Brianna's Bulletin: March 2026

Hey y’all,

We have navigated some dynamic seasons this year, and the entrance of spring is no different. While I’m excited for what this next season has to offer, there has been a certain heaviness our community is also carrying. Over the last couple of months, we’ve learned of the loss of classroom educators throughout DPS, including Elizabeth Erin Ewing-Murphy of Merrick Moore Elementary School.

Their absence has impacted their classrooms, and the gap has rippled outward to the greater school community. Any loss within our schools should be commemorated, and my heart goes out to their families and students.

Moments like these remind me that our schools are more than places of learning. They’re communities of people fostering meaningful relationships and caring for one another. Students, educators, and families alike, lending their gifts and genius to enhance the learning environment. We know learning doesn’t just happen from a lesson or a book. It happens in relationships. In the way someone checks in. In the way a classroom feels. In the small, steady ways people show up for each other.

That’s what makes a loss like the loss of a teacher so heavy, and it’s also what calls us to take care of one another a little more closely right now. This is the part of WHOLE Schools that feels most real to me (learn more about this work for mental health in schools). Just being human with each other, especially when things are hard.

Take care of yourselves and each other.

‘Til More,

Brianna Kennedy

Interim Executive Director, DPS Foundation