The St. Vrain Valley School District continues to celebrate a growing list of accomplishments and successes. The fall 2022 semester achievements are listed below.
Elementary Schools
Academics:
- Alpine’s median percent typical growth in iReady Reading is 143%.
- All classes at Alpine Elementary met 100% median annual growth in 21-22 in iRead Reading.
- Two classes exceeded 100% and two classes exceeded 90% median stretch growth in iReady Reading.
- Alpine reduced READ plans by 30% from fall 2021 to spring 2022
- Alpine reduced SRD students by 8.26% from 2021 to 2022 (2nd biggest drop in SVVSD).
- Alpine has launched a successful new Affective Needs BASE program, where staff embrace new students and their needs.
Student Engagement:
- Alpine’s VEX program is larger than it has ever been, including 10 teams and nearly 40 students.
Parent and Community Engagement:
- Alpine has begun their first Cafecito this year, engaging parents in discussions about open-enrollment, parent-teacher conferences, school policies, school and community resources, and more.
- Alpine has engaged the school community through art and music showcases throughout the school year.
- Alpine’s annual FundRun sponsored by their PTO raised over $18,000 for the school to support teacher grants, field trips, student incentives, and more.
Staff Professional Development/Celebrations:
- Alpine currently has six teachers serving as ReadyGen Pilot Teachers and Thinking Maps trainers.
- Three teachers won a grant from the Education Foundation of the St. Vrain Valley this year; Erin Maldoff-BASE, Kathy Willyard-Preschool and Josh Wise-Art.
- Three Alpine teachers graduated with advanced degrees this year and two administrators are currently seeking EdD degrees.
Academics:
- Black Rock uses GT strategies to Cluster students and flexibly group students based on academic needs. Overall Rating Performance:
- 95% Participation
- 94.7 % Academic Achievement (Exceeds)
- 87.5% Academic Growth (Exceeds)
- iReady school wide winter growth data: Reading 90% and math 61%
- Black Rock is a Gifted and Talented School focus:
- 2nd place team in state for Elementary Stock Market Experience (Spring 2022)
- 1st place team in state for the Elementary Stock Market Experience (fall 2022)
- 3rd place team in regions for the Elementary Stock Market Experience (fall 2022)
- 5th grade student qualified for the 2022 State Spelling Bee
- 3rd-5th grade teams qualified for State for Future Problem Solvers Competition
- A 5th grade student was nominated and won a student leadership award from the Colorado Association of Gifted and Talented
- 20 5th grade students participated in Advanced Math Club
Student Engagement:
- Black Rock has school-wide PAWS celebrations recognizing the students in the areas of positivity, academics, working hard, and safety. Our Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports focus is on Kindness and includes:
- Individual student acknowledgement
- Class celebrations
- Monthly student celebrations
- Schoolwide celebrations
School Celebrations:
- Fall and spring book fairs raised funds for All For Books and Donate new books to Longs Peak Middle School for their Library.
- 10 5th Grade students participated in Library Club
- 20 4th and 5th grade students made props, backdrops, and participated in a performance of Mid-Summer Night’s Dream for families and a mini Shakespeare Festival at Erie Elementary School.
- 5th grade presented a mock Congressional Hearing defending the Constitution (We the People).
- Student Council collected pop tops for a fundraiser benefiting the Ronald McDonald House and will be collecting pet food and supply donations in coordination with an EHS student to benefit local animal shelters.
Activities/Fine Arts/PE:
- 1,370 student artworks published on our online art gallery
- 53 4th and 5th graders participated in the Black Rock Choir
- 331 students (over half) participating in 100 Mile Club – $23,299 raised for Kids’ Heart Challenge to benefit the American Heart Association
Community and Parent Engagement:
- PTO collected for the Marshall Fire Coin Drive. Donations will go to the Impact on Education Fund to help BVSD families impacted by the fires.
- PTO hosted a very successful Fall Festival. Students and families used this time to reconnect.
- Students in our Kids Who Care team, partner with Erie Uplink, a non-profit organization that provides food, toiletries, hats and gloves to families in need throughout the Erie community.
- Participated in the Town of Erie “Tree Seedling Kits” These kits made it into 28 Erie classrooms with over 625 students!
- Jog-A-Thon fundraiser providing funds to support our grade levels by hiring paras
- In December, our school community participated in Black Rock Gives Back food drive restocking the shelves of Erie Community Food Bank.
Academics:
- Blue Mountain’s AAA program has been fully staffed and well attended
- Through the implementation of Fundations programming with fidelity, Blue Mountain has seen a positive impact in the reduction of read plans and students identified as SRD.
- In collaboration with Colorado Agriculture, students in grades 1-5 participated in the Seed Survivor program which focuses on helping students understand where our food comes from.
Student Engagement:
- Over 300 students participated in a variety of before and after school activities including 100 Mile Club, Green Team, Student Council, National Elementary Honor Society, Robotics, Math Olympiad, and Choir.
Parent Engagement:
- Blue Mountain’s PTO and Principal Chats have been very well attended and have raised over $76,000 in their annual fundraiser.
Additional Accomplishments:
- Blue Mountain is celebrating their 10th year as a Green Star.
- Blue Mountain has implemented a school-wide behavior program focusing on Zones of Regulation and Restorative justice.
Academics:
- Students’ progress to annual average growth in reading and math is higher than the mid-year target. The number of students at or above grade level increased from 28% to 41%. The number of students two or more years below grade level decreased from 37% to 19%.
Student Engagement:
- Students received a grant for BeeBots to be used with cross-content coding activities.
- 20 4th and 5th graders were chosen to be a part of the Green Team.
- Students participated in Computer Science Week during their weekly STEM classes.
- Partnered with Colorado Pond Pros to maintain a vibrant and healthy pond in our greenhouse and teach students about ecosystems.
- 1st-5th grade students participated in a concert for family and friends that featured singing, dancing, and instruments.
- Six students participated in the Niwot High Art Show. One student received the Rising Star Award.
- 60 students participated in the 100 Mile Club.
- 12 kids in 3rd-5th grade participated in Club Invention.
- 22 students in 4th and 5th grade participated in Robotics.
- 30 students participated in AAA during the fall session.
- Teachers offered soccer, football, and kickball sessions to students after school throughout the fall semester.
- 20 students in 2nd-5th grade participated in a Music Instrument and Composition Workshop.
- Nearly 60 students in 1st-5th grade began their musical theater journey for the production of Shrek Jr. They will perform for students and families in March.
- Two students from each class were honored by their teachers, classmates, staff, and parents in an awards ceremony for consistently exemplifying FLAME behavior (Friendship, Leadership, Actions, Mindset, and Effort). Students are recognized weekly for exhibiting these behaviors.
- Preschool: Received a grant to renovate the sand play area. Parent volunteers helped clear the space.
- Kindergarten: Students engaged in their first Design Thinking challenges. Our focus on empathy and collaboration continues to carry into more classroom experiences and lessons.
- 1st grade: Students designed, advertised, and ran a “Lemonade in Winter” stand as a culminating project for their literacy unit.
- 2nd grade: Has been using Cooperative Learning Strategies, Sage and Scribe and Quiz Quiz Trade, weekly in class. They also engaged in a Design Thinking Challenge, culminating in building bat boxes.
- 3rd grade: Students designed a one-room school house after reading the Year of Miss Agnes and coded an animation of their own writing to add a chapter to the story.
- 4th grade: Dissected owl pellets to learn about the food chain and further study bone structures. Created tall tales that we created audio recordings of to share with primary students as an audiobook. Engaged in structured partner talk with 1st grade book buddies to promote oracy.
- 5th grade: At the beginning of the year, students went on a retreat to Heart J. Ranch to build community and relationships with each other. They also learned about business, free enterprise, and economics, which culminated in a trip to Young Ameritown in November where the 5th grade hall is lined with rigorous and creative student work.
- Burlington hosted Dyslexia Awareness Night for families across the district. About 30 people attended and enjoyed the presentation by the youth ambassadors.
Staff Professional Development and Awards:
- Staff kicked off the year with an all-staff team building retreat to Sylvandale Ranch near Loveland.
- Teachers engaged in robust professional development, supported by district instructional coaches and coordinators during staff meetings and late starts, to refine practices in classroom management, retrieval practices, collaborative learning structures, and thinking maps.
- Office manager Tyra Toepfe was honored as a classified employee of the year
- Teachers Brian Huey, Valerie Schineller, and Becky McGuirk were honored with an Innovative Curriculum Award.
Community Engagement:
- St. Stephens and the PTO support teachers by providing meals during conferences.
- Volunteers organize the 2nd grade fall carnival and school community movie night. Volunteers also decorated the teacher’s lounge and helped clear the way for a new play area in preschool.
- The PTO hosts a coffee cart the first Tuesday of the month at drop-off to build community and let parents know about upcoming events.
Academics:
- Students grew in five out of six CMAS test scores in the median growth percentile at 74 for math.
- 22 students are on Centennial’s VEX Robotics team. Last year was their first year of competition and earned a Judges Award.
- Centennial’s winter iReady data showed growth for reading at 63% which goes towards annual typical growth. For iReady math, growth is at 52%.
- Through design thinking, Centennial Cares is going strong and students continue to use the design thinking process to make improvements in our community. Our most recent project was a kindness challenge.
Student Engagement:
- Students had their first practice for the Unified Basketball team, and their first game will be in March.
Parent Engagement:
- Centennial’s PTO held their first fall carnival and with approximately 800 people in attendance.
School Remodel:
- The remodel at Central is complete and includes a new secured double entrance that provides better safety for our community, a dividable flex room for collaborative meeting of staff and students, administrative office areas, and a health office.
Academics:
- iReady mid-year winter data shows students are making great progress towards typical annual growth in reading and math.
- iReady data shows 169 out of 256 students are at or above grade level in reading and 132 out of 256 students are at or above grade level in math as of December.
- Central continues to decrease the number of students needing a read plan; down 20% in the last year.
- There are 30 students currently being served by the Gifted and Talented teacher.
- All students in kindergarten-5th grades receive Spanish instruction weekly.
- Successful five-year review and certification of the International Baccalaureate program.
- Central 2022 CMAS math median growth percent was 67 which is a rating of “Exceeds.”
Professional Development:
- Thinking Maps
- Karen Smith helped certified staff members complete 6 hours of national thinking maps training coursework. Central staff is now implementing this learning with students.
- SLE
- Susan Davis and our counselors have presented 4 different SLE topics including trauma based strategies to our staff to use in the classroom.
- IB
- Weekly collaboration meetings with each grade level to integrate the IB units of study with the district curriculum. We had a successful five-year IB review this fall.
- Behavior Expectation
- Central staff revised all school behavior expectations in the fall and presented took students on a walking tour to show them how these expectations will are being implemented throughout the building. These expectations were revisited with an additional tour in January as students returned from winter break.
- Reading Pilot
- 5th grade teacher, Christina Stamper, is piloting the Reading adoption program in her class this year.
- PTEACH
- Three SVVSD students have been working and learning with Central teachers through the P-TEACH program.
- Mental Health
- Blue Sky Bridge did a presentation about child abuse and intervention to teachers and parents.
- Emergenetics
- All classified and certified staff participated in an Emergenetics training in the fall.
Student Activities:
- 100 mile running club is open to all students at Central.
- Four Central students participated in the SVVSD honor choir this fall.
