The leadership team and staff at Ida B. Wells MS have had a busy and productive summer as they prepare to open their doors with a 6th grade class in their new, modernized building at 405 Sheridan Street NW.

On July 18, the leadership team held a retreat. This was a wonderful opportunity to learn, grow and plan with each other before the school year begins.

On July 8, the summer team went on a building tour of the new school facilities. It’s exciting to see the installation of the SmartBoards and basketball hoops in progress!

On June 8th, Whittier EC, Ida B. Wells MS and Coolidge HS held a summer block party. This was a wonderful chance to build community across the feeder pattern. A special thank you to the Whittier PTA for your support on this event!

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

To keep up with all that is happening at Ida B. Wells MS, please visit their new website.

You are also welcome to follow the school’s social media, using the links below!

• The school has two twitter accounts that you can find at @IdaBWellsMS and @MeganVroman.
• They also have an Instagram account, you can find it here @IdaBWellsMS
• Lastly, their Facebook account can be found here.

And remember, Go Wolves!

March 25, 2019

Dear DCPS Community,

I am excited to share that DCPS has proposed to the DC Council that New North Middle School, which will open in School Year 2019-2020, be named Ida B. Wells Middle School. This decision comes after an extensive engagement process that included online surveys, school visits, and community meetings that began last summer and concluded last fall with over 450 community members. I would like to thank each member of our DCPS community who contributed to this effort with your feedback and input.

Ida B. Wells (1862 – 1931) was an iconic African-American investigative journalist, civil rights activist, educator, and researcher. Today marks 88 years to the day of her passing and we are excited to honor and continue her legacy in DCPS. As a lifelong fighter for justice, she dedicated much of her career to investigating and reporting the truth about the brutality of lynching and the disgraceful conditions of black-only schools in the United States. She fought against discriminatory hiring and was an advocate for women’s suffrage. Ida B. Wells Middle School will be DCPS’ only current standalone middle school named after an African-American woman. This is an important milestone for DCPS and one that reflects our values of courage, equity, and excellence.

This proposal is informed by several months of public engagement. Nominations collected from the general public were carefully reviewed by parents, students, teachers, Coolidge HS alumni, and community members to help determine the finalists. Our proposed name has been submitted to DC Council and, as a next step, will be submitted to the DC Registry for final action. To learn more about the naming process and the exciting program planned for the school, please visit newnorthms.org. 

Sincerely,

Dr. Lewis D. Ferebee

Chancellor

DC Public Schools

Please see below for an announcement from DCPS Instructional Superintendent, Dr. Drewana Bey. This letter below is available for download in both English and Spanish.

February 12, 2019

Dear Parents, Families, and Friends of New North Middle School,

As we prepare for the opening of the New North Middle School, I am excited to announce that Megan Vroman has been selected as Principal. She is looking forward to welcoming the inaugural class of New North Middle School to a new school in a newly modernized building for the 2019-2020 School Year! For almost four years at West Education Campus, Principal Vroman has worked together with the school’s community to create a world class education for PK3-8 students. Our vision is to inspire and empower lifelong learners by addressing their academic, social, and emotional needs, and we are so excited Principal Vroman will be at the helm of this work for the new middle school.

Megan Vroman has dedicated her life to serving and providing high quality educational experiences for students. She served as the founding principal of Uplift Mighty, a public charter school in Texas, where she served for two years before moving to D.C. After her transition, she supported school leadership teams at a charter network here in the District. She was selected to lead West Education Campus in School Year 2015-2016. In School Year 2016-2017, West EC doubled the city average in growth on PARCC scores in both ELA and math, and increased student satisfaction from 78 percent to 93 percent.

As a former middle school teacher, Principal Vroman is committed to and deeply believes in the importance of a strong middle school experience. She understands that the role of educators is not only to prepare scholars for the academic rigor of college and beyond but also to develop citizenship and social skills that empower change agents for the community and the world. Principal Vroman earned her bachelor’s degree from Texas Christian University and a master’s in education from Arizona State University. She also holds an Executive Master’s in Leadership from the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University.

I look forward to supporting Principal Vroman and the entire New North family in preparation for next school year. As Principal Vroman transitions to her new role next month, please contact me via email at drewana.bey@k12.dc.gov should you have any questions.

Sincerely,

Dr. Drewana Bey

Instructional Superintendent, Cluster 8

The leadership team and staff at Coolidge High School have been working hard this winter to promote the school relaunch next year when the school moves back into its fully modernized building with three academies: Health Sciences, Mass Media and Early College. Below are a few pictures of what the team has been up to this fall.

