Posted September 30, 2024
Happy Monday Columbine Community,
I hope you’ve all enjoyed a wonderful weekend and a Broncos WIN… even if it wasn’t a pretty one.
Congratulations to our Students of the Month for LEADERSHIP!
Fall is here🍂! Tomorrow is the first day in October and we will be all in on EMPATHY. Last year, our crew used the book Unearthing Joy as an anchor text for our professional learning. This book is written by Dr. Gholdy Muhammed, also author of Cultivating Genius. In Dr. Muhammed’s Framework for Joy, she speaks to the 5 pursuits of culturally and historically responsive education. One of those pursuits is Criticality: Teaching students about problem solving, compassion, transformation, and social awareness while understanding and cultivating empathy for others toward building a better humanity. She states, ‘Criticality pushes students to ask how they can liberate themselves, their communities, our nation, and our world from discriminatory and oppressive forces. ‘ This month during crew time, throughout academic instruction, in our routines and rituals, and in all spaces of our school, we will be talking about empathy.
Tomorrow evening is our first night of Conferences. Conferences are a critical and wonderful opportunity for families and teachers to be in partnership discussing student’s genius, learning more about what brings students joy, and speaking to the commitments of support we will make to ensure student growth and achievement. If you have not signed up for a spot yet with your child’s teacher, please be sure to do so.
On Wednesday, our Kitchen Crew felt the LOOOOOVE from our community on National Food Workers Appreciation Day. This Wednesday is National School Custodian Appreciation Day. Please consider having your kiddo write a thank you card or special note to our amazing facilities team. Brennan, Antonio, Sandra, and Angie.
From now until October 15th, we will continue recognizing and celebrating HIspanic / LatinX heritage month. Our crews are hard at work on their art projects that will all come together to create our school Offerenda. October also brings us Disability and Dyslexia Awareness Month. Our multicultural team will send communication about how our crew and our school will be recognizing and learning this month.
Coffee with Corey☕ – I have added a few Coffee with Coreys to the calendar to increase the touchpoints I have with you all to answer questions and share information. The dates are Monday, October 7th, Tuesday, October 22nd, Friday, November 8th, Thursday, November 21st. On Monday, October 7th I will share what I know and what I have learned about the Declining Enrollment Engagement Sessions and process/timeline.
In Crew,
Corey Jenks
Principal
SPF Information
Update- Columbine HAS been recommended by the district for the Request to Reconsider process with the state. We will know what our final rating is in November/December. There is no action needed at this point by the school.
Columbine SPF FAQs – Updated 9/30
Spanish Columbine SPF / CMAS Report
Our next touchpoints on our SPF will be:
CSC meeting on September 30th from 5:00-6:15 pm.
Any questions that you have in the meantime can be submitted to this Columbine SPF form or directly to me at corey_jenks@dpsk12.net.
Columbine CSC Tonight
Our CSC meeting will be this evening September 30th from 5:00-6:15 pm in the Columbine Library before our PTA meeting at 6:30. During our CSC meeting, we will be discussing our 24-25 Unified Improvement Plan in conjunction with our 2024 School Performance Framework. We will also be discussing our Fall Adjustment final enrollment numbers and any implications to our school budget.
All CSC information can be found on the CSC page of our school website. Here you can find information about what a CSC is, how it functions, and the role it serves. You will also be able to find our CSC Agendas and Meeting Minutes posted here.
CSC meetings are open to the general public and the final 15 minutes will always be dedicated to public comment.
Regional Educational Engagement on Executive Limitation 18 and Declining Enrollment in DPS
This November, the Denver Public Schools (DPS) Board of Education will consider a recommendation of consolidating or closing some of our schools. As part of the school consolidation process, the district is engaging with the community to answer questions and address concerns.
During the community engagement phase of the school consolidation process, they are hosting six regional community meetings from late September to mid-October. Interpreters for the eight most spoken languages (Spanish, Vietnamese, Arabic, Amharic, Dari, French, Nepali and Somali) will be present at each meeting. Dinner and childcare will also be provided.
Below are the dates and locations of the six regional meetings. If you are planning to attend one of these meetings, please complete this form.
Northwest Regional Engagement Meeting: Monday, Oct. 7, 6-7 p.m. at CEC Early College.
Southwest Regional Engagement Meeting: Monday, Oct. 14, 6-7 p.m. at Abraham Lincoln High School.
Far Northeast Regional Engagement Meeting: Tuesday, Oct. 15, 6-7 p.m. at Montbello High School.
Virtual Engagement Meeting: Tuesday, Oct. 22, 6-7 p.m. virtual via Zoom.
Fall Conferences
We will have our Fall Family-Teacher Conferences on October 1st and October 9th. This is such an important time for teachers to meet with families to discuss how students are doing in all aspects of school. Teachers will discuss Literacy and Math data in addition to the genius and joy of each child.
Please be sure you sign up for a conference on Bloomz!
🍂Fall Festival – October 19th!🍂
Get excited and mark your calendars for our annual Fall Festival on October 19th. This is SUCH a fun and special event at Columbine. Our teachers will have booths set up for kids to come and play games, win prizes, take pictures, and have FUN! Food will be provided and tickets will be up for purchase. Please see PTA email for more information!
Upcoming Events
| September 30th: CSC 5:15-6:15 and PTA Meeting 6:30-7:30 October 1st: Family-Teacher Conference Night 1October 4th: Whole-School Crew – EMPATHYOctober 7th: Coffee with CoreyOctober 9th: Family-Teacher Conference Night 2October 10th: PD Day – NO SCHOOL for studentsOctober 11th: No SchoolOctober 14th: Conference Comp Day – No School October 19th: Fall Festival 11-2October 22nd: Coffee with Corey October 23rd: CSC @ 5:00 and PTA @ 6:30October 25th: Student of the Month Assembly (2nd-5th 8:15-8:45)(ECE-1st 2:45-3:15) |
| Community Resource Team If you are looking for resources, book recommendations, and entry points into the essential learning about race, gentrification, cultural competency, and racial history in our country, the CR team has compiled a recommended book list. Book List Here The CR Team will host another Plant Exchange & plant raffle on the 4th of October! More details to come via Bloomz. |
Columbine Cougars PTA Update
Want to join the PTA? Interested in joining a committee? Interested in joining the Dads of Columbine? Ready to vote on important upcoming items like the budget? Please join the PTA here!
Please see the Columbine Cougars PTA Newsletter here!
Looking to stay in touch? Follow some of our Columbine Elementary social media accounts. columbine_cougars dadsofcolumbine columbinecougarspta |