KIPP in Touch

As we hit the 100-day mark for the 2018-19 school year, we’re excited to share a few updates about some of KIPP DC’s strategic priorities:

• Somerset Partnership:  We have completed student transcript and attendance audits, and are working on building out an academic, special education, and extracurricular program. Current Somerset Prep staff members have submitted letters of interest in returning to the campus, so the recruitment team has begun conducting initial interviews with staff for the 2019-20 school year. We’re excited to share Somerset Prep principal Lauren Catalano will continue as the principal of the high school. Her experience and leadership will be key to providing students and families continuity at the Somerset Campus next year. And this week, we completed the final step in the formal process to move forward with our partnership by transferring the Somerset Campus facility to the KIPP DC portfolio.
• Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion: Many schools have begun developing school-specific diversity, equity, and inclusion plans to address areas of interest for their school community. Across the network, we are exploring specific initiatives, including student and staff policies, professional development for staff, school talent pipelines, and developing an organizational equity statement and identifying opportunities for KIPP DC to take more of a leadership role in this work.
• Planning for 2019-20: Though we’re only halfway through the school year, we’re already thinking about the 2019-20 school year ahead!  We are actively recruiting new students to apply to KIPP DC through the My School DC lottery, with the high school application deadline tomorrow and the PreK-8 deadline just a few weeks later. And, budget planning season is just around the corner, at which time we’ll finalize staffing structures, new programmatic investments, professional development, and staff wellness and sustainability initiatives for the 2019-20 school year.