Early College Academy Director Nicole Savage attends the high school fair at La Salle-Backus Education Campus to promote the Early College Academy

From left to right: Coolidge HS Principal, Semanthe Bright; DCPS Deputy Director for College & Career Programs, Dr. Erin Bibo; and Deputy Chancellor for Social Emotional Academic Development, Dr. Melissa Kim all share a fun moment at Ed Fest on 12/8/18

Coolidge HS hosted over 80 students for its middle school student shadow day on Oct. 19

If you are interested in learning more about the Early College Academy at Coolidge High School, you are welcome to join community information sessions being held this winter.

Below are a few pictures of what students have been working on in the Health Sciences Academy and their Mass Media Program.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

The DCPS school planning team has been searching for a name for ‘New North’ MS that will open next school year on the campus of Coolidge HS with a 6th grade class. This school will serve the Brightwood EC, LaSalle-Backus EC, Takoma EC and Whittier EC school committees. Families who live in the boundaries of these 4 education campuses or who currently attend them will have the right to enroll their child at anytime starting in April 2019 for the 2019-20 School Year.

‘New North’ MS will add a grade each year until it is a full 6th – 8th grade middle school in SY21-22. We spent the summer collecting ideas and nominations from the public. We are very pleased that most of the nominations came from parents, families and community members in Ward. 4

The DCPS school planning team worked together with the Coolidge Community group to help evaluate and narrow down the nominations to 10 finalist names. The group used a rubric that was developed from criteria outlined in the DCPS school naming policy

Here are the 10 finalist names. You can read more about them here.

We are asking the general public to provide us with feedback on these 10 names.

Please take our survey here. It will be open from October 15 – October 30th. This survey will help DCPS narrow this list down to a final three that DCPS senior leadership will consider, review and work with the DC City Council for final review and action on the name of the school.

The Coolidge Community Working Group came together on October 4th at 6:30pm to discuss and engage around updates on the Coolidge HS modernization. This included highlights on Stadium renovations and progress toward the overall school modernization. Please visit the DCPS Modernization website for more information.

The school planning team shared updates on the progress toward finding a name for ‘New North’ MS that will open next school year with a 6th grade class on the campus of Coolidge HS. DCPS received 50 nominations from the public. Once duplicates are accounted for, this represents 31 individuals and 2 places/neighborhoods. The school planning team is pleased that 78% of the nominations came from Ward 4.

For more information on the nominations including who was nominated and from where the nominations came and the naming process, please click here. During our meeting, members of the working group helped evaluate the submitted nominations with a rubric based on criteria from the DCPS Naming policy. There will be a survey for the broader public to share their thoughts on the finalist names this month.

The school planning team also introduced updates program for New North MS including proposed class and course offerings as well as the overall school vision. For the full presentation of the evening please please click here..

Our next Community Working Group meeting will be Wednesday, Oct. 10 at Coolidge HS at 6:30pm. The purpose of this meeting will be to continue the conversation with the materials posted here about Coolidge HS and New North MS. This will include modernization updates of the Frank R. Williams Center and more information about New North MS.

The period to submit nominations opened on June 14 and ended on September 7. Please stay tuned to our blog for the next round of community input later this fall. 

The DCPS school planning team is asking for the public to submit nominations to officially name “New North MS” that will open on the campus of Coolidge High School for the 2019 – 2020 academic school year.  This public and community driven process is driven by the DCPS School Naming Policy

Your nomination may be based on a person or a place. While there are general requirements for all nominations, one based on an individual has additional and more specific requirements. Please see the requirements below but also please take time to review the full DCPS School Naming Policy

General Requirements for all nominations
All names, whether they are based on a person or a place, must meet the following general requirements:

• The name symbolizes a contribution to society, including contributions made to the local school community
• The name will lend prestige and status to an institution of learning
• The name represents the DCPS mission, vision, and values.

Specific Requirements for nominations based on a person
All names based on a person must be the following requirements:

• The individual must not be a living person
• The individual must have been deceased for at least two (2) years; and
• Only the individual’s given name as well as their surname may be used

(e.g. “Paul Lawrence Dunbar High School” rather than “Dunbar High School”)

The DCPS School Planning team has made some one pagers for parents & families about the opening of the new Ward 4 middle school that will serve northern ward 4 beginning in school year 2019 – 2020. They also feature information about the phased opening of the school as well as the modernization and redesign happening at Coolidge HS.

Brightwood Education Campus
English, Español, Francais, Tiếng Việt (Vietnamese),
አማርኛ,(Amharic), 中文 (Chinese)

LaSalle – Backus Education Campus
English, Español, Français, Tiếng Việt (Vietnamese),
አማርኛ (Amharic),中文 (Chinese)

Takoma Education Campus
English, Español, Francais, Tiếng Việt (Vietnamese),
አማርኛ (Amharic),中文 (Chinese)

Whittier Education Campus
English, Español, Francais, Tiếng Việt (Vietnamese),
አማርኛ (Amharic),中文 (Chinese)