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How to get in touch with school leaders

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Ms. Hayden and Mr. Dunston make themselves available via email and in-person meetings as they’re able given their demanding schedules.

Here’s what Ms. Hayden has said (publicly in a recent Dolphin Digest) about the best way to get in touch with them.

Have an urgent matter?

Call the main office (240-740-0980, habla español) and ask for Ms. Dutch. She can check if I am free or book the next available time for a phone call.

Have a routine question or not-so-urgent matter?

Send me an email.

I aim to respond within 48 hours (excluding weekends and holidays).

Note: I receive a high volume of emails daily and want to ensure every message is addressed. If you do not hear back within 48 hours, please reach out to Ms. Dutch (sheila_e_dutch@mcpsmd.org) so she can alert me—emails occasionally get buried!

Need an in-person meeting?

Reach out to Ms. Dutch to be added to my calendar: sheila_e_dutch@mcpsmd.org, 240-740-0980, (habla español)

What about pop-ins during arrival & dismissal?

My top priority during morning arrival and afternoon dismissal is connecting with our students. While I am happy to have quick check-ins during these times, private or in-depth conversations need to be scheduled. Face-to-face time with students as they enter and exit school is a non-negotiable for me, and scheduling ensures I can give your family my full, uninterrupted attention during our meeting.

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Why the PTA is making all official public meetings virtual

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Alongside other changes driven by you, the TPES & PBES PTA leadership teams have made the decision that all official PTA Meetings (1st Tuesday of every month) will be virtual this year.

We just wanted to quickly explain that decision (and let everyone know what in-person opportunities you’ll have to interface with the PTA).

Why?

The biggest reason is logistics.

In-person PTA Meetings mean:

  • optimizing for both livestream and in-person experiences (much more work)
  • keeping the school open (and school staff in the building) late
  • many of you having to figure out childcare (not ideal)
  • the PTA teams having to spends dozens of volunteer hours troubleshooting tech (we’d prefer not to do this)
  • the PTA can reinvest the in-person PTA budget into other projects
  • etc…

We’ve decided to put that time and energy into continuing to improve the virtual meeting experience and create alternative events for the community to meet IRL.

What in-person opportunities will there be?

Right now, the PTA plans to host a couple ‘Meet the PTA’ Nights this year.

Details are TBD but they’ll either be at a local restaurant or hosted at someone’s home. They’ll be times to get folks together and talk about school issues in a less formal setting, which I think most of us can agree can often lead to more fruitful conversations.

As always, thanks for your trust in us making decisions we believe are right for our community.

P.S. We love feedback!

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Getting PTA calendar events to appear in Apple Calendar

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We’ve been made aware of a couple instances of the shared TPES/PBES calendar not appearing/updating correctly in the native Apple Calendar app on iPhones.

If anybody else seems to be having this issue, these instructions fixed the issue!

Google Calendar automatically limits which calendars sync to external mobile apps via CalDAV. Subscribed calendars, secondary calendars, and shared calendars are disabled by default on Apple devices until you explicitly check them in Google’s sync settings.

Follow these steps to enable the subscribed calendar on your iPhone:

Authorize the Calendar in Google Sync Settings (browser step)

  1. Open Safari or Chrome (on your phone or computer) and go to: https://calendar.google.com/calendar/syncselect
  2. Log in to the same Google Account you use on your iPhone. Under Shared Calendars, check the box next to the subscribed calendar you want to see, then tap Save in the bottom right.
  3. Verification: The page will reload and show a confirmation that your preferences were saved.

Ensure the Calendar is Checked in Apple Calendar (iPhone app)

  1. Open the native Calendar app on your iPhone. Tap Calendars at the bottom center of the screen. Scroll to your Google account section and verify that a checkmark appears next to the newly enabled calendar.
  2. Verification: If unchecked, tap it so a colored checkmark appears.

Force a Refresh (iPhone app)

  1. While still in the Calendars list in the Apple Calendar app, pull down from the top of the list until the spinning loading indicator appears, then let go.
  2. Verification: The spinner disappears and your subscribed events populate on the calendar grid.

If you still don’t see the calendar listed under your account in Step 2…

  • Go to iPhone Settings > Apps (or Calendar on older iOS versions) > Calendar > Calendar Accounts. Tap your Google account and verify the Calendars toggle is green.
  • Under Settings > Calendar > Accounts > Fetch New Data, ensure the Google account is set to Fetch rather than Manual.
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How the PTA communicates

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We’ve gotten feedback from multiple people so far this year that so many PTA communications coming through WhatsApp is overwhelming.

We hear you!

So the team got together and put together a more explicit communication plan to get everybody what they need without blowing up your phones.