- Hawks Club before and after school programs serve 60 Central students.
- 60 students from all grade levels participated in the school science fair.
- Central students are currently preparing for the school spelling bee which will be held in February.
- Staff and students celebrated our 8th year as a Green Star School. Participation reduces waste at our school.
- Robust Robotics programs for grades 3-5.
- Blue Sky Bridge Child Abuse and Intervention Education presentations for staff, students, and families.
- Partner with the Longmont Fire Department (several of our parents work for LFD) for student safety presentations.
- The Walk N’ Roll program was held in the fall/spring to promote students’ health and well-being.
- Reading buddies between kindergarten and fifth grade students.
- Student council representatives, who are selected by their peers in grades 3-5, organize school wide projects throughout the year. Student Council successfully ran our canned food drive where we collected 900 pounds of food to donate to the Our Center in Longmont.
- Student Action awards are given monthly to Central students highlighting the IB character traits.
Central Robotics:
- Central’s robotics team, What Just Happened?!, won the Tournament of Champions, Skills Champions, and the Judges’ Award. Sarah Hernandez is our amazing school sponsor and 5th grade team members include: Andrew Hernandez, Henry Jensen, Corbin Pineda, and Sam Winheld.
Parent and Community Engagement:
- Central PTO has reorganized its leadership and communication which has increased the number of families that attend PTO events and meetings.
- The Firehawk Dash raised more than $30,000 which will be used to enrich education programs at Central.
- The PTO has planned 10 different family and student events this school year.
- A variety of books were donated by the PTO.
- Trained 85 volunteers in the community to support Central.
Academics:
- Students at Columbine are participating in a school-wide design challenge focusing on the environmental impact in their community.
- Students in kindergarten through 5th grade have participated in a school-wide collaborative activity to review their PBiS expectations of being respectful, responsible, rigorous, caring, and safe. Students worked in small groups to take pictures and videos of positive behavior in different spaces around the building.
- Columbine offered AAA this fall to 1st and 2nd graders.
- In partnership with the District’s Nutrition Services team, Columbine’s Green Team harvested vegetables from their school garden this fall.
- In preparation for the Columbine March Madness Reading showdown, students are participating in a 16-book challenge. They will have a 3-5 bracket of chapter books, and a K-2 bracket of picture books.
- Columbine students had a total of 18,461 minutes read during the Thanksking Reading Challenge.
Parent and Community Engagement:
- Columbine Elementary has seen an overall increase in attendance at their Cafecito monthly meetings – 40 parents attend regularly.
- There are 12 parents participating in Columbine’s Computer Classes this fall to improve their computer literacy skills. These classes are led by Columbine parents in coordination with a local community organization.
- Columbine has had numerous classroom presentations from community organizations throughout the school. Ecocycle, Thorne, Anschutz Medical, Boulder Ballet, and the Longmont Museum have all expanded student’s learning within Columbine.
Alignment with SHS Feeder:
- Columbine is increasing their connections within the Skyline feeder by having Skyline athletes support students both in class and at recess.
Summer Programming:
- Columbine partnered with Rocky Mountain Elementary this past summer for Project Launch. There were nearly 100 students enrolled from Columbine. Teachers focused on literacy and math, and they wove science into lessons throughout the day.
Staff Professional Development:
- Teachers from Columbine attended the August Teach to Reach conference, and had the opportunity to present what they learned at their staff August professional development day.
Academics:
- Eagle Crest’s focus on the literacy initiative and best practices has led students to make a median of 69% progress towards typical annual growth in iReady Reading. Fourth grade class shows a median growth score of 89%.
- When looking closer at the growth made on iReady Reading, students three or more levels below in 4th and 5th Grade had a median growth score of 92%. This indicates that we are working to close gaps with some of our most reluctant and struggling learners.
- Hispanic students in 4th and 5th grade had a higher median growth score than their white peers by 30 percentage points.
- Eagle Crest’s median growth schoolwide for math is at 41%.
- When examining growth made on iReady Math, students three levels below in 5th Grade had a median growth score of 98%.
- Hispanic students in 4th and 5th grade had a higher median growth score than their white peers by 27 percentage points.
Extended Learning Opportunities:
- The AAA programming served over 40 students in the fall session in grades 2, 4, and 5. So far there are 70 students registered to participate in all six grade levels. Eagle Crest served over 225 students from Longmont Estates, Blue Mountain, and Eagle Crest.
- Eagle Crest continues to expand access for all 5th grade students to participate in robotics during the school day.
- VEX IQ Robotics competitive team has increased to over 30 4th and 5th grade students. Six teams of students have worked collaboratively to design, build, and program for this year’s competition.
- One first grade class is piloting their first cohort of Coding as Another Language. This is an 18 hour curriculum developed by the makers of Scratch Junior to support computer science and creative coding in our young learners.
- Square State Skate partnered with our PE department to support our 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade students to learn both skateboarding skills (balance/coordination) AND develop a growth mindset! We had a visit from Colorado Public Radio and they produced a segment highlighting this partnership.
- Handchime Choir for 4th and 5th grade students has increased participation to 38 students.
- Eagle Crest first ever Musical Festival will be on May 12.
- The EcoEagles/STEM Explorers had 30 members in the first semester.
- Eagle Crest is partnered with Mwebaza Annex School in Uganda. The Eagle Crest Annex Club has over 80 students that plan cross-cultural exchange projects, presentations, and video calls between the schools.
- Eagle Crest is one of the district’s Green Star Schools.
- To date, students in the 100 Mile Club have run 1326.75 miles. One student has reached 100 miles.
- From October-December, students read 260,000 minutes in our school wide Reading Challenge. Mrs. Beckett gave 218 students free books throughout the Challenge as prizes for reading.
- The library hosted an event that brought librarians from the Longmont Public Library into the school to talk about all the events, clubs and activities at the LPL. Connecting with the community in this way was amazing and over 100 students signed up to receive library cards from the Longmont Public Library during this event. That’s 25% of our students.
- Colorado’s Department of Education recognized the school library and media tech with two Highly Effective School Through Libraries awards last year – Instructional Award for engaging lessons and Management Award for an updated collection that is reflective of our community.
- Since the start of school, 6,100 books have been checked out by students. This averages out to 15 books per student, one book each week.
- 4th grade students explored North America and Colorado with the district’s giant maps.
- Twenty fifth graders participate on the ECES Communications Team. They created and led interactive and fun assemblies for all students. As a part of this team they scripted, produced, edited, and created the content for these assemblies.
- The fifth grade tech team is a dedicated group of 20 students who meet weekly to support technology at Eagle Crest. They have been working hard updating computers for testing, inventorying supplies, troubleshooting robots, and more.
Staff Support:
- This year, Eagle Crest has started a practice of grounding into our purpose at the start of each meeting by sharing our #WhyITeach. This inclusive practice has helped them identify their mission and focus our work.
- Eagle Crest implemented a school wide PBIS program to support expected student behaviors across their community. They have involved teachers, staff, community members, and students in providing direct instruction, modeling, and reinforcement for expected behaviors that align with our RISE (responsible, inclusive, safe, kind) protocols.
- The Instructional Leadership and Collaboration Team (ILCT) has served as a model of shared decision making, navigating district and school changes throughout the year.
- This year Eagle Crest reimagined their master schedule to carve out space for an intervention block called WIN (What I Need) scheduled M-Th for 50 minutes of targeted instruction time at each grade level.
- Eagle Crest was accepted into the Scratch Education Collaborative 2022-2024 cohort. Every student in K-5 has participated in at least two creative coding opportunities and one first grade class is piloting Coding as Another Language.
Additional Community Impact:
- Eagle Crest has started a new practice of training all family members and community members who want to volunteer in our school. They learn about safety and security, PBIS, confidentiality, and best practices for working with students. So far they have trained 46 adult supporters!
- There was 95% participation in family teacher conferences this fall with conferences occurring both in-person and online.
- PTO has increased in both membership and meeting attendance. Meeting once each month, the PTO regularly has over 20 attendees.
- Fourth grade students organized and facilitated a school wide food drive and collected over 3000 cans of food and needed supplies for the OUR Center.
- The Community School Program, Eagles Landing, supports 105 Eagle Crest students.
Overall School Accomplishments:
- Erie Elementary has had a successful first semester of the 2022- 2023 school year. Below is a list of the accomplishments we celebrated during the first part of the school year.
- Erie Elementary received 95.4 points on the 2021- 2022 School Performance Framework; an increase of 7.9 points from 2021- 2022. This was the highest score in SVVS and the 20th highest score in the state. 100% of growth points were earned. Students with disabilities moved from the “does not meet” category for growth to “approaching” in both ELA and math.
- Staff at Erie Elementary created a goal for every student in the areas of reading and math based on TS GOLD, PALS, or Iready. Intervention and enrichment plans were also created to support students in reaching the goals. We are currently analyzing data to determine if students reached the goals and new goals are being created.
- 49% of students in grades 1-5 scored mid or above grade level on mid year Iready reading. An additional 22% of students scored early on grade level. A total of 71% of students are reading at grade level.
- The median percent towards typical growth in reading was 92% as measured by mid year IReady reading.
- In the fall, 12% of students were in the red category (two or more grade levels below) in math as measured by IReady math. At mid year this number decreased to 4%.
- Erie Elementary celebrated Computer Science throughout the entire month of December. Students participated in computer science learning in the classroom, the STEM lab, and the library.
- Units of study in the STEM lab have included Survival Skills and the Building Blocks of Science in addition to Computer Science
- Students in grades PK- 5 access the library and STEM lab on a weekly basis.
- The specialists at Erie Elementary have continued creating an interactive enrichment page that students can access both at school and home. Students have enjoyed additional learning on a variety of subjects.
- 5th grade students have learned about career options by having WebEx meetings with an artist, a pilot, and a CU athletic trainer. They will continue to learn about careers from experts in a wide variety of fields.
- 4th grade students have focused on written and verbal communication skills by being pen pals with Erie Middle School students. The students meet with their pen pals on a monthly basis.
- 29 fifth grade students are currently enrolled in the 5/6 accelerated math program.
- Special education paraprofessional Shari Parrs received the Outstanding Classified Employee Award for her many years of dedicated service to the students at Erie Elementary.
- Special Education teacher Kari Reinhardt received the Innovative Curriculum Award.
- Students in Grades 3. 4. and 5 will pilot the program Typing Without Tears starting January 2023.
- Erie Elementary will again participate in the Scripps Spelling Bee.
Academics:
- Fall River’s performance on last spring’s SPF was the best in school’s history, with an overall score of 89.1%.
- Fall River was in the top three of all St. Vrain Valley Schools for combined growth across Language Arts and Math, and was the only school to score in the top three for growth in both content areas.
- In iReady Reading, Fall River scored 74% proficient and advanced.
- Fall River’s Fundations instruction has been exceptionally effective across K-3. The performance on the iReady Phonological Awareness is the strongest it has ever been at 94% proficient, and is the highest percentage for proficiency for any of the iReady subtests.
Student Engagement:
- Over 150 students participated in a variety of before and after school activities, including 100 Mile Club, Robotics Club, Student Council, Kidzing.
Parent and Community Celebrations:
- Fall River’s annual FoxTrot has raised over $42,000 in donations this fall.
- Student Council has launched Fall River’s Green Star initiative making them the newest Green Start school in St. Vrain.
