Dumbarton Middle School Susan Harris, Principal May/June 2021 Dear Families, It is May 14, 2021 and we are about a month away from ending this school year. My sincere appreciation to you for your patience, understanding and heroic efforts in supporting your children through challenges that none of us expected. I truly believe the resilience they have demonstrated will serve as a strong foundation for how they will be able to persevere in the future. This is our final newsletter for this year. I want to thank you for taking the time to read these each month. As we progress through the rest of the school year, I will provide you with updates as information changes and/or becomes available. Below is an update on our in-person enrollment. We are now at capacity due to BCPS distancing requirements. We have 847 students attending on site for in-person learning. We are using the entire gymnasium and the entire cafeteria to accommodate all the students who need to eat lunch in a setting where six feet of distance is maintained. I am grateful to our students and staff for being so helpful and cooperative throughout this process. Dumbarton Enrollment Data as of Monday, May 17, 2021 Total Students Enrolled At School for 2 or 4 days Cohorts A, B & D Virtual Every Day Cohort C Grade 6 358 273 85 Grade 7 382 283 99 Grade 8 417 291 126 Total 1157 847 310 Devices/Chromebooks If your child still has an HP instead of a Chromebook, it should be swapped out prior to the end of the school year. The HP devices are leased and need to be returned to the vendor. We are required to return the devices with their chargers. Currently, my understanding is that students will keep their devices over the summer including our eighth graders who are attending a BCPS school next year. Any student who is not attending a BCPS school next year will be asked to return their device before the last day of school. Eighth Grade Information An electronic Virtual Farewell announcement was emailed home last week. Further details will be forthcoming. As a reminder, BCPS requires that parents of 5 th and 8 th grade verify residency prior to the end of the school year. If you have questions, please call our school, and speak to Ms. Billington. Thank you! I wanted to thank all of you who donated to the PTSA sponsored Staff Appreciation Week which took place earlier this month. We value our PTSA and are grateful to Sara Ware, our new PTSA President, for her leadership. What a year it has been! Sincerely, Susan Harris Principal
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Dumbarton Middle School
Susan Harris, Principal
May/June 2021
Dear Families,
It is May 14, 2021 and we are about a month away from ending this school year. My sincere appreciation to you
for your patience, understanding and heroic efforts in supporting your children through challenges that none of
us expected. I truly believe the resilience they have demonstrated will serve as a strong foundation for how they
will be able to persevere in the future. This is our final newsletter for this year. I want to thank you for taking
the time to read these each month. As we progress through the rest of the school year, I will provide you with
updates as information changes and/or becomes available. Below is an update on our in-person enrollment. We
are now at capacity due to BCPS distancing requirements. We have 847 students attending on site for in-person
learning. We are using the entire gymnasium and the entire cafeteria to accommodate all the students who need
to eat lunch in a setting where six feet of distance is maintained. I am grateful to our students and staff for being
so helpful and cooperative throughout this process.
Dumbarton Enrollment Data as of Monday, May 17, 2021
Total Students
Enrolled
At School for 2 or 4 days
Cohorts A, B & D
Virtual Every Day
Cohort C
Grade 6 358 273 85
Grade 7 382 283 99
Grade 8 417 291 126
Total 1157 847 310
Devices/Chromebooks
If your child still has an HP instead of a Chromebook, it should be swapped out prior to the end of the school
year. The HP devices are leased and need to be returned to the vendor. We are required to return the devices
with their chargers. Currently, my understanding is that students will keep their devices over the summer
including our eighth graders who are attending a BCPS school next year. Any student who is not attending a
BCPS school next year will be asked to return their device before the last day of school.
Eighth Grade Information
An electronic Virtual Farewell announcement was emailed home last week. Further details will be forthcoming.
As a reminder, BCPS requires that parents of 5th and 8th grade verify residency prior to the end of the school
year. If you have questions, please call our school, and speak to Ms. Billington.
Thank you!
I wanted to thank all of you who donated to the PTSA sponsored Staff Appreciation Week which took place earlier this month. We value our PTSA and are grateful to Sara Ware, our new PTSA President, for her leadership. What a year it has been! Sincerely,
Susan Harris
Principal
Dumbarton teachers and staff had a phenomenal Teacher Appreciation Week, thanks to Sara Waire and
the entire PTSA and Dumbarton community. Staff received coffee, tea and lemon treats from Atwater’s
on Monday, a scrumptious lunch from Amicci’s on Thursday and breakfast snacks on Friday. Everyone
raved about how delicious the food tasted. It truly brought smiles to many faces. What made the week
extra special was walking into school each morning, surrounded by colorful yard signs, handmade by
students and parents, with positive messages. This was so touching! Thank you!
Welcome to the final stretch of the school year! In a year like no other, our teachers and staff have gone
above and beyond to support our children’s well-being and success, both in and outside of the classroom.
Through the generous contributions from our DMS families and community, we were able to express our
gratitude with student made signs, breakfast, and lunch provided throughout Teacher Appreciation Week.
As a PTSA, our goal is to support and strengthen Dumbarton Middle School and to ensure each student has
the opportunity to reach their full potential. The DMS PTSA Mission is three-fold: To be a powerful voice
for all DMS students, a relevant resource for families and communities, and a strong advocate for the
education and well-being of every DMS student.
Although many of our beloved programs and events have had to be put on hold, we remain committed to
planning and preparing initiatives to enrich our students’ experiences.
