone other than the parent will be doing pick up then the parent MUST complete the authorization form. This applies for day one.
Pick Up (K and ECE) - Parents will pick up students from the ECE playground area. Students will be dismissed from that side of the building and parents must sign out their student. If someone other than the parent will be doing pick up then the parent MUST complete the authorization form. This applies for day one. Students can only be picked up by someone older than 13 years of age.
We are so excited to see everyone this week (Monday or Thursday)! Please reach out if there is anything I can assist with before Day One.
​Allow me to apologize for the hiatus of the Bears Bulletin. There has been a lot going on at Miner and I am going to refocus on ensuring we share that good news with families!
I need to start off by thanking the entire community for the all of the support. I am extremely excited and humbled to have received support from the PTO Leadership, Washington Teachers Union SCAC committee, and LSAT that lead to the chancellor appointing me with the honor of continuing to serve at Miner for next year! My admin team and I are very thankful for the opportunity to continue to work with your children and you as partners in education moving forward.
In light of recent events in society, the issue of student safety continues to be at the forefront of our minds. Each month, Miner Elementary school engages in fire drills to ensure that our students and staff practice what to do in the event that we need to evacuate the building. Unfortunately, we also need to practice lockdown style drills so that the community is prepared in the event of a threat to the school. Students were led by staff in a lockdown drill in which they had to secure themselves in the classroom. This drill is to simulate the process we would use in the event of an intruder on the school property. While we hope to never need these procedures it is nonetheless important that we are always prepared for the worse while we continue to hope for the best. We will continue to practice for many possibilities such as fires, earthquakes/weather disasters, lockdowns, and relocations. If Miner ever had to relocate for any reason, Rosedale Recreation Center is the designated relocation site. If you ever have any questions, please feel free to reach out to Dr. King or me.
The students in grades 3-5 are continuing to prepare for the PARCC exam when we return from Spring Break. We are extremely proud of their hard work and will be communicating specific testing dates to individual grade levels the week we return from Spring Break. 4th graders are up first, starting on April 10th.
As the year continues to fly by I know many of you are beginning to think about summer activities for your children. The Office of Out of School Time provided the attached flyer in regards to some optional summer learning opportunities for students in Kindergarten through 5th grade.
Allow me to begin with a big thank you to all of those families who provided an amazing lunch to the staff on Parent-Teacher Conference day. We are grateful for your generosity.
We had another great week at Miner. Our Special Subject teachers provided an informative and engaging Specials Night. Thank you to all of the families that came out and supported. In addition, our DC Scores soccer team competed in the Poetry Slam - East Side, and did an amazing job! Our students continue to make us proud each and every day.
​On November 30th, students meeting all of the Miner ES attendance and behavioral expectations will get to participate in the November VIP event. I strongly encourage families of students in K-5 to create their Class Dojo account so you can track your child's progress in real time. If you have questions about doing this, please contact your child's homeroom teacher directly.
Please consider supporting Miner ES and the PTO through the holiday greenery sale! As always, the students and staff greatly appreciate all of the support.
Term 1 has come to a close and the weather is beginning to feel like Autumn, just in time for our PK3 and K4 scholars to begin their unit on trees.
There have been a number of great events in the community recently from Hilloween on this past Friday to the Halloween event at Rosedale and on Tuesday our scholars will get to participate in events throughout the school day. Students are allowed to come to school in costume on Tuesday and will all get to participate in different activities sponsored by the ECE Parent Committee, PTO, and the school.
We have also begun a stretch of the school year where it feels like we do not have a full week of school for a while. That continues the next two weeks with Parent-Teacher conference day this Friday and Veterans Day next Friday.
The Thanksgiving holiday is also rapidly approaching. Miner will be conducting a food drive to make an effort to help out some of those in our community who are less fortunate. While the holidays are often full of joy for many families there are always those students and their families that we can help have a better holiday season and we will make all efforts to do that.
How the time is flying by! We are only two weeks away from the end of the first semester of the school year and we have been busy.
We were honored to be joined by the Mayor on Walk to School Day! The Miner community continues to shine - representing in large numbers for this exciting event.
Our DC Scores student-athletes continue to achieve both in the classroom and on the field and our Tennis team won their first match of the year.
A few reminders - we have noticed a slight decline in the uniform compliance recently. I want to thank you all for the support on ensuring our scholars are in uniform each day. If you are experiencing difficulty please contact Mr. Daniel (ECE), Ms. Woodard (K-2) or Ms. Coates (3-5) for assistance.