Overall School Environment:
- Grand View focuses on building a positive, loving, and caring environment for students, staff, and community.
- They have built a strong and inclusive PBIS program to support the whole child.
Staff Engagement:
- Focusing on their theme for this school year, 212 The Extra Degree: Extraordinary Results with One Small Change, staff at Grand View Elementary are building a strong collaborative team by having fun, working hard, and supporting each other, while putting students first. Grand View staff is focused on building a strong collaborative team by having fun, working hard, and supporting each other.
Overall School Accomplishments:
- i-Ready assessment shows significant improvement from 42% of students at grade level in literacy in the fall to 67% of students at grade level this winter. We had an 87% growth rate from fall to winter.
- Four teachers took on the task of starting a theater club at Highlands and put on a production of “Annie” in early November. There were over 80 kids participating and had to sell tickets to cap our audience at 500.
- VEX Robotics has officially started at Highlands this year with 4 teams.
- Highlands grew over 100 students from year one to year two and expect similar growth heading into year three.
- Highlands will be participating in the Scripps National Spelling Bee for the first time this February. So far we have over 200 students interested in participating in the first round.
- Our Choir made up of 4th/5th grade students will sing at the Rockies game this May for the second straight year. It’s great for our choir students, but also a great community event that had us selling over 300 tickets to families at Highlands.
- Design Thinking continues to be a major emphasis at Highlands and we just completed another whole school challenge that had kids design anything that would make our school better. Students in pre-k through 5th grade submit projects and will be working with our PTO to add goals/lines to our playground to honor the winning project.
- Our school had 25 kids participate in NaNoWriMo National Writing Club this November. We had 2 teachers lead this before school writing club that culminated in students reading their writing pieces to over 100 parents as a culminating celebration.
- Highlands started a student leadership club that is run by teachers and meets weekly before school. They help make school decisions, welcome guest teachers, run events, etc.
- Our first ever running club will kick off this March and we have over 100 students excited to participate.
- Highlands just recently started a mindfulness club that meets before school on Tuesdays/Thursdays. They learn strategies that help them to be fully present, aware of where we are and what they’re doing, and not overly reactive or overwhelmed by what’s going on around us.
Academics:
- AAA continues to thrive at Hygiene for grades 3-5.
Student Engagement:
- Won first place in the summer MyOn Challenge.
- Won second place in the Thanksgiving MyOn Challenge.
- As a school, it raised over $35,000 at the annual Jog-a-Thon.
- Fifth grade students recently attended Ameritowne learning Personal Financial Literacy.
- Hygiene’s annual PreK-2 grade Arts night was in December and was extremely successful highlighting the Fine Arts Program.
- Co-curricular activities continue to reach new levels.
- The 100 Mile Club meets weekly and has 120 students participating.
- Student council continues to lead the school by running various school wide community service projects including the canned food drive.
- The Robotics Club consists of more than 30 students and competes in St. Vrain tournaments.
- The choir program is up and running and has over 30 students.
- This year, we will be traveling to the UK for Hawk Air in May. This is the 13th year of Hawk Air.
- AAA continues to thrive at Hygiene for grades 3-5.
- A campus supervisor was hired which has been a tremendous success for our building and students.
Academics:
- 1st and 2nd graders enrolled in AAA during the first trimester.
- In the fall,18 kindergarten students were SRD.
- Ready reading annual typical growth for the building was 89%.
- In the fall, 9% of 1st graders were proficient in reading. This winter, 50% of those students were proficient. These students are showing high performance and high growth in reading.
Student Engagement:
- Robotics club has seven teams; five competitive (4th-5th graders) and two non-competitive (3rd graders).
- Our mariachi band, which includes 10 students, performed with Sunset and Niwot High’s mariachi band.
- Started a beginning guitar club to grow our mariachi band for the second semester.
School and Community Celebrations:
- Parents have attended successful monthly Coffee Talks/Cafecitos.
- Offering additional Cafecitos specific for preschool parents..
- Building our school-wide community by holding school-wide events for families. We started with an outdoor movie night.
Student Engagement:
- AAA maintains the largest elementary school enrollment in the district (54 students = 12% of students).
- Over 140 students (41% of the student body) have participated in at least one activity outside the traditional school day.
- Roaring Sensation Show choir, led by Caleb Smith, performed at Thornton’s Winterfest (50 students = 11%).
- Four Vex Robotics teams competed in their first tournament (12 students) coached by Joe Jedrzjewski, second grade teacher. One Legacy team, Space Rats, placed 2nd place with a 1st place judges award.
- Student council contributed over 2500 cans to a local food bank.
- This year marks the seventh year of the 100 Mile Club at Legacy Elementary.
Community Engagement:
- Legacy has seen an increased parent involvement in school – they have held 5 Book Exchanges and 3 PTO Family nights.
- Legacy’s Kids Hope (volunteer mentor program) resumed its weekly mentor support for students.
- PTO held the Miner’s Day 5K and fun run in cooperation with the Town of Frederick.
- We hosted a business before hours with the Carbon Valley Chamber of Commerce.
- In PE, 3rd-5th students received golf instruction in partnership with Saddleback Golf Course’s golf pro.
Staff Professional Development:
- Kindergarten teachers, Laura McClure and Mallory Alexander, hosted P-Teach teachers.
- Deb Wingfield, First Grade Teacher, completed her masters degree obtaining her literacy endorsement (now has a job at Sanborn).
Alignment with FHS Feeder:
- Twenty-seven fifth graders are enrolled in the fifth grade accelerated math course.
- Legacy Elementary has reduced chronic absenteeism – down 3% from last year, with an overall attendance rate increased to 95%.
Academics:
- There are currently 52 students enrolled in AAA from grades K-5. This additional support has helped the students make large academic gains as reflected in their most recent iReady scores.
- 44 students are participating in GT programming. They have studied topics such as Readers Theater, Shakespeare, The Stock Market Game, advanced math, and social/emotional lessons geared towards the needs of gifted students.
- Longmont Estates holds the number one spot with 83% of students meeting their usage targets in Lexia. In terms of growth, 92% of kindergarten students are reading at or above grade level and 76% of 1st graders are at or above grade level.
- Students PK-5 learn to code. This empowers them with important skills such as creativity, problem solving, and persistence.
- Fifth graders had an amazing field trip to Young Ameritowne. Students learned about personal finance. They also had an opportunity to run their own city and be hired for a job in the community.
- Our school has laid the groundwork to begin piloting Abii robots. These robots help to personalize K-5 math, reading and social/emotional lessons to meet the needs of every student. We will launch our implementation in February.
- ASD – We continue to provide excellent programming in our autism center based classrooms where we support students’ development of academic and social skills and provide successful integration experiences into general education classrooms. Our students in autism also run a coffee cart business on Fridays. They take teachers’ coffee orders, make the coffee and deliver it to staff throughout the building.
- There are currently four robotics teams, one of which has qualified for the state tournament.
- Enrollment has grown in the Before and After School program – went from 24 students and currently have 64.
Student Engagement:
- Community Service Club launched this year providing students a new opportunity to give back to their community by identifying local charities to raise money in support of their mission.
- District foreign exchange students visited our 1st grade classrooms. This provided students an opportunity to explore the cultures of foreign countries. Students were able to learn about France, Germany, Italy and South Africa through presentations and classroom discussions.
- Soaring Students – We continue to honor our students who demonstrate Soaring Eagle behavior. Staff can nominate students who are being safe, on-task, respectful and responsible. We have recognized 35 students so far this year.
- Students from Silver Creek brought their kindness rocks project to our kindergarten and 1st grade classes. Students had fun and created painted rocks to serve as a reminder that small acts of kindness make a big difference.
- Our 5th grade Kelso’s Choice leaders help our counselor, Mrs. Wise, teach students conflict resolution skills and help them to apply those skills to everyday situations.
- Students used the design process to ideate and create cardboard arcade games that we used during our Fall Festival.
Choir/Music/Choral Festival:
- We have a thriving music program. Students have enjoyed learning to play keyboards, xylophones, boomwhackers, drums, and other rhythm instruments. There are 45 students participating in the after school choir program.
Staff Celebrations:
- Our STEM Coordinator, Mrs. Shaffer, is now Apple Certified. This year, she became the first teacher at Longmont Estates to become an Apple Distinguished Educator. She is using Apple technology to transform teaching and learning by helping other teachers rethink what is possible to make learning personal for every student.
Academics:
- 100% Median Typical Growth in reading measured by mid-year iReady
- 61% Median Typical Growth in math measured by mid-year iReady
STEM Lab Design and Programming:
- STEM Lab Committee continuing to develop and refine curriculum and vision
- Five Pillars of STEM programming drafted
- STEM Lab coordinator spent 750 minutes of instructional time with each student (P-5) from September through December
- Classroom teachers engage in all STEM lessons, building capacity within the school for each of the 5 pillars
- 20% of Lyons High School students are in our Science and Leadership program, teaching in depth activities each late start with support and oversight from classroom teachers.
Student Engagement:
- Show Choir collaboration with Lyons Middle Senior to perform at a multitude of town events
- Robotics team successfully leveraged a new HR category to hire two parents to lead our competitive Robotics team.
- Annual Artist in Residence program brought in Kid Pan Alley to create original songs and music that each classroom performed at the Lyons Middle Senior Auditorium
Staff Engagement:
- Integrated Campus Supervisor increasing active monitoring of external and internal environment
- Special Education training focusing on implementing student accommodations led by Ben Yamoto, Area Coordinator
- Safety Presentation to our PTO led by principal and Richard Peebles leading to increased confidence in our parent body as well as increased communication by school
- Focus on writing through staff’s professional goals leading to collaborative planning and execution in all classrooms.
- Ongoing emphasis on instructional details related to all district curriculum measured through walk through evaluations
Parent Engagement:
- Held most successful Jog-a-Thon Fundraiser to date, earning upwards of $82,000
- Developed an annual budget of $114,000 to be spent on classrooms, facility, and programming.
Rigorous, Well-Aligned Standards, Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment:
- The number of GT students has grown by 52% percent.
- 10 teachers in 3rd and 5th grades are piloting the new 2016 Ready-Gen curriculum.
- Students made 95% typical growth on iReady reading benchmark assessments from fall to winter.
- Students made 54% typical growth on iReady math benchmark assessments from fall to winter.
- 64 students signed up for after school learning support during the first session of AAA. Thus far for the second session, we have 59 students registered.
- 5th grade students returned to Cal-wood for an extended day trip. This was a great opportunity for team-building skills and outdoor education.
- Fort Mead Rendezvous: On November 18, 4th graders hosted a rendezvous in the gym as a part of a social studies unit, examining the role of early explorers and fur traders and how they shaped the development of Colorado. Students completed a Design Thinking Challenge where they took on the role of a member of the trading fort and participated in the rendezvous as that character.
- We currently have 61 4th and 5th grade students participating in the Scripps Spelling Bee. Our school-wide final Bee will be held on February late start.
Staff Professional Development:
- Our staff is participating in several different professional development opportunities.
- Be the Flame book study with Shane Saeed
- Design-Thinking
- Thinking Maps
- Writing – vertical alignment and cross grade level articulation
- Two campus supervisors were added to our staff to ensure safety and security. Mr. V and Mr. Manny have been a great addition to our Mead family.
Community Engagement:
- Mountain View Fire and Rescue came to the school and taught our students in grade K-2 about fire prevention and safety.
