Lewis D. Ferebee: DCPS will reopen strong

Learning is about the process of acquiring new skills — and building knowledge around not just what’s in the curriculum, but also about one another. A guiding light of DC Mayor Muriel Bowser’s leadership around the extraordinary circumstances of the past few months is to ensure that our city comes out of this public health emergency better than before. DC Public Schools (DCPS) is following that charge and, as we plan for next school year, applying what we learned this spring about who we are as a district, as educators and as a community.

Before our lives drastically changed, DCPS was moving full-steam ahead toward our goal of ensuring that every student feels “loved, challenged, and prepared to positively influence society and thrive in life.” In fall 2019, our school district’s enrollment surpassed 50,000 for the first time since 2006, and we celebrated four consecutive years of gains on the PARCC exams, which measure the knowledge and skills of greatest importance for students. 

This year, we expanded our number of career training NAF Academies and pre-K classrooms; launched community-focused initiatives like Connected Schools and Redesign models for Anacostia and Ballou high schools; and invested more than $4 million in technology devices for students that proved to be more critical than ever. 

And this month, we’ve celebrated our graduating seniors through 22 unique, virtual ceremonies that can be watched on TV or online, as well as a new program called “DCPS Persists,” which provides special resources and personalized support as DCPS graduates embark on the next chapter of their educational journeys.

These achievements, while considerable milestones for any school year, are only half the story.

The COVID-19 pandemic closed our school buildings in March, but we quickly pivoted and developed high-quality resources to ensure that our students stayed engaged with their teachers and kept learning. We have provided over 636,000 nutritious meals since the start of the quarantine, supported families of students with special needs, and shifted to a completely virtual hiring strategy for next school year. We distributed technology devices so that students wouldn’t miss out on learning, and we had more than 460,000 views of our learning-at-home website from DC, elsewhere in the United States and across the globe.

Our educators turned their homes into culinary arts classrooms, their kitchens into science labs, their dining-room tables into guided reading nooks, and their sofas into parent-teacher conference rooms. I must express my appreciation to our entire school community — parents, students, teachers, staff and philanthropic partners — for their dedication to our students and one another throughout this school year. 

As we look ahead to another school year marked by the unknown, we remain grounded in what we do know: Our students, families and staff are resilient and able to mobilize quickly behind a common goal.

We know school will be different come fall, and we are already thinking about what it will take to reopen our buildings and welcome back students and educators in the safest way possible. Our architects are considering how classroom seating should be re-configured, and our operations team is already procuring masks, hand sanitizer and cleaning supplies for delivery to schools. We commit to providing regular updates to families about what the new school year will be like, from class schedules to meal service to mental-health support. 

We know that this moment calls upon our collective strength as a community to guarantee that every student reaches their full potential. Throughout the summer, we are using feedback received from families, students and staff, as well as recommendations from DC Health, to guide our decision-making around how to reopen safely this fall. You can find more about this work on our website, dcps.dc.gov. 

We know relationships drive healthy development and learning in children and young people. When positive, these relationships — with peers or adults — also mitigate the damaging effects of chronic stress. Recent events have forced difficult conversations with friends and families about our country, race and police violence. Our educators are spearheading these conversations and encouraging students to express themselves in important ways. 

We will continue to turn these events into teachable moments in which students can express feelings, ask questions, and gain a better understanding of their role in addressing complex events happening in the world around them. This is also why we ended this school year with two weeks of professional development for educators about how to be successful in leading a hybrid learning model, and how we can cultivate wellness in students and adults by fostering trauma-responsive schools. I hope you will join me this summer as we lead opportunities for our students and families to also become attuned to this model. 

Now more than ever, we must turn our attention to our ray of hope: our children. While this year ended very differently than it started, I know that together we can start the next school year strong and continue to lead the nation in urban education.

Lewis D. Ferebee is chancellor of DC Public Schools.

---

About commentaries

The DC Line welcomes commentaries representing various viewpoints on local issues of concern, but the opinions expressed do not represent those of The DC Line. Submissions of up to 850 words may be sent to editor Chris Kain at chriskain@thedcline.org.