As a timely way to keep you informed, we offer the Jeffco Good News. Our goal is to provide you with a snapshot of the many accomplishments that occur every week in your schools. Please feel free to share the good news and as always, thank you for your support!
FRIDAY NIGHT JEFFCO FOOTBALL
Are you ready for some Jeffco football? Come out to the North Area Athletic Complex (NAAC) on Friday, Nov. 21 at 7 p.m. to cheer on the home Jeffco team, the Ralston Valley High School Mustangs, as they take on Cherry Creek High School in the state semi-final game.
TWO JEFFCO STUDENTS ARE A PERFECT ACT
Two Jeffco high school seniors both recently received a pleasant surprise in their mailbox. Lakewood High School senior Tara Santi and Jefferson Academy senior Ryan Blay both received a letter congratulating them on a perfect ACT score of 36. “The letter definitely made my day,” said Ryan. “I did a lot of practice testing and just learned more about why I was getting certain questions wrong and working to correct those mistakes.” When Tara heard the news in June, she screamed and dropped the letter. “I couldn’t believe it,” said Tara. “I had taken the test two times already; I changed my studying habits and concentrated on more math prep.”
BREAKFAST WITH SANTA AT FLETCHER MILLER
The annual Breakfast with Santa event will be held at Fletcher Miller Special School on Saturday, Dec. 6 from 9 – 11 a.m. This is an annual event for kids to experience the magic of Christmas and Santa Claus in a safe, special-needs friendly environment. There will be various devices available to students to communicate their Christmas wishes to Santa.Students can make crafts, get their face painted and enjoy music from the Miller Chime Choir. The school’sbook fair will also be open for visitors along with a special appearance by Clifford the Big Red Dog.For more event information, please email Carole Benjamin.
EMBRACING STUDENT DIVERSITY
Jeffco's student diversity recently took center stage at the recent Fall Diversity Expo. Hosted byJeffco's Student Engagement Office, the expo invited more than 100 school-based diversity liaisons to learn more about recognizing and valuing diversity. "We want our students to graduate knowing and understanding more about themselves, others and the world around them,"said Student Engagement Office director Dave Kollar."Our schools welcome culture and diversity that embraces race, ethnicity, gender, transgender, religion, sexual orientation and disability." Expo topics included LGBT issues, cultural competence and responsive teaching, social justice, special education, gifted and talented, ESL experts and understanding diversity through religion. "We wanted to empower our leaders to learn skills to take back to their schools to start conversations with colleagues on how to meet the changing needs of their students' cultural, ethnic and socioeconomic needs and really recognizing the whole child,"said diversity specialist Hil Benzon. "We also made a point of embracing what's going right in our schools and it's important to highlight those successes." Diversity liaisons from neighborhood, option and charter schools attended the event.
STEM CONNECTIONS, SMART CONNECTIONS
Prospect Valley Elementary is partnering with the University of Colorado Denver (UCD) to offer STEM programs to students. Two UCD professionals, associate professor and director of the Master of Science Environmental Sciences Program Frederick Chambers and senior instructor Amanda Weaver of Geography and Environmental Sciences (GES) are planning an open house at Prospect in the spring of 2014 to talk STEM with students, parents and teachers. The UCD team has been working on STEM curriculum with Prospect Valley students and hope to expand the program between 5 Fridges Farm, faculty and students in GES as interest spreads among elementary schools, teachers, students and parents.
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