- Sugar Mill Antiques donated gifts for several families for the Giving Tree.
- The Mead Police Department Weld Elves donated gifts for several families for the holidays.
Parent Engagement:
- PAC (Parent Advisory Council)
- Purchased music shirts for all students K-5
- Fall Harvest Festival – October 8, 2022
- Over 1000 people in attendance
- Innovation Mobile Lab was present
- Mead HS and MS music programs also performed
- Community Garden and Outdoor Classroom
- Our students helped design the community garden and outdoor classroom – currently out for bid. Last year, our community raised money for this project and our Superintendent also provided money to support this new learning space.
- Fall Buy Nothing, Sell Nothing Fundraiser
- Our students and families raised more than $35,000.
- Weld Food Bank Drive
- Our students brought in over 10 barrels of non-perishable food items (1,559 lbs. of food) for the Weld County Food Bank. This provided meals to hundreds of families during the holiday season.
- Colorado FriendShip’s IncrEdibles Food Tote-pack Program
- Sending 21 bags of food home each weekend with healthy, kid-friendly, nonperishable food for our low-income families.
Student and Staff Engagement:
- Monthly Character Trait Awards
- Over 130 students receive awards each month as recognition for showing these traits.
- August – Courage
- September – Kindness
- October – Trustworthiness
- November – Responsibility
- December – Honesty
- January – Respect
- February – Acceptance
- March – Perseverance
- April – Citizenship
- May – Mead Pride (all of the traits)
- Over 130 students receive awards each month as recognition for showing these traits.
Cutting-Edge Technology and Innovation:
- After School Activities:
- We are in our first year of competitive robotics. We hosted our first Robotics Tournament on December 3 and this was also our first competition
- Competitive Robotics
- Eight Teams
- Our teams have won the following awards, including three bids to state and two bids to the U.S. Open Robotics Championship
- Teamwork Champion Award – 70510B End Game
- Two Teamwork Champion Awards – 70510C Strike Bots
- Design Award – 70510G Robotic Rats
- Two Robot Skills Champion Awards – 70510G Robotic Rats
- Excellence Award – 70510G Robotic Rats
- Introduction to Robotics
- Three classes taught for Intermediate grades
- Lego STEM Classes
- Two classes taught for Primary grades
- Community Schools Enrichment Opportunities:
- We added several opportunities for students to participate in enrichment this year, including classes on baking, building a Mustang Buddy, creating gingerbread houses, and a books and bites reading club for 4th and 5th grade students. Mrs. Ball is a regular reader in our program as well.
- Specials
- Art
- Students are learning how to weave, work with clay, and are following many known artists to recreate their techniques
- P.E.
- Students used Heart Rate Tech-Plus heart rate monitors to evaluate and maintain their targeted heart rate, participated in the ropes course, and will have a skateboarding program that promotes social-emotional learning through problem solving, self and social awareness, empathy, and self-management
- STEAM Energy Lab
- Students work through the Design Thinking Process and create prototypes with an energy focus
- Digital Studio (remake of Creation Station)
- Students are coding, learning about Digital Citizenship and creating their own projects using technology
- Music
- The 4th and 5th grade choir performed the National Anthem at the Mead High School Football Game on October 28.
- Art
- Students performed the National Anthem at the Colorado Eagles game on December 17.
- Students from the Mead High School Unified Percussion taught students different drumming techniques. Our students in the SSN Program have great role models in these high school students.
- Students from the Mead High School orchestra taught students about different instruments and the sounds they make.
- The 2nd/3rd grade concert was a huge success at MHS
Overall student achievement and global success at Mead Elementary is possible due to a high-functioning board, strong district finances, and strong/visionary leadership.
Academics:
- We are so excited to have a STEM teacher and offer STEM programming this year. It has made a huge impact on student collaboration, thinking, problem solving, design, critical thinking and builds community.
Professional Development:
- Several staff members participated in the Teach to Reach conference hosted by SVVSD to learn skills and strategies to support multilingual learners.
- Certified and classified staff members completed six hours of national Thinking Maps training coursework and are implementing what they learned with students
- Staff completed training to incorporate retrieval practices into our work with students in order to increase learning outcomes
- The 2nd grade team is part of the Reading Adoption pilot program
- Two teachers are part of the Neuroscience classroom collaborative project
- Teachers are part of the district Writing Guild for adoption to improve outcomes
- Teacher representatives serve on the Brain Steps TBI response team
- One teacher representative participates on the Tier 1 Revision Committee
- Five PTEACH apprentices work and learn through our collaboration with CU Denver
- Partnership with the community to provide books to first grade students for at-home reading throughout the year. Recognized by Longmont Chamber of Commerce
Academics:
- Performance Plan / SPF rating of 82.5, which is one of the highest for elementary schools in SVVSD.
- Highest 3rd grade Language Arts CMAS score in SVVSD with 73% proficient and advanced.
- Highest 5th grade Language Arts CMAS score in SVVSD with 79% proficient and advanced.
- Second highest 4th grade Language Arts CMAS score in SVVSD with 78% proficient and advanced.
- 5th grade Math Accelerated Class for students has 28 5th grade students participating in 6th grade math curriculum.
- AAA has been a big success with 30 students in 2nd-5th grades participating.
- The annual spelling bee for grades 3-5 was held and the top winner moved on to the regional competition.
- iReady mid-year data shows students are making great progress towards typical annual growth in reading and math.
- Successfully grown two Autism Site Based programs. Each classroom has 8-10 students from many different schools throughout the district.
- Gifted and Talented Advanced/Enrichment:
- 12 students in 3rd reading
- 8 students in 3rd math
- 13 students in 4th reading
- 11 students in 4th math
- 16 students in 5th reading
- 24 4th and 5th grade participants in NaNoWriMo. They documented a total of 40,299 words.
- 40 4th and 5th grade students participated in the Stock Market Experience Fall Challenge.
- Launched Discovery Lab after a one-year hiatus due to pandemic/staffing issues. Preschool-5th students go to the Discovery Lab once a week to engage in all things STEM: design challenges, robotics, coding, etc.
Student Engagement:
- 232 students attend 100 Mile Club three days a week before school. This is a record number of students and the largest in the entire district based on size.
- 60 students in 3rd, 4th and 5th grades participated in Cougar Choir which is a record number for Mountain View. They performed in the Niwot Community Halloween parade, the Niwot Community Holiday parade, and will perform at local retirement communities.
School and Community Celebrations:
- The Student Council successfully ran a canned food drive and collected 5,334 cans to donate to the Our Center in Longmont. This was the second largest canned food drive in the history of NES.
- Mountain View is in the 15th year of partnering with a Uganda sister school.
- Mwebaza Club is the largest ever with 120 K-5 students participating this year. Mwebaza Day will be hosted in March and celebrated with their sister school via Webex.
- PTAC and the Niwot community raised $51,800 from the annual Cougar Campaign. This money goes towards enhancing instruction and experiences at NES.
- Annual Niwot Trot 5K returned with a record 566 participants, of which 189 were youth between K-5.
- Immunization rate continues to be one of the highest in the district (only four families not in compliance).
- Attendance rate is 94.6% which is one of the highest elementary school rates in SVVSD.
- 73 K-5th grade students attended Cougar Club Community School before and after school.
- 23 preschool students (3 and 4 years old) attended Wrap Around.
Academics:
- Two groups of students extend their learning after school in AAA. These students benefited from the extra time and small group instruction focused on their individual needs. They gained confidence and developed their reading skills through this program.
Field Trips:
- 3rd graders visited the Innovation Center and the Longmont Museum on the very first field trip of their educational career.
- 5th graders traveled to Denver to Young Ameritowne to participate in a day where they ran their own “town” and put in practice all the skills they had been learning in their Social Studies economics and government units.
- Kindergarten and 1st grade students enjoyed a visit from the Longmont Fire Department. They learned about fire safety and the job of a firefighter.
Student Engagement:
- 4th graders hosted a special breakfast for veterans from the Post 32 Honor Guard. Students enjoyed eating together and hearing stories from the veterans. They gathered around the flagpole in front of the school for a special flag ceremony and were featured on the front page of the Times-Call.
- Students in 3rd – 5th grade participated in a robotics club. They worked together to learn how to build and use a VEX robot.
- The 100 Mile Club meets twice a week after school, rain or shine, to run/walk together. Several parents and staff members have joined the group as well.
- 5th graders entertained their families and showed off their ukulele skills at the November concert.
- Our music and P.E. teachers co-taught Drums Alive to all grades. They developed learning activities that addressed standards from both content areas. The students loved it. They also shared the experience with staff during an after school professional development.
Community Engagement:
- Hosted the Fall Festival in October, with more than 500 members of the school community in attendance. Students and families enjoyed food, games and crafts while also showing off their very cool Halloween costumes.
- Partnered with The Colorado FriendShip to provide winter coats and boots to many students. Staff helped a dozen families have special gifts to celebrate the season.
Staff and Professional Development:
- School staff focused on working interdependently towards a shared goal as a “Championship Team.” We are an outstanding group of dedicated educators who are unstoppable when we work together.
- Staff have been focusing on improving our PLC process as we dig deep into our data, instructional resources, pacing and alignment. We have been joined in this work by two instructional leaders who have provided guidance and resources. We are learning and adjusting our practice to improve academic growth and achievement at our school.
- Engaged in some powerful professional learning on topics including building oracy skills and other instructional supports for multilingual learners, responding to the needs of students who experience trauma, improving math instruction and outcomes, and integrating cooperative learning structures.
- Special education teachers are using a different strategy for meeting the needs of students with disabilities by sharing case management and co-teaching most of their groups. This allows them to support more students in a way that also addresses their individual learning and behavioral needs. They are seeing great success with this model.
- Our Family Liaison and Counselor worked with families to address a variety of needs that impact students. They connected families to the housing, mental health and food resources they have desperately needed.
Parent Engagement
- Held monthly Cafecitos addressing topics requested by the parent community.
- Hosted monthly Parents Involved in Education (PIE) meetings which included topics about school safety, gangs, the seal of biliteracy, and preparing students for post secondary opportunities.
Academics:
- 22% of Prairie Ridge 5th graders are in an accelerated math class covering 5th and 6th grade standards so they will be ready to take 7th grade math as 6th graders.
- Over 70 students were recognized for growth, achievement, citizenship, and other areas at the 1st Trimester assemblies in November. Officer Dunker also presented a WOW award to one student in each grade level who exemplifies friendship, respect, and kindness.
Student Engagement:
- In addition to AAA, Student Council, Soaring Singers, Robotics, and 100 Mile Club, students have opportunities to develop their talents and leadership skills in Safety Patrol and Anyone Can Code, two new extracurricular programs that started this week.
- 4th grade students performed an outdoor concert on Veteran’s Day as a tribute to men and women who have served from our community. The concert included posting of the colors by Boy Scouts who attend Prairie Ridge. Students also wrote letters of gratitude which they presented to veterans in attendance. The remainder of the letters were delivered to the VFW in Frederick.
- The Robotics teams have earned the judges award and the design award at tournaments.
- Three students performed in the SVVSD Elementary Choir and will be performing in the all state choir in January.
Community Engagement:
- PTO sponsored a Family Carnival in September which was the first time in three years. Many local businesses provided donations for an auction allowing the PTO to host the carnival free of charge. One lucky student won the bid to be Principal for a Day. She received proposals from her class on how to improve the school, participated in the process of determining which proposals might be feasible, and then reported back to her class. It was a great learning experience for a future administrator!
