Watkins Elementary School

Watkins is thrilled to welcome Assistant Principals Suriya Douglas Williams and Jennifer McCormick! Ms. Douglas Williams has skillfully led the Peabody Campus for the past several years and we are excited for her to bring her outstanding leadership to Watkins. Ms. McCormick is coming to the Cluster School from the Uncommon Schools in New York where she developed a strong background in teaching and a proven track record of raising achievement. For more information about the Cluster School’s administrative team, please see the letter below from Principal Clemens.
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Hello Cluster families! In my first four weeks on the job, I have been working hard to get to know our schools while DCPS has put me through the paces along with other new-to-DCPS principals.

One of my key priorities has been hiring top quality talent for our open positions. I have also been making sure our administrative team is organized to best serve the needs of our students – and I want to share new assistant principal staffing assignments with you.

I am keeping the capable, hardworking team of Olutayo Ayodeji and Katie Franklin in place as Assistant Principals at Stuart-Hobson. Our middle school needs leadership continuity as we work to make major improvements in student achievement and test scores during this critical year.

I have asked Assistant Principal Suriya Douglas-Williams to move to Watkins to work her magic on our learning community there. I appreciate Suriya’s wealth of DCPS experience as well as her collaborative leadership style. I am also thrilled to welcome Jennifer McCormick to Watkins as a new Assistant Principal. Jennifer comes to us from the Uncommon Schools in New York where she developed a strong background in teaching and a proven track record of raising achievement. I am confident that Suriya and Jenn will make a very strong team to lead Watkins in the academic pursuits and challenges of the coming year.

I will oversee the Peabody Campus with the assistance of Lead Teacher John Burst, who will work closely with Melissa Smith and the Peabody leadership team. John will also continue to lead School-Within-School, which will remain a distinct and autonomous program. I am impressed with the strength of our team at Peabody/SWS and look forward to building on the teacher-led approach of our early childhood programs.

Our new configuration will allow for two administrators at each campus with my presence at all three on a rotating basis. At this juncture, I am planning to spend Mondays at Peabody, Tuesdays and Wednesdays at Stuart-Hobson, and Thursdays and Fridays at Watkins.

I will provide more updates on new staff hires and assignments soon. In the meantime, I hope to see many of you at Beautification Day on Saturday, August 20 from 8am – 1pm at all three Cluster campuses. We have important projects lined up to get each campus ready for students.

Please enjoy the final weeks of summer. I am looking forward to August 22 when I can help welcome all of our students back to school!

–
Dawn Clemens
Principal

Capitol Hill Cluster School, Where Every Child Achieves
Peabody Early Childhood Campus–202.698.3277
Watkins Elementary Campus–202.698.3355
Stuart-Hobson Middle School Campus–202.671.6010
www.capitolhillclusterschool.org