Many of our K-5 scholars were rewarded with a 'dress down day" for perfect attendance this past Friday. ECE families - be on the lookout for your student's opportunity (as long as they have perfect attendance) in the form of a no-uniform pass in the next two weeks.
As field trips begin for some of our students it is important to remember that you need to be cleared by DCPS in order to chaperone a trip. Chaperone's need to be 18 years of age. No one (children or siblings) can attend a field trip that is not for their assigned grade level. Miner will be the host site for a fingerprinting event in November (Thank you to Mr. Daniel) but if you want to chaperone a trip before then please visit the DCPS Website for steps on becoming a volunteer.
Let be megin this week by thanking all of the families who came out for back to school night! It was great to see so many of you and to get you an opportunity to see the stars of the show - the amaing teachers at Miner.
As the year is in full swing we have a lot of great things going on. Our PTO's grants committee secured a 2 year, $35,000 grant from OSSE to support the amazing garden space we have at Miner. Thank you to all of those who worked on and supported this effort.
The PTO is also in the middle of a huge Move!Play!Grow! Fundraising campaign to support the students at Miner. There are many ways for families to support - please visit the website for more details - your generosity is greatly appreciated.
Our DC Scores Scholar-Athletes are currently undefeated in league play and come home this Thursday for their home opener - please consider coming out to the field at Miner to support them!
This Wednesday morning Miner will be participating in the Walk to School day from Lincoln Park. We are excited that we will be joined by the Mayor on our walk back to Miner so please come out and join us!
It was great to so see many families come out and participate in our first PTO meeting of the school year. It is my sincerest hope that even more will be in attendance when we meet again in October. As a school community, we have a great deal of work to engage in this year to ensure that we are moving in the right direction for all of our scholars and I am honored to support such a dedicated group of educators as we do this work each day.
On Wednesday (September 20th) we welcome all of our families for Back to School Night! We will open the doors at 4:45pm and begin a whole group session at 5:15pm. After a very brief whole group session, we will get families into class with our amazing educators to learn about what your scholars will be learning this year. We hope to see you then!
I have really enjoyed getting to speak with so many of you each day at morning arrival, afternoon dismissal, and PAL pick-up. If you ever have a question or concerns please reach out to any member of the admin team and we will do everything we can to assist.
The first two weeks are in the books and I cannot thank the community enough for all of the support so far. I hope that each family feels the same positive energy in the building that I have so far.
Teachers are planning dynamic lessons to engage all of our students while also building strong classroom communities. Staff will continue to reach out on a regular basis to ensure that the lines of communication are always open and we encourage families to reach out directly to staff to schedule conversations whenever they are needed. If you ever need assistance scheduling a conversation with a teacher please contact the office and we will be happy to assist.
In order to ensure that we are achieving excellence together this year I wanted to encourage each family to be as involved with the PTO as possible. This week the PTO holds its elections (more information here) for leadership and membership on several key committees and the first PTO General Meeting will occur in the Cafeteria on September 12th at 6:00pm. Please consider joining us as we kick of the new school year and set our direction.
The beginning of school has finally arrived! The summer has been jammed pack with professional development and preparation and the day has finally arrived for students to once again fill the classrooms at Miner!
The staff all returned last week and have been working hard to ensure everything is perfect for the first day of school. We cannot wait to meet our students and families on Monday (K-5) and Thursday (ECE).
A huge thank you to all of the families that came out to the meet and greet event this past Wednesday. Not only was it great to see such an awesome turnout but the energy and optimism from families was inspiring.
​This week’s bulletin will hopefully add clarity about what to expect on day one, week one and beyond.
Over the last few weeks, the new leadership team and I have been working to ensure we are ready for our scholars to return on August 21st! We have spent time listening to various stakeholders within the community and we plan to continue our listening tour as the school year gets started.
This week we welcome back the hard working and dedicated teaching staff to Miner as we continue professional development and preparation for our scholar's return. I have been blessed with the opportunity to join this family this year and the more parents, families, staff, and students I have met have just increased my hope and excitement for this school year.
This year, the leadership team is working to ensure that our communication is proactive and useful. Much of the communication will be shared electronically through email and the internet but we will work to accommodate for families that need a different method. During the first week of the school year, we will send home a communication style survey to ensure we are meeting the needs of all families.
With a new leadership team inherently brings some level of change so we wanted to communicate some of those changes to you in advance of students returning. I hope this communication addresses some of the questions that you have.