Other Celebrations:
- Hired a new Campus Supervisor
Academics:
- There are 46 students participating in the GT program and identified 16 second grade students for continued testing.
- 28 students are participating in 4th and 5th grade advanced math opportunities.
- Red Hawk has 5th grade All School Movement teams that develops and leads the schools ASM activity schedule.
- Over 60 students in grades K-5 participated in AAA.
- 1st grade students created classroom books and worked with a professional
- illustrator to learn about art in the real world.
Student Engagement:
- Three 5th grade students participated in a competition to create a piece of art for the T2 dance troop to use during their spring production. A 4th grade student will have their work incorporated into the show. Red Hawk is the only SVVSD school to participate in this opportunity.
- There are 12 students participating in the competitive robotics program. This allows the opportunity to have middle school and high school robotics volunteers assisting our students.
- Red Hawk held their first annual PJ drive in collaboration with Scholastic Book Clubs and provided 182 pairs of PJ’s and books for children at a Precious Child in Broomfield.
- 58 students participated in the 100 Mile Club.
- Approximately 60 students participated in exploratory robotics.
- Approximately 100 students participated in Red Hawk’s school choir and 67 participated in the school musical.
- Red Hawk profited $71,586 for their annual PTO Jog-A-Thon which includes $7,887 of corporate match funding.
Staff Professional Development:
- Teachers at Red Hawk participated in more than 12 PLC Data meetings to analyze data and create support for students in addition to staff meetings and late start PD.
Community Engagement:
- Red Hawk’s PTO celebrated Hispanic History Month with a community celebration at school complete with a Mariachi Band, Dancing, Food Trucks and Piñatas for the kids! Even with the inclement weather there were more than 200 people in attendance.
Academics:
- Rocky Mountain was recognized as a Performance School as a result of strong student academic growth across Math and Literacy.
- Rocky Mountain has had over 35 students in grades 1-5 participate in AAA.
- For grades 1-5, iReady Reading and iReady Math saw growth from fall to winter.
- Rocky Mountain is one of 21 schools across the state to be nominated for the Governor’s Bright Spot Award.
Student Engagement:
- 14% of students participated in Thorne Nature after school programming.
- 43% of students participated in 100 Mile Club
- Robotics at Rocky Mountain consists of three teams with four students from grades 4th and 5th.
Community Engagement:
- Participation in the Cafecito meetings, and overall community involvement has increased.
- Rocky Mountain Elementary has begun proper steps to get a PTO.
Additional Celebrations:
- As a school, Rocky Mountain placed 1st overall during the district-wide myON Thanksgiving Reading Challenge.
- Robotics teams were able to participate in their first Robotics competition in December.
- Rocky Mountain was the recipient of two grants, Longmont Community Foundation ($1,200) and Dick’s Sporting Goods ($2,000).
Academics:
- Led St.Vrain in 2022 CMAS growth with a 83 median growth percentile in 5th grade math
- i-Ready Data in Reading showed a 23% increase from fall to winter
- 100% of kindergarten students reading on or above grade level on Lexia
Student Engagement:
- 40 students participated in choir.
- The Soaring Singing Dragons choir performed the National Anthem at a Longmont High School Basketball game and sang for the residents at The Life Care Center Assisted Living Home in Longmont.
- 50 students participated in the Drama Club.
- The Robotics team participated in two competitions. At the Fall River Tournament, one team took 1st place and qualified for the State competition.
- Sanborn is partnering with the Career Elevation and Technology Center (CETC) to create an interactive board which will be added to Sanborn’s Interactive/Sensory walls in the Discovery Zone.
School Highlights:
- Enrollment increased by 61%. From December ’21 to December ’22, we have increased enrollment again by 18%. Also, 100% of available CPP and district-available Scholarships were filled by early October 2022.
- Successfully implemented, maintained, re-evaluated 110 Individual Education Plans (IEP) for children with special needs, approximately 35% of our school’s population. At mid-year we have space for 30 other students with special needs to be placed before the end of the school year when they turn 3.
- Offered full-day preschool for 16 families, 8:30 – 3:05 pm daily in order to intervene for our students who are most at-risk due to home-based factors in order to positively impact Graduation Rates at FHS in 2035.
- Teachers are administering five common units of STEM-based learning integrating the design-thinking process, the scientific method, and inquiry-based learning, which have been designed by staff using 2020 CDE standards, SVVSD curriculum, and Teaching Strategies GOLD assessment objectives.
- 100% of classroom staff are trained in Inter-Rater Reliability scoring related to the use and implementation of Teaching Strategies GOLD.
- Blair Hunter, SSN teacher, has written a successful Grant for more inclusive playground equipment sponsored by the Weld Trust and our Parent-Teacher Organization. This will provide outdoor play opportunities for children with physical limitations.
- Three teachers wrote successful Education Foundation grants for early literacy, alternative seating, and sensory needs of our students.
- Hosted an outside Fall Celebration, called Trick-or-Treat-Street, in collaboration with our community, PTO, and staff.
- Implemented a variety of family literacy activities: Book Swap activities, free books for take home, activities at Trick or Treat street, etc.
- Partnered with Colorado Feeding Kids to offer access to a school-based food back for our families. Offered a Halloween-costume exchange / donation so families could get new costumes at low to no cost. Successful school-wide Canned food drive to benefit the Carbon Valley Help Center – November 2022. Successful coat / hat / boot / gloves drive to build a stock of free items for families in need – December 2022. Successful PJ and Book drive for our students in the most need – December 2022.
- Successful entry in the September 2022 Miners Day parade.
- Hired a Campus Supervisor — a role which is positively impacting our students, staff, community, and school. Thank you for this resource!
- “Colorado Preschool is Building Partnerships to Grow Their Farm to Early Childcare Program” U.S. Department of Agriculture’s 7/25/22
- Blair Hunter, SSN teacher, was recognized as the Stapp Toyota Educator Highlight in October 2022.
- Reinstated a full-slate of staff and parents for our school’s Parent-Teacher Organization who ran a successful fall fundraiser, helped with Trick or Treat Street, sponsored staff dinners for conferences, implemented a school-based grant opportunity for all teaching staff, and a myriad of other events and activities. August – December 2022
- Recruited and are developing three P-teach apprentices, in collaboration with Nicole Rudman, who work part time and attend classes at CU-Denver and FRCC – August 2022. One apprentice was a P-teach student from FHS, who began last year as a senior and is continuing to pursue teaching after a springtime practicum.
- Successfully oriented and transitioned students and families who are new to the school-setting this school year; this comprises approximately 36% of our school. These, with on-going evaluations in child find, continue all year long at a rate of about 10 families per month throughout the school year.
- Conducted a successful in-person licensing visitation in October 2022.
- Offered summer 2022 Childcare at an alternative site (due to construction) for 30 families in the Carbon Valley area.
- Offered Kinder Launch in the summer of 2022 – Two classes at Legacy Elementary and two classes at Centennial Elementary during June to increase kindergarten readiness for our most at-risk students.
- Noreen Reeder, teacher, officially graduated with her Masters Degree in December of 2022 in ECE.
- Set school-wide, data-based goals for preschool readiness in literacy as a part of our school’s supervision/evaluation process, year goal-setting, data collection, professional-development focus, etc. based on students’ ability to recognize letters and letter sounds.
- Partnered with many local volunteers, guest speakers, etc. to bring in guest speakers and real-world experiences: Car show, Fire Protection agencies, En Face Dance, Ms. Tracy’s Music, CV Gymnastics center, Frederick Post office, TVK8 SRO Officer Davies, and more.
- Hosted four volunteer 90-minute training sessions for volunteers who are now back in our school assisting our students and staff.
- Researched, attended training/webinars, and began to prepare for Universal Preschool changes which are coming up.
- Created a Wellness Room for staff, in collaboration with our PTO. This is a private area where employees can retreat for a break, to reset, to stretch or do yoga, etc.
PK-8 Schools
Partnerships with outside organization and connections to experts in the field:
- OceanFirst Education
- National Mental Health Innovation Center at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus
- Neuroscience Outreach Program at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus
- Regis University
- BrainCo (developed out of MIT and Harvard Innovation Labs)
- Backyard Brains
- Blue Canyon Technologies
- Maxar
- School Wide Labs at CU Boulder
- Sphero
General Accomplishments:
- Strong midyear iReady median growth in reading especially in grades 3 (100%), 7 (125%), and 8 (143%)
- Extensive professional development on mathematics instruction
- Top 2nd or 3rd attendance rates in SVVS for elementary (94.7%) and middle (93.6%) schools with 2nd lowest chronically absent rates at 14.4 % and 16.2%
- Accelerated 5th grade math class taught by middle school mathematics teacher puts students two years ahead and on track to take geometry in 8th grade
- 8th graders taking advance course work at EHS
- Over 30 choice elective offerings including classes like Mars and Beyond, Video Game Design, Robotics, Drama, Ceramics, Multimedia and Spanish
- All School Movement Program K-5
- 40 students AAA students receiving after school academic support
- Honor Role 319 student on the 1st quarter honor roll with 99 students earning a 4.0 GPA
- 97 NJHS students
- 60 students participate in Pride time class to support student initiated events like spirit week, dances, community service
- Strong community events with high attendance for sports games, concerts, robotics competition, Innovation Exhibition Night, Halloween parade, and Spring Carnival, Veteran’s Day ceremony honor 42 veterans, Hope and Gratitude celebration (we easily have 2,000+ people attend the larger community events)
- Clubs: chess club, 100 Mile Club, GSA, art club, Eco Eagles, yoga (spring), movie animation club
- Visiting planetarium K-5 students; Astronomy Nights scheduled for this spring
Soaring Heights PK-8 Robotics Teams:
- Serving over 100 students across EL and MS VEX IQ and VRC
- 25 competitive teams total
- Teamwork Champion and Excellence Award Winners
- Host of the VEX IQ Slapshot Tournament (Feb 11)
- Host of the 2023 VEX IQ Colorado State Championship (Mar 11)
- Girls in Robotics 2023 (Feb 25)
- Partnership with Sphero and SHPK8 Robotics to encourage females in STEM
Computer Science:
- Cyberpatriots: 4 teams (20 students) two qualifying for National Semi-Finals
- Sphero Global Challenge: 30 MS students coding robots to mimic animals in the wild in competition with students from around the US.
- University of Colorado and Innovation Center: micro:Bit Sensor Immersion lessons and AI curriculum pilot. Rolled out to entire 5th grade during innovation.
- Microsoft Minecraft Education Edition: students learn coding and game design in Minecraft.
Music Recognitions and Event:
- 17 students accepted into the SVVS Honor Choir
- Eight students invited to the Honors State Choir
- Nine students accepted into SVVS Honor Band and Orchestra
- Performed with Erie High School (choir, band, orchestra) during the Parade of Lights, and work with Jeff Talley
- Middle School Frozen performance
- Performance at Soaring Heights by Boulder Philharmonic
- Concerts at each elementary grade level
Neuroscience Focus and Innovation:
- Daily Innovation Opportunities for all students K-8th grade elementary students
- Elementary students are in the makerspaces twice a week.
- format of Innovation lessons is as follows:
- One day of social-emotional learning and/or neuroscience
- One day of computer science, AI, or robotics
- Three days of a design challenge focused on Land, Ocean, and Space.
