August 7, 2010
Greetings Denver Elementary Families,
I hope this letter finds you refreshed after a great summer with your children….or perhaps, you might be more refreshed after a few weeks when your child/children return to school and a routine becomes commonplace once again. At any rate, we staff members are excited to welcome the students back for another exciting school year full of rigorous and relevant learning, challenges, and fun!
We welcome this school year with a lot of change, as we embark on our theme, “Building upon the past, creating a promising future”. The most obvious reason for this theme is clearly our recent groundbreaking on our building project, which will inevitably transform the current 3-12 site, into a PK-12 site, eliminating the use of the current K-2 building as it is today. We plan project completion to occur in August of next year, and we will begin the 2011/2012 school year with all students on one site.
To prepare for this change, starting this school year, busses will be dropping 3-12 students off and picking 3-12 students up on the East side of our 3-12 campus on Fairview street. Third through Eighth grade parent drop off will continue to exist on the south end of our campus on Lincoln Street. K-2 traffic patterns will remain the same. But we do ask for ONE WAY drop off and pick up before and after school, running north on S. Russell Street, and East after school on E. Franklin Street. We believe that these changes will be what are best to keep our students safe and to keep traffic flowing. WE ASK THAT PARENTS PLEASE AVOID PICKING YOUR CHILDREN UP AND DROPPING THEM OFF ACROSS THE STREET OPPOSITE OUR ONE-WAY TRAFFIC FLOW AT EVERY LOCATION. THIS IS FOR YOUR CHILD’S SAFETY! (A map and a more detailed (perhaps less confusing) explanation of the 3-12 changes will be shared online, within the Denver Forum, and provided to you along with this letter.)
Another profound reason for choosing our theme this year is that we continue to build upon our outstanding curriculum, by adding an extensive adoption of the National Common Core Curriculum that will align with our state based Iowa Core Curriculum. Our staff will work extensively this year during professional development on matching rigorous content based teaching and learning to that of common formative assessments while also incorporating technology.
Our teachers have spent days upon hours this summer reflecting and refining their professional practice and many have spent days outside of our district attending professional learning opportunities. We are so fortunate to have the dedicated professionals that we do, working in our school organization here in Denver.
This school year, you will see many changes in staff arrangement and placement. We feel that we have the right people in the right places to make this school year parallel to no other. We are committed to doing whatever it takes to ensure rich growth and learning for every child!
With anticipation and enthusiasm I welcome you again, to what is expected to be a fantastic school year, where we continue our work of “Building upon the past and creating a promising future”.
Most Sincerely,
Kimberly J. Tierney
Mrs. Kim J. Tierney
Elementary Principal