Please reach out if you would like more information on how you can help. If you haven’t already, we’d love
to connect.
• Stay in touch via our FB Page - Dumbarton Middle School PTSA
Towson, MD – When Governor Larry Hogan last Saturday announced
posthumous pardons for 34 lynching victims in Maryland, he credited teacher Michelle St. Pierre’s students from
Loch Raven Technical Academy for inspiring his action. For more than a year, students at Dumbarton Middle
School (Mr. DePrima’s students), Loch Raven Technical Academy, and Towson High School have been studying the
lynching of 15-year-old Howard Cooper in Towson in 1885. (A 15-minute video about the lynching is available
online.) Some students drafted possible language for a planned memorial marker for the site. A petition to have
Cooper’s conviction overturned was one of the projects that came out of Loch Raven Technical Academy law and
finance magnet students working with the Maryland Lynching Memorial Project. The initial request for a
posthumous pardon was sent from the Maryland Lynching Memorial Project to the governor based on student
ideas. Then a digital petition was created by students to collect signatures. On May 8, a historical marker
identifying the site of Cooper’s lynching was unveiled, and, at the unveiling, the governor made his pardon
announcement – which made both national and international news. The story was covered by NPR, CBS, NBC, CNN,
Rolling Stone, Politico, The Washington Post, New York Post, and by outlets as far away as Australia."I was so
inspired by that group of young middle school students, because we have no greater responsibility as leaders in a
democracy than preserving for future generations the importance of clearly differentiating the difference between
right and wrong, and the power of speaking out in the face of injustice," Hogan said.“…(I)n the interest of equal
justice under law, I have made the decision to grant a posthumous pardon today for Howard Cooper,” Hogan
continued. “And studying this case led me to dig deeper… Today I am also granting pardons to all the 34 victims of
racial lynching in the state of Maryland which occurred between 1854 and 1933.”According to the governor’s
office, these pardons are the first of their kind in the nation by a governor. The Cooper memorial was developed by
the Baltimore County Coalition of the Maryland Lynching Memorial Project in partnership with the national Equal
Justice Initiative and Baltimore County government. =====================================================================================================
STUDENTS FROM 13 MARYLAND COUNTIES AND BALTIMORE CITY WIN AWARDS AT MARYLAND HISTORY DAY
More than 300 middle and high school students submitted projects online to present their extensive historical research at the 2021 Maryland History Day competition. The competition, usually held in person, is the culmination of a year-long program from Maryland Humanities. Due to the ongoing impact of COVID-19, Maryland Humanities once again administered the contest in a digital format this year, with project evaluation across five categories taking place over several weeks. Last year, more than 33,000 Maryland students participated at the school level. Special Prize Winner: Student: Lila Kassouf Award: Award for Excellence in Legal & Constitutional History, sponsored by Cynthia Raposo and Joseph Furey Topic: How Frederick Douglass Viewed the Constitution School: Dumbarton Middle School
6th Grade Assistant Principal, Mrs. Stathopoulos The countdown is on as we wind down the school year and gear up for summer vacation! This year has been
like no other and will be remembered as one that required us to have a growth mindset by adapting and finding
new ways to teach, learn, and communicate. I encourage my students to finish this school year strong by
focusing on and making progress on the goals they set for fourth quarter. As we break for summer and get
much needed rest and relaxation, I urge my students to continue to think creatively, read for pleasure, and enjoy
being with friends and family. I am honored and privileged to be your administrator and I look forward to next
year as we journey through middle school together.
From the 6th Grade Counselor, Mrs. Murphy As summer approaches and our students have more free time, parents will benefit from setting ground rules
for social media usage. Our kids spend a lot of time socializing digitally. Let them know that you are ready to
listen if problems arise. Here are some tips from Common Sense Media (2021).
What are the basic social media rules for middle schoolers? The reality is that most kids start developing online relationships around the age of 8, usually through virtual worlds
such as Club Penguin. By age 10, they've progressed to multiplayer games and sharing their digital creations and
homemade videos on sites such as YouTube. By age 13, millions of kids have created accounts on social-networking sites
such as Facebook. Here are the essential safety and responsibility guidelines for middle schoolers:
• Follow the rules. Many social sites have an age minimum of 13 for both legal and safety/privacy reasons.
Encourage kids to stick with age-appropriate sites.
From the Media Center Greetings, Dumbarton families! It has been wonderful to see some activity in the media center again. Although, we are not inviting full classes to the library to check out books, we are encouraging students to ask for a pass to browse the book collection when they have time. English Language Arts teachers have been especially open to encourage a trip to the media center. Students can also come by before and after school. There has been a real increase in the check-out of eBooks since the start of COVID. Students are welcome to go to https://baltimore.follettdestiny.com to see our DMS collection. Once signed in, they can check out any of the available eBooks. I have categorized them by genre for easy browsing. In-person attendees can use the Destiny catalog to scour our print resources, too. More electronic books and resources can be found using BCPS-licensed Tumble Books.
• Tumblebook Cloud Jr. is accessible using this link
Please return library books from last year! We had record-breaking check-out data when we closed for COVID. We are still waiting on many, many books to be returned. Even if your child has books from their elementary schools, I can easily get them there. Please return any library books to me at Dumbarton, and I’ll gladly check them in and return them where they belong. We want students to have access to our full collections. It’s always a great day in the Media Center! Susan Smith, [email protected]