Professional Development and School Guest Speakers:
- Neuroscientists from Anschutz: Dr. Courtney Wilson, Samantha Bromley-Coolige, Roberto Ogelman
- Professional development for teachers focused: Neurodiversity, How people learn, Creating a neuroscience lesson, Senses, and molecular neuroscience.
- Outreach student events at Soaring Heights
- Field trip for 8th grade at Anschutz
- Space robotics engineer, Maxar Technologies, Patrick Sears
- Patrick helped build his company’s (Maxar) K-12 education outreach slide package on space exploration robots.
- Vice President of BrainCo: Lawrence Franchini
- Talks about their products and work with athletes from Formula1, MLB, and Olympic athletes
- Marine Biologists, Researchers: Chrissy Frederick
- Focused on current invasive species problems in our oceans.
Field Trips:
- Denver Zoo
- Kinder, 3rd, and 6th Grade attended the zoo to help them gather research for their land design challenges.
- Denver Aquarium
- 1st and 5th Grade to gather research about aquatic ecosystems to solve their ocean design challenge problems.
- Spring 2022 Upcoming Field Trips
- Planetarium and the Denver Museum of Nature and Science (4th, 7th) Botanical Gardens (2nd Grade)
- Anschutz Neuroscience Program (8th Grade Capstone)
- Blue Canyon Technologies (Selected middle school students)
- 8th grade visits SVVS Innovation Center and CETC (Jan)
Design Challenge Highlights:
- 5th graders learn about sensor immersion and artificial intelligence. They use micro bits or sensor technologies to conduct data-driven investigations about our school and community. We have partnered with School-Wide Labs and the SVVSD Innovation center.
- 6th graders are developing prototypes of moon bases using the program TinkerCad. After students have received feedback from their peers, they will print off their designs to showcase.
- 8th graders create prototypes to decrease stress and use neurofeedback devices to gauge the efficiency of their products. The devices are called FocusCalm Headsets from BrainCo.
Mentoring and Student Presentations:
- Each grade level works with another grade level for mentorship opportunities
- For example, 6th graders taught kindergartners the design thinking process using the three little pigs theme.
- At the end of the ocean module, students presented their prototypes.
- Next semester, students will present their space prototypes to another grade level.
- All students will present their land prototypes at the Innovation Exhibition.
- Each year, we have a successful school-wide Innovation Exhibition which includes:
- Student-expert Panel Discussion
- Student presentations from Kindergarten through 8th grade
- Partnership Booths
- SVVS Mobile Lab
- Family STEM activities and food trucks supported by EHS students
Neuroscience and Social Emotional Lessons at Soaring Heights:
- Continued work with the Neuroscience Outreach Program at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus to create neuroscience benchmarks for each grade level.
- Neuroscience lessons are embedded in each of the modules for all grade levels.
- Once a week K-8th grade students participate in social-emotional lessons each week rooted in neuroscience and CASEL standards. We currently use 7 mindsets as our curriculum for 6-8th grade and InFocus for K-5th grade.
Computer Science, AI, 3D Printers, Virtual Reality, Laser Printers:
- Once a week K-5th grade students are participating in a computer science day. We are using the curriculum: Computer Science for ALL in SF (San Francisco).
- We are incorporating AI using the sensor immersion curriculum created by School Wide Labs from CU Boulder which is funded by the NSF. Two teachers are in a collaborative at the Innovation Center to learn more about artificial intelligence, test out the lessons with students and curriculum writing.
- 3D printers are used with our middle school students as an option for the end product. In 6th grade, every student is taught how to use the software tinkercad that enables them to 3D print.
- 6th-8th graders use the virtual reality headsets throughout the innovation curriculum. For example, during the space module, the 6th graders will go through a VR gravity simulation to learn about aspects of building a base on the moon. 8th graders dive into the Apollo mission as they learn about rocketry for their space design challenge.
- A group of students will use the laser printer to develop their prototype. They will design their product using adobe illustrator.
Academics:
- ELL- Access Testing – 71% growth in Elementary, third highest in St. Vrain. 16 students met all requirements which means they graduated from ELL services.
- A 5th grade Advanced Math class was added during the school day.
Student Engagement:
- First year starting a Mariachi Band in Middle School.
- Two students made the district Honor Choir.
- We are so proud of the added opportunities we have been able to offer for students outside the school day.
- Session One of AAA – 7 Teachers (up from 1 last year), 80 Students in grade 1st-7th (up from 11 last year)
- Middle School Sports
- Students are finding more opportunities in extracurricular sports than in years past. This includes; volleyball, girls and boys basketball, and soccer. Between all four sports this included 121 students.
- Middle School Clubs
- Robotics Club (15 Students)
- Drama Club (18 students)
- School Musical (41 Students)
- Game Club (18 Students)
- Baile Folkorico (second year)
- Elementary Clubs
- Kindergarten Game Club (27 students)
- Pokemon Club-(26 Students)
- STEM Explorers (21 Students)
- 1st grade Painting Club (23 Students)
- Soaring Singers (44 Students)
- 100 Mile Club (32 Students)
- The Student Council made 30 blankets for the charity Project Warm-Up.
- Student Council mentors primary students.
School Celebrations
- Recipient of The Weld Trust grant- year two. We have completed the first year of the Weld Trust grant. This has helped us support students with career readiness and exposure to STEM activities.
- We have also been able to enhance student learning with additional field trips and real life connections. All 8th graders have visited The Innovation Center, CTEC and CU Boulder to expose them to future opportunities.
- All 5th graders also visited CU Boulder.
Staff Celebrations:
- 48 out of 60 staff attended the beginning of the year retreat and were fully trained in Capturing Kids’ Hearts.
Academics:
- There are 22 7th grade students and 28 8th grade students enrolled in the Pathway to FlaconTECH, all 8th grade students have been accepted into three of the four P-TECH programs in St. Vrain.
- There are currently 90 6th grade students at Timberline that are currently enrolled in the Pathway to the Seal of Biliteracy courses, and all 4th and 5th grade students receive Seal instruction through their specials’ rotation.
- Timberline added a 4th grade advanced math track to their already existing 5-8 advanced math coursework.
- There are 118 students in grades 1-8 participating in additional literacy and math instruction through AAA.
Student Engagement:
- Timberline’s Student Leadership Team is now offered for grades 6th-8th, with 12 students each grade, as well as including elementary grades monthly.
- 15 7th grade students participate in Timberline’s Media.
- Timberline’s soccer is facilitated by the City of Longmont Department Recreation – the girls and boys team won the city championship this fall, making it their third consecutive trip to finals.
- There are 27 6th-8th girls participating in volleyball
- 25 6th-8th grade boys in basketball
- 17 6th-8th grade girls in basketball
- 25 6th-8th grade girls and boys participating in soccer
- Timberline students participated in a variety of clubs such as Art Club (elementary), Board Game Club (elementary and middle school), STEM Explorers (elementary and middle school), Ukulele Club (elementary school), and more.
- All 7th and 8th grade students (60), collaborated with Skyline High School students and teachers to prepare a combined concert that evening with Trail Ridge 8th grade band students. Timberline represented the majority of performing students at that concert.
Community Engagement:
- Timberline reinvented their August Open House to include teacher sessions introducing families to the expectations of each classroom, a resource fair with community resources, and an outside celebration with multiple food trucks, Folklorico Dancers from the Longmont Senior Center and a D.J. The event was “standing room only” with hundreds of families attending.
- 600 students and families participating in literacy based activities, creating beautiful works of art and being entertained by Timberline Mariachi and Folklorico Dancers.
- Timberline held award breakfasts for elementary and middle school students to celebrate the academic accomplishments of 38 elementary and 25 middle school students. Over 200 students and family members attended.
- Timberline continues to host their Cafecito monthly meetings.
STEM
- Timberline had a successful partnership with CU Pisec with the STEM Explorers after school program for students in grades 4th-8th (22 students). Students had the opportunity to visit CU laboratories where they got to see their CU graduate student mentors.
- Students in 6th, and 7th grade learned to build working VEX 5 robots and 3 were successful at modifying their designs to accomplish additional tasks. 18 kids have worked on Vex robotics.
- 6th, 7th, and 8th graders have been successful in learning how to code to reach a specific goal using Cubelets and Sphero’s. Over 100 Scholars in all three grade levels are now able to program, build, and accomplish tasks with these types of robots.
- 28 students in 7th grade were successful in researching, designing, and launching bottle rockets. They were able to reach about 93 feet in the air and many scholars were able to immediately identify ways to improve their rockets.
- Students in 7th and 8th grade worked on engineering new devices using simple machines to solve different problems they researched in the community. Three 7th grade students had a successful prototype of a machine that helped people with Parkinson’s disease write. We were able to conduct real world testing on actual patients.
- Three 7th grade students who were able to figure out how to work their 3D printer. 36 students were able to design 3D objects and 15 were successful in printing at least one project.
- 40 students in 6th grade were successful in designing their own websites on a variety of topics. Websites went live so our community has access to them.
- Students in 6th-8th grades were successful in learning the design thinking process. They learned to use it in solving problems such as designing an environmentally sound future city, engaging in a passion project of their choosing, and in completing several engineering design challenges.
Middle Schools
Academics/iReady Mid-Year:
- Our progress towards annual typical growth in reading was 125% (19% improvement from a year ago)
- Overall, 51% of students are at mid or above grade level in reading, this was 49% at this time last year. Additionally, we reduced the number of students two or more grade levels from 20% to 16%.
- Students in our literacy classes demonstrated 155% progress towards typical growth in reading. Our special education students demonstrated 112% progress towards typical growth in reading.
- Students in our advanced language arts classes demonstrated 160% progress towards typical growth in reading.
- Our Math progress towards typical growth was 77% (this is the exact same amount of growth that we had at this time last year and we ended the year with the highest math growth in the district).
- Overall, 37% of students are at mid or above grade level in Math; this was 34% at this time last year. Additionally, we reduced the number of students two or more grade levels from 20% to 17%.
- Special education students demonstrated 101% progress towards typical growth in math.
- Students in advanced math classes demonstrated 94% progress towards typical growth in math.
- Over 95% of all students at Altona completed the iReady assessments.
- Computer Science and Cyberpatriots – Two Altona teams competed in the national Cyberpatriots challenge and placed 38th and 43rd out of 521 middle school teams. They are ranked in the top 96% of teams in the nation and are currently ranked 3rd and 4th for all middle school teams in Colorado.
- Our very own computer science teacher, and Cyberpatriots coach, Mai Vu is also coaching an SVVSD Artificial Intelligence Student Leadership Team (through a partnership with the Innovation Center), and they took first place in the 2022 World Artificial Intelligence Competition for youth.
- 8th grade Language Arts classes started their year in the IDEALab examining how culture is built by picking a cultural theme and then creating two artifacts from a culture of their choosing. Special Education students also spent some time in the IDEALab learning about the Design Thinking Process using the Extraordinaires kit and building models using materials from the Prototype Warehouse. Using the Design Thinking process, students empathized with various real-world scientists and organizations and proposed a wide range of solutions to their peers.
Robotics (Robotics Hype Video):
- 175 students taking Introductory Robotics as an elective class this year.
