TO BE RESCHEDULED! Powell Elementary Open House and Tour is OFF DUE TO SNOW

There are lots of reasons to be excited about Powell: Powell piloted the Tools of the Mind curriculum, now one of the most coveted Preschool and Pre-Kindergarten programs in DC Public Schools. There are small classes with two educators in each classroom and a highly qualified faculty who work in both English and Spanish as part of the school’s dual-language program. Powell has been a leader in home visits this year and we got to know our child’s teachers well quickly. Principal Janeece Docal arrived four years ago and since then Powell students and our community have done nothing but grow. She was a 2013 winner of a Rubenstein Award for Highly Effective Leaders. Powell was recognized as the second-best bilingual school in the United States by the Spanish Embassy (2012-2013), and was the 2011 recipient of Fight for Children Rising Star Award. It has everything from a robotics club to afterschool programs with the Latin American Youth Center to a student mayor and council who met Mayor Gray and Members of the DC Council in November to advocate on behalf of the school. Students returned to Powell in August 2013 with a renovation completed for all of the early childhood classrooms, which are now right-sized for preschool and pre-K, all equipped with bathrooms, and these new spaces all have great technology in each room. There are exciting plans for expansion and modernization of the entire building. My wife and I have been very pleased with what our son is learning in his preschool class and, after wading through the lottery process last year, are very happy to have found a great school for our family, responsive administrators and teachers, and an active parent community, Parents Organized for the Power of Powell (POPPs). We hope you’ll come by Powell next Tuesday morning at 9:00 to talk with Principal Docal, take a tour of our school, meet parents, take a peek into one of our early childhood classrooms, and learn why we feel so optimistic about our children’s future at Powell. Powell, located at 1350 Upshur St. NW (between 13th and 14th Streets, not far from Petworth Library and across the street from the lovely Upshur Park), is the DCPS elementary school for much of southern Petworth, 16th Street Heights and the southern half of Crestwood. Andrew Rowe