Community Update 1/6/2023

Posted January 9, 2023

Welcome Back Columbine Community!

This week, we held our first ever Station 10 Fire Truck Ride Along!! Lt. Dwight Draper Hoover and the Station 10 Crew took six Columbine Cougars (see picture!) for a ride on the Station 10 Fire Truck! Each month, students have the opportunity to earn Leap to the Stars Awards, and those awards go into our Station 10 Fire Truck Ride Along Raffle! For the month of January, we are focusing on Leadership, so ask your kiddo how they are demonstrating leadership at school each day to earn Leap to the Stars Awards and a chance to win a ride with the Station 10 Crew!

Black Excellence Focus Group

Our next in-person focus group for our Black families and families of our Black students will take place on January 26th at 5:30pm. This in-person focus group is hosted by one of our Black educators, Ladorris Derritt and one of our Black fathers, Ronnell Jackson. We will be providing child care for any families who need to or want to bring their kiddos along.

Bell Time for next school year, 23-24

8:00-3:30 Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday

8:00-1:30 Thursdays

We will have a two-hour early release day once a week in the 23-24 school year on Thursdays. Leading Edge and Heart and Hand will be able to provide care starting at 1:30 on our early release days!

Vision & Hearing Screening: January 9th and 10th

Next week, we will hold our annual vision and hearing screenings. For more information, please read this document.

Volunteer to join a School Tour

If you believe in the amazing work and magic happening here at Columbine, please sign up to join a school tour! SIGN UP HERE!

Universal Pre-K for Eligible ECE Kiddos

Beginning July 1, 2023 , the CDEC (Colorado Department of Early Childhood) will provide a half-day of tuition (free preschool) to four-year-old children in Colorado. Many four-year-olds in Denver will qualify for full-day tuition (free preschool) based on eligibility factors, and three-year-old children may qualify for limited funding through this process as well beginning in 2024 (no funding changes will impact DPS for 2023-24.)

To access this program, families need to opt in by completing an application. The application window opens on January 17th and closes on February 15th. If you have additional questions, check out FAQs here. Please note that this window is separate from our DPS SchoolChoice window (Jan. 13-Feb. 14). We cannot emphasize enough that ECE-3 and ECE-4 families must complete both a SchoolChoice application and a UPK Colorado application. Please read the district’s Letter to Families regarding UPK.

23-24 School Year Calendar 23-24 SY Calendar

Upcoming Events

Monday-Tuesday, January 9th-10th – Vision & Hearing ScreeningsJanuary 13th-February 14th – School Choice WindowJanuary 17th – Universal Pre-K applications open for ECE 4 for the 23-24 SY

PTA

Columbine Cougars PTA Update I Click here for our full Weekly NewsletterAction!Winter Read-A-Thon IT IS NOT TOO LATE!!! Don’t worry – did the holiday break bring you a lot of relaxation and you are just now remembering the Read-A-Thon? NO WORRIES! Want to help count your student’s minutes toward the school goal of 25,000 minutes so that Ms. Jenks and Ms. DH get a pie to the face? Great – you have two options!Print off A log (or pick one up from the office), fill out with student’s minutes and turn in to your student’s teacher this coming week (January 9 – 13).Register your student online – complete their minutes online or paper tracker!New Requested Option – If you are in the holiday lane of feeling overwhelmed by asks, but would love to help support our school in building LEAP Libraries and would like to donate towards this effort – please Venmo @ColumbineCougars or email ColumbineCougarsPTA@gmail.com for other donation options with the description “LEAP Libraries”Save the date!Weds, January 11th from 4-8pm: Chipotle Fundraiser – (2500 E. Colfax Ave 80206) You must print or show this flyer or mention that you are part of the Columbine fundraiser PRIOR to paying. They will donate 33% of ALL fundraiser sales! New: You can order online and participate utilizing this code at checkout 77KPHG3Thurs, January 19th at 6pm: January PTA Meeting – In-Person (at Columbine) or Virtual OptionSharing our GratitudeAs a PTA, we are doing our best to find ways to show our gratitude and support to the staff and teachers of our small and mighty school community. Thank you so much to our members and our school community for your continued support – with your PTA membership, participation in community events and continued school support, we were able to sponsor a tab at Ephemeral for the Columbine Staff Holiday party and a special Holiday Treat at Sweet Sweetz for our students on the day before break. We welcomed the Columbine teachers and staff back to a catered lunch with special Columbine Cougars themed cookies!Thank you, Columbine Cougars PTA”Individually, we are one drop. Together, we are an ocean.”~Ryunosuke Satoro

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