- Altona had 32 robots built in our Intro to Robotics class. Our final competition is a game on the competitive field named Marsagedon. Students were asked to design and build a robot to pick up cartridges that are exactly the same size and shape of the cartridges that the Mars rover, Perseverance is using to leave core samples on the surface of the planet. The next mission for NASA will be to put another robot on Mars to pick up those cartridges.
- Our Altona Competitive Program has 9 teams and were all able to compete in a tournament in the 1st semester. We have collected 6 trophies so far, having won excellence, skills, and 2 tournament championships, including taking 1st place at the Berthoud High School Spin Up tournament for high school and middle school teams.
- We have 3 teams qualified for the Colorado State VEX Robotics Championships and we hope to have 3 or 4 more by the end of the year. We have our sights set on the world championships in April and between now and then, we have 4 more competitions and a lot to learn.
Student Engagement:
- We increased our robust and comprehensive elective opportunities for students to include 40 different elective courses.
- Currently we have 26 different extra and co-curricular clubs and intramural sports programs for students to get involved with outside of school hours.
- WEB – 8th-grade student leaders modeled leadership in multiple ways this semester. They trained for and led our annual 6th Grade Orientation day. They also continue to lead monthly lessons around teamwork and inclusion with our 6th-grade students. They help maintain our Altona Learning Garden and have organized our student section and live commentary for our home sporting events. Additionally, they have led interactive tours for prospective families and have helped to organize staff vs student volleyball, basketball, and kickball games.
- Video Production – In December, we hosted a red carpet night to highlight Mr. Prylinski’s film about his trip to Alaska, which was funded by the Eleanor Venture Grant. This night was the catalyst for launching student film production at Altona. Next semester, the Rattler Student News and the Altona Film Society will be launched to create opportunities for students to create authentic and relevant films and productions.
Staff Celebrations:
- Our staff developed a creative way for students to receive health, social-emotional learning, and digital citizenship lessons throughout the year. During the first Wednesday of each month, students engage in lessons related to these classes in their elective, math, and language arts classes.
Community Engagement:
- We held our first Silver Creek feeder Cafecito and over 20 families attended. We are looking forward to expanding more opportunities to connect with our Spanish-speaking families.
Activities/Intramural Sports:
- 96 students participated in volleyball and our staff beat the students once again in the annual Staff vs Student volleyball game.
- 79 students participated in Boys Basketball
- 63 students participated in Girls Basketball
Overall School Celebrations:
- Coal Ridge welcomed 128 6th graders who attended Step Up to Middle School as part of the 5th to 6th grade transition.
- W.E.B. (Where Everyone Belongs) leaders joined our Step-Up students to begin the positive mentoring between our 8th and 6th graders. W.E.B. leaders wrote welcome notes to each 6th grader and mailed them to homes before school started. W.E.B leaders continue to support the 6th graders weekly throughout the school year.
Extra Curricular and Co-Curricular Activities:
- 100% of students are participating in the performing arts programs and over 90% participating in after school activities.
- In the last two years, Coal Ridge has added four new after school opportunities for our students: Dance Club, Future Cities Club, Gardening Club and Unified Basketball.
- Art club meets weekly and has such a great participation rate they have to sign up early due to a limited number of spaces available. It is a wonderful opportunity for students to socialize and create in a less structured environment.
- The Competitive Robotics team expanded this year and now has 8 teams.
- CoED soccer had 42 participants – the 8th grade team made it to the finals in the final tournament.
- 45 students participate in the Climbing Club.
Intramural Activities:
- 38 students participated in cross country. The girls team became meet champions at the RE-1J and Wildcat Zoom events. The girls had at least one or more finishers in the top 20 for each meet of the season.
- Volleyball had 77 participants.
- Girls Basketball had 48 participants.
- Boys Basketball had 70 participants – The travel team won the championship game against Soaring Heights highlighting their skill as well as sportsmanship.
Leadership Opportunities at CRMS:
- W.E.B. Leaders (Where Everyone Belongs) has 68 participants. They participate in a 2 day kick off training before school starts learning about leadership and mentoring. W.E.B. leads our first day of school with our incoming 6th graders. Throughout the year they mentor the 6th grade students monthly and plan school activities such as dances and Spirit Week. These leaders also guide the school tours for our 5th grade orientation and parent night.
- The National Junior Honor Society has 60 participants. Students participate in a number of community and school projects including Campus Clean Up, Staff Conference Meals and making blankets for the Northern Colorado Project Warm Up. N.J.H.S. also sponsored our Winter Food Drive to support a local Table of Hope Food Pantry.
- The Student Council is new this year with 24 participants. This group of diverse students was selected by our counseling team from a pool of applicants to represent the CRMS student body. Our newly formed Student Council has helped redesign our Honor Roll and Perfect Attendance Celebrations along with giving student feedback and reflections to counseling and administration on a number of school events.
Co-Curricular:
- There are 185 (23%) of students participating in Band
- There are 232 (29%) of students participating in Choir
- There are 175 (21%) students participating in Orchestra
- There are 224 (27%) of students participating in Mariachi, Piano, Drama, and Guitar classes
CRMS Supports:
- AAA’s first session had over 40 participants, CRMS saw great success in both academic achievement and self confidence in math.
- Homework club meets twice weekly in the library with two certified teachers staffed to support students needing extra help with homework. This club gives students access to our media center and WiFi for space and time to complete homework.
Other Celebrations:
- Eighth to ninth grade transition – 8th grade visited both CETC and the Innovation Center to learn about all the amazing opportunities they have to work forward to in the future. We work closely with our feeder high schools, Frederick and Mead to provide information, guidance and support as our eighth grade class makes the transition to high school.
- With the help of our Grounds Crew we completed the shade structure on our Outdoor Classroom and Garden. Teachers are able to access this space for classroom activities and hands-on learning.
- We were able to expand our Mindfulness Room with Mobile Mindful kits that teachers can check out for classroom use thanks to a grant from St. Vrain Valley Schools Education Foundation.
- RaD (Research and Design) Lab continues to expand and supports learning daily as a space where students can practice the design thinking process and create. The RaD lab also received a grant from St. Vrain Valley Schools Education Foundation to design and build a model Podcast space that will then be a template for other schools in the district.
Academic Accomplishments
- We had 125% median progress towards annual typical growth in reading on the mid-year iReady which is a 39% increase from last year.
- We had a 67% median progress towards annual typical growth in math on the mid-year iReady which is a 5% increase from last year.
- Our median growth in both reading and math outpaces the national norm as well as the SVVSD average. We tied for first in median growth in reading in our district’s middle schools and ranked second in math.
- We already exceeded our school-wide growth goal in 5 of the 6 areas of focus for reading and math (informational text and numbers and operations).
- Almost 20% of our 8th grade students are engaging in Geometry, a math class that is two years above grade level.
- 35% of our 6th grade students are engaging in advanced math and almost 40% are engaging in advanced language arts.
- We continue to partner with Erie High School and PTEACH to implement the tutoring program where high school students come to our school to assist with small group instruction and student support.
- Almost 60% of our 6th grade student body attended our Step Up program before the school year started. The extra two days of instruction bolstered students’ ability to successfully navigate the 5/6 transition.
- We have bolstered our Gifted and Talented programming by creating events and activities for our gifted students to connect and engage in academic and social enrichment at each grade level.
Staff Collaboration and Feeder Connections:
- We have a fully engaged and excited Building Leadership Team (14 staff members!) that has collaborated to examine our systems and processes and identified key aspects of our 3 year vision for EMS.
- We have identified key priorities in our bell schedule and are working to finalize a schedule that includes an intentional intervention period as well as action steps for bolstering our culture of literacy.
- Staff collaboration led to a new structure for iReady assessments that increased the fidelity of our data while decreasing the impact on instructional minutes.
- Two members of our counseling/admin team wrote a proposal to present at the NASSP national conference in July.
- Several staff members engaged in our community by volunteering at events hosted by the Erie Optimist Club and the Town of Erie.
- We are working on redesigning our library to increase collaborative spaces and increase our focus on reading and literacy.
- Our language arts teachers have fully implemented the module-based language arts curriculum with focus on essential questions and intentional skill-building and exposure to rigorous texts.
- Teachers have developed unified professional goals around increasing comprehension of informational text or increasing fluency with numbers and operations as part of a year-long professional growth plan.
- EMS staff visited all four of our feeder elementary schools to meet our future 6th grade students.
- Over 250 families attended our redesigned Open House event, including a student panel
- We implemented a special education co-teaching model with both push-in and co-teaching happening in language arts and math classes at all three grade levels.
Fine Arts, Electives, and Activities:
- We created two new evening events to showcase our student-created one act plays as part of our drama elective
- Over 75% of our students are enrolled in a year-long performing arts class
- Our choir broke the record for the number of students who qualified for All-State Choir! 24 students qualified and several had some of the highest audition scores in the state
- Nine students qualified for SVVSD Honor Orchestra and 7 students qualified for SVVSD Honor Band
- We implemented a project-based culminating activity in our FCS classes where students design and market a food truck menu.
- We have planned two different field trips for 8th grade students this spring to explore the Innovation Center and CETC as well as attend a performance in Denver.
- We now offer 15 after school clubs and 6 after school sports. Over 95% of our students are engaged in an opportunity that takes place outside the school day.
- The number of students participating in our Robotics program increased by 40% from last year.
- Our 8th grade robotics class built Aquarobots this fall and showcased their work at a community event at the Erie Community Center.
- Over 15% of our 8th grade students applied for and participated in our WEB program which focuses on peer mentoring and planning connecting activities for our 6th grade students.
Academics:
- Winter iReady results show that 76% of our students made progress toward annual growth in reading, and 92% in math.
- Longs Peak attendance rate is improving, and all while students are getting involved in extracurricular activities
Student Engagement:
- 70 students attended the Achievement Acceleration Academy two days per week, and over 30 more attended the after school targeted intervention.
- 80% of students are involved in a club, sport, or music performance group.
- Longs Peak was selected as a grant recipient for the EARSS grant along with three other SVVSD schools. This grant will allow the school to hire an interventionist to work with students to increase attendance, and support the Rams with high-level coursework and the transition to high school for the next four years.
- Celebrated the wrap up of the 2nd annual 8th Grade Legacy Book Project. Every 8th grade student chose a book that was special to them, and we were able to purchase each book for our school library. 8th graders added a personal label to their chosen books, and their books will be available to read for all future Rams.
- First Battle of the Books competition was held December 19.
- Numerous 8th graders are already connected to high-level programs offered at Longmont High School.
- Medical BioScience Program at LHS: 7
- Trojan P-Tech Business Program: 12
- Career Elevation and Technology Center: 22
- SVVSD Innovation Center: 19
- Enrolled in LHS Marching Band, Drumline, Mariachi, or Orchestra: 35
- Enrolled in at least 1 Honors or AP 9th Grade Class: 50
- The Garden Club expanded the number of planting boxes, added irrigation and composting, and is working with Front Range Community College on a Farm to Table project to learn sustainable food practices.
- Proudly offered Sketchnoting, Graphic Design, Sculpture, Trash to Treasure, in addition to band, orchestra, choir, and mariachi classes. Music students performed on stage with Westview Middle and Longmont High musicians for an incredible feeder concert.
- The LPMS Bike Shop is offered as an elective class, with a Career and Technical Education certified teacher who will build on the service and skills already embedded in the bike shop program, then expand the program to business and entrepreneurship. All students are continuously expanding their skills working with bikes and in the upcoming semester will be able to branch out into the business, marketing, and management aspects of running a bike shop.