How the PTA will communicate moving forward

  • WhatsApp Announcements channel: immediate, actionable information + school-wide updates (only mission-critical stuff)
  • WhatsApp Grade-specific chats (All K, All 1st, All 2nd): immediate, actionable information + grade-specific updates, connect with families in your grade.
  • WhatsApp Classroom-specific chats: No updates (Room Parents may reshare updates), connect with families in your classroom
  • WhatsApp Volunteer chat: volunteer-specific updates only
  • WhatsApp Spanish- and Amharic-chats: language-specific updates only
  • Dolphin Dispatch email group: important (but don’t require immediate action) school-wide and grade-specific updates
  • Independent email: important topics (that don’t require immediate action) the PTA believes need unique attention

Opting out of notifications

I cannot stress enough how much we encourage everybody to set up notifications in the way that serves you best!

1. Mute chats

For any chat, you can Swipe Left > Click “More…” > Mute to silence notifications for a specific chat.

This is a great way to still have access to a chat group but not receive all the notifications.

2. Update WhatsApp profile notifications

In the bottom of the app, go to You > Notifications and make any adjustments here you’d like to minimize interruptions.

3. Update phone-specific notifications

If you go to Device Settings > Notifications > WhatsApp in your phone, you can also customize notifications for your device.

4. Leave groups as you see fit

If you’re in the WhatsApp Community, you’ll receive all mission-critical updates via the Announcement channels.

But if you don’t find the All K, All 1st grade or All 2nd grade chats useful, leaving those chats is always an option. No hard feelings!

Give us more feedback

The PTA Team is super open to feedback and constructive criticism!

You asked for PTA Meeting changes. We did that.

You told us about issues with drivers near the school. We addressed that.

You asked for lots of extra support for incoming Kindergarten families. We assisted.

If there’s anything we’re doing that’s actively making your experience with us or the school worse, please respectfully tell us so we can address it.

You’re always welcome to discuss things in WhatsApp. And if you’d like to reach us directly, you can contact us, contact us anonymously, give us event feedback or give us direct PTA Meeting feedback.

P.S. There’s a lot the PTA will do to help our students, families, school and community. But we’re most definitely going to keep having fun while we do it! 🤪

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TPES’ public comments regarding in-school screen time

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Before our first PTA meeting of the year, many questions were submitted about screen-time at TPES.

While we ran out of time during the meeting to tackle these questions, the school has responded to these inquiries in this Dolphin Digest.

As a primary school, TPES places an intentional focus on hands-on, multi-sensory learning. We share your commitment to ensuring that digital devices serve as purposeful tools rather than passive distractions. I want to acknowledge that our curriculum does have numerous technology components such as instructional slides and videos that are used along with teacher led instruction and read alouds, or video clips that provide context around concepts being taught; however, we emphasize direct teacher-led instruction, collaborative engagement, and physical learning materials.

Direct device use such as Chromebooks are intended to supplement instruction in very limited windows; such as required diagnostic assessments or short, focused station rotations for skills practice, while the vast majority of core instruction remains paper, book, and teacher-led or through collaborative engagement.

As MCPS conducts its comprehensive technology review in response to the Board of Education’s recent resolution, our leadership team and teachers will continue evaluating classroom technology practices. To maintain equity and effective classroom management, our school utilizes the district mandated curriculum rather than providing individualized default “no-technology” learning tracks for individual students or classes. However, we are actively working with our teachers to ensure daily screen time remains limited and aligned with the developmental needs of our young learners.

If you have further questions or didn’t feel like your question was answered fully, don’t hesitate to continue the conversation in WhatsApp!

P.S. Psssst… if you’ve read this far, react in WhatsApp with the ‘laptop’ emoji 💻

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8 PTA Meeting changes (you gave feedback, we listened)

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You gave us honest feedback – the good, the bad and the ugly.

And we took action on it!

Here are some changes to PTA Meetings moving forward.

1. “Any time there were multiple people unmuted there was echo.” “The echos were frustrating” “Lots of echos. It would be nice if the host could mute everyone.”

Yeah, this was totally my bad.

Long story short, I figured out the issue ~10 minutes into the meeting and it shouldn’t have been an issue the last ~50 minutes.

And now that I got that figured out once, I should be able to avoid that entirely in future meetings.

2. “Lack of clarity between slides on what pertained to TPES and what pertained to PBES.”

We’ve had some space in the bottom-left corner of slides so we added a little area so you know if a slide is for TPES, PBES or Everyone.

3. “The lack of PTA presence (from both schools) on screen: this should be a place where we are seeing and recognizing our PTA leadership, not looking at a sea of blank squares like every other impersonal meeting.”

Go off!

If the experience you want is to see more faces, that’s totally cool. We generally recommend the Sidebar view because it allows you to see the shared slides well as well as faces on the left side of the screen but there are other options.

One nice part about platforms like Google Meet is that you can select the view that works best for you.

  • Go with Auto, Tiled or Spotlight views if they better fit your needs
  • At the bottom of these settings, you can also click the toggle next to “Hide tiles without video” to only see those with their cameras on

And yes, everyone is welcome to join with their camera via video but that’s a personal choice we leave to each individual.

4. “Was there simultaneous translation in Spanish and Amharic? If so, I missed that.”

We had some initial slides going rolling through every ~15 seconds before the meeting got started, one of which gave clear instructions on how to turn on translated captions.

I was sorting out some audio issues before the call and wasn’t flipping to this slide as much as I should have.

I also didn’t highlight this slide at all once the meeting started, which I should have!

I’ve moved these slides to all be after the Welcome slide to make sure they’re reviewed explicitly but briefly for everyone.

5. “Harder to find camera and microphone controls on phone version”

They should be in the same place whether you’re joining from a computer, laptop, tablet, mobile browser or mobile app.

Both the camera and microphone controls are always at the bottom of the window!

6. “Doesn’t work with all browsers (Firefox)”

Often when Google Meet doesn’t work with Firefox, it’s because you have an active browser extension that’s causing a conflict.

Try disabling some of your old or unused extensions and/or opening the meet link in an Incognito Window and see if that helps!

How to Fix Google Forms "Internal Error"

And if all else fails, some good options for joining right on your phone are the Google Meet iOS app or Android app.

7. “Wouldn’t let me access with primary Gmail account, had to use another.”

This is often an account indexing issue. This sounds complicated but it’s usually a simple fix.

  • Look at the top-right corner of the pre-meeting green room. Confirm the displayed profile photo and email address match your primary account.
  • Click Switch account on that pre-join screen to explicitly select your primary email before clicking “Join.”
  • Instead of multiple logins in one browser window, create separate Chrome Profiles (click your browser avatar at the top menu bar > Add Profile) for each Google account to isolate credentials and cookies completely.

And if all else fails, some good options for joining right on your phone are the Google Meet iOS app or Android app.

8. “I hate Google meet. Can’t do emojis for comments in the chat.”

Not sure if this was sent in jest or not but it gave me a good chuckle lol.

And you sure can! Just click inside the chat field and press Win + . (on PC) or Cmd + Ctrl + Space (on Mac).

Everyone is also welcome to spam emoji react in our next TPA Meeting.

But on a more serious note, I understand everyone has their preference of virtual meeting apps. PBES, TPES & both PTAs have come to a consensus that we’ll be trying out Google Meet this year. We’ll be sticking with that decision for the time being.

Thanks for reading this far. See you at the next PTA Meeting!

P.S. Psssst… if you’ve read this far, react in WhatsApp with the ‘Ear’ emoji 👂

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How to drive around the school (and everywhere really)

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Last year, the PTA received multiple reports of reckless driving and unnecessary congestion during pick up and drop off.

Let’s all do our part to make sure every all TPES families can navigate the neighborhood safely and complete pick up and drop off without too much of a hassle.


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1. Don’t stop here during drop off, pick up or anytime!

If you do, it makes it super hard for other cars to make this turn and you’ll cause a huge backup.

REMEMBER: please pull up as far as possible.


Traffic jam!No traffic jam!


2. Don’t turn left when exiting the school (8:15AM – 4:30PM)

I know, this is an annoying one as it makes most of us go the long way around.

But with buses and the majority of traffic coming the other direction, turning left here creates all sorts of congestion on Holly Ave and at the intersection of Holly Ave & Philadelphia Ave.

REMEMBER: Please turn right.




3. Don’t miss this hard-to-see crosswalk

Last year we had reports of people speeding down Holly Ave outside the school.

There’s a crosswalk here that’s honestly difficult to see with the small hill just before it.

REMEMBER: Please don’t speed up Holly Ave (or anywhere around the school).




4. Full stops at this intersection. Always.

Students, parents and caregivers are crossing these intersections constantly during drop off and pick up times.

We can all agree we’ve seen too many rolling stops and people rushing through this intersection.

REMEMBER: Please come to full stops and be extra vigilant about pedestrians at Holly Ave & Philadelphia Ave.




5. Watch out for flashing crosser lights

This intersection at Philadelphia Ave & Old Philadelphia Ave has flashing lights that activate when cross walkers hit the button to cross.

As someone who often bikes through this intersection with his family on our way to school, I see too many drivers who don’t stop when these lights are blinking.

REMEMBER: Please be extra vigilant about flashing lights and pedestrians at Holly Ave & Philadelphia Ave and give families space to cross.



Pssst… if you’ve read this far, react to the WhatsApp message with the ‘vertical traffic light’ emoji 🚦

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