Academics:
- Doubled the number of students taking courses at the Career Elevation and Technology Center and Innovation Center from fall 2021 to fall 2022.
- Fall 2021 CETC/IC Enrollment: 23 students took a total of 26 courses
- Fall 2022 CETC/IC Enrollment: 42 students took a total of 52 courses
- Four students received the National Rural Small Town award for their performance on PSAT/SAT/NMSQT Exams: Alex Dugan, Henry Jones, Cole Thomas, and Anna Felt.
- Cole Thomas is a Boettcher Scholarship semi-finalist.
- Lyons students recovered four courses that helped them stay on track for graduation. Our biggest success is a senior who transferred in this school year with 13.75 credits. Nate not only is on track for graduation, but his confidence is through the roof as he feels unprecedented success.
- Lyons has 23 students involved in VRC and VEX Robotic, an increase in participation. Several teams are hoping to compete at the national level.
Environmental Leadership:
- Our Science and Leadership program now has 47 high school students (23%) of our student body. These students are developing environmental science and leadership-based lessons each month in partnership with Lyons Elementary School.
- Students attended a leadership retreat in the fall where they learned about leadership skills, team-building activities, and community service.
- Students have partnered with Ocean First Institute, Left-Hand Watershed, and Colorado State College of Natural Sciences to develop projects to study their local environment and present their findings at our second-annual Confluence Event in the spring.
- Science teacher Jeff Klipstein was awarded a St. Vrain Education Foundation grant to study water chemistry along the St. Vrain River. Students will collect water samples and study them for microplastics in partnership with Colorado State University professors.
- Lyons students developed passion projects in their technology class that required them to innovate to better their local environment and community. Projects included:
- Building fire sensor prototypes to send weather information and data from the forest to Lyons Fire Department.
- Students collaborating with Colorado State University to collect water samples from various spots along the St. Vrain River to study microplastic parts per volume and are making recommendations to the Lyons Town Ecology Board.
- Students building a garden in partnership with the Town of Lyons that includes a solar shed and microTech watering system that will produce high efficiency garden yields.
Music and Performing Arts:
- Allison Zema was awarded the Colorado Music Educators Association’s Outstanding Young Educator Award and will be recognized later this month at CMEA.This award is only given to 2 teachers across the state each year.
- Dr. Karen Gregg was recognized by School, Band and Orchestra Magazine as one of 50 Band Directors Across the Nation Who Make a Difference.
Athletics:
- Softball qualified for the state tournament with 10 athletes in the program.
- Junior Cecilia Chiaravalle was named to the 2A All State Team. Ceci is ranked 2nd in Colorado for strikeouts behind a pitcher for 4A Lutheran (State Champion).
- Football was 9-0 and League Champions. They qualified for the state championship bracket and finished in the top eight in the state for the eight man classification. Our team was selected as the Broncos game of the week and hosted Steve Atwater and the Broncos cheerleaders.
- Senior Dequlyn Keller and Junior Miles Dumbauld received eight man All State Honorable Mention.
- Both girls and boys cross country teams qualified for the 2A state championships.
- Senior Cole Thomas and Junior Sage Wynja received 2A All State Second Team recognition.
- Our Game Day Cheer team qualified for the state finals and placed 5th in 2A.
- Hadley Larson, female swimmer for the Longmont Trojans is currently ranked 1st in the 500 free in her league and 8th in the state.
- Ashley Booth, female wrestler for the Mead Mavs that won the 140 weight class at the NCCT and is currently ranked 2nd in the state at her weight class.
- Jaden Gardner won 157 at the Wray tournament pinning all competition in the first period.
School Spirit, Branding, and Facilities
- We partnered with SVVSD Communications to enhance the visual impact of our school including several short-term projects and other long-term projects in which we plan to get community input.
- We started a library redesign that will hopefully provide a greater collaboration space for students and staff and will hopefully be a hub for A.G.I.L.E. next school year.
Academics:
- Staff completed Winter iReady assessments and saw excellent gains at the halfway point in the year.
- At the halfway point in the year, students are 88% of the way to reaching their year-end goals in reading and 67% of the way to reaching their year-end goals in math.
Student Engagement:
- 10 choir students qualified for St. Vrain Honor Choir
- 4 choir students qualified for All State Choir
- 8 band students qualified for St. Vrain Honor Band
- 4 orchestra students qualified for St. Vrain Honor Orchestra
- The Pizza with Professionals program resumed this year and students have learned about legal careers, STEM jobs, and professional opportunities in agriculture.
- One robotics team qualified for Nationals.
- National Junior Honor Society and Student Council put on a Veteran’s Breakfast for local Veterans.
- Students competed in Unified Bowling.
- Students put together over 30 complete Thanksgiving meals for a local food bank.
- Choir students participated in Wreaths Across America.
Academics:
- Held inaugural summer school in June and with over 60 students in attendance.
- Hosted the largest number of incoming 6th grade students for Jump Start in August.
- Second year utilizing AAA for 6th-8th grade students and are 25 students strong.
- School-wide implementation and use of Thinking Maps paired with data impact teams and grading for equity.
- STEM classes are in their second year, building on our partnership with Amazon and this year the group created and launched rockets based on the challenge associated with the book The Martian.
- Redesignated 10 students this year as Fluent English Proficient (FEP) for English Language Development (ELD) bringing the three-year total to over 40 students.
- Celebrated over 120 students with the Spartan Spirit Award which are aligned to the IB learner traits.
- Increased the number of students earning 3.5 and above and 4.0 GPA for all three grade levels (6th-8th).
- In partnership with the CETC and the IC the entire 8th grade class toured both facilities to explore class options for next year.
Student Engagement:
- Awarded the gold medal for our yearbook for the third year in a row. One of only two middle schools in the state of Colorado to receive this honor.
- Second year hosting the combined Niwot/SMS Jazz band concert for the Niwot community.
- Students ran the three feeder group tours for elementary schools (Niwot, Indian Peaks and Burlington) and showcased the programs offered at SMS.
- The orchestra program was awarded the following grants: The Peter R. Marsh Foundation Grant for $1000, IBARMS Project Grant for $900 and Colorado Arts Partnership Grant through Arts 360 for Learning and Colorado Creative Industries for $1750.
- The art program won the Firehouse Studio artists in residency program grant through the city of Longmont to create a mural with local mural artist Tyrell Osborn.
- Partnered with Frederick High and Longs Peak Middle School and were awarded the EARRS at-risk student grant through the state of Colorado.
- Sunset had its largest number of students participate in cross country, volleyball, boys basketball and girls basketball topping previous numbers from last year.
- STEM Explorers club which partners with CU Boulder worked with PhD students from Boulder and visited CU Boulder research labs.
- Madagascar was performed as the fall musical and Sunset hosted all three feeder elementary schools for a matinee. Over 60 students participate in the musical.
- 8th grade students attended the fall pep assembly at Niwot High School.
- Girls volleyball student/athletes volunteered at the Colorado State volleyball tournament.
- Hosted the second annual SMS Vex IQ tournament and doubled the number of teams who participated in the tournament.
- SMS has its first ever VEX EDR teams in school history.
- 4 students were accepted to the District Honor Orchestra.
- 6 students were accepted to the District Honor Band. One student selected as a participant for the CU honor band program which is a state wide designation.
- 4 students were accepted to the All State Choir program.
- The mariachi band has nearly doubled in size since its inception nearly three years ago.
- Sunset participated in a canned food drive and collected an entire palette of food for the Our Center.
Community Engagement:
- The Mariachi band performed at several community events, at Soaring Heights, and multiple district Cafecito meetings.
- Hosted an Open House with more than 100 people in attendance.
- Choir, band and orchestra partnered with the Career Elevation and Technology Center (CETC) for the Veteran’s breakfast and provided entertainment.
Staff and Professional Development:
- Staff member honored by the IB ARMS group.
- Multiple Sunset Fine Art teachers were group facilitators for the Job-Alike day.
- Continual attention to keep staff on the cutting edge with IB training focusing on fidelity of implementation and quality instruction as a site. Over 30% of staff attended the IBARMS conference.
Facility Upgrades:
- Spartan decals were installed on walls throughout the building.
Academics:
- TRMS was selected as a Special Olympics National Banner School for our work with the Unified Program and was the only school in Colorado to be recognized this year.
- The highly recognized Robotics program here at Trail Ridge continues its ascension as we are in the midst of the competitive season. This year we have over 30 students on the competitive team collaborating on nine different robots!
- During the first quarter, 54% of our students achieved a 3.0 GPA or higher and made the Honor Roll! This included 107 students who were recognized with a perfect 4.0. The students came in and were prepared to do their very best right from the start!
- TRMS student attendance rates have increased this year to greater than 91%. Students are engaged in school activities and doing a great job.
- midyear iReady Results have come back very strong! Our median growth percentage in math is 57% and for reading it is 90%. This means that our students are exceeding expected achievement levels at the halfway point of the school year! Our teaching staff collaborates on a weekly basis to support all students here at TRMS and their efforts are evident in the results.
Student Engagement:
- Greater than 90% of TRMS students are involved in extracurricular and after school activities, including sports, robotics, performing arts, Student Council, clubs, and other academic endeavors such as our AAA program.
- The National Junior Honor Society welcomed many new members this year and hit the ground running. Volunteer hours have already started to accumulate as students learn the value of being a productive part of the community. Recently, they organized our holiday canned food drive to support local families in need.
- The Grizzly League of Champions has had an amazing return this year and has brought a healthy level of competition and school spirit to all grade levels. Students look forward to the weekly competitions and opportunities to make a variety of new friends as they increase their teamwork.
- This year, every student participates in 1 on 1 meetings directly with the school principal.
- This semester, we were able to host our music concerts and they were amazing! Our students in Band, Choir, and Orchestra had a great time sharing their first performances and the music was great! Our visual and performing arts program is a big part of what we do here at TRMS, evidenced by the many students selected to District Honor groups in music. We are looking forward to the next set of performances coming in February, as well as the TRMS Drama performance in May.
Other Celebrations:
- Trail Ridge was recognized as a national ESPN Honor Roll school, for work done with Special Olympics and for providing opportunities for all students as well as showing the dedication to creating a climate of inclusion. The network honored only 35 schools nationwide this year.
- The Denver Broncos honored 6th grade teacher Josh Walker as one of their MVT (Most Valuable Teachers) during a game in January. Josh was honored for his connection with students and numerous hours of dedication to the TRMS community.
Academics:
- Exceeded enrollment projection and was awarded additional FTE. We were projected at 612 students and our current enrollment is 658 students.
- Westview received more than 150 open enrollment applications last year, far exceeding applications to any other middle school. This year we have received 110 applications so far, the highest number of any middle school in the district.
- Westview students demonstrated high performance in both iReady math and reading. We were among the top middle schools in the district in iReady growth.
- 350 students (55%) of students are engaged in advanced math classes. We have two Honors Geometry classes in 8th grade.
Student Engagement:
- Over 200 students are involved in robotics.
- Teams were awarded the Tournament Champions, Tournament Finalists, and Design Awards at the Wildcat Robotics Tournament.
- Three teams have already qualified for the state championship in March
- A variety of intramural sports were offered.
- Over 50 students participated in cross country.
- Hosted the Wildcat Zoom meet which involved more that 400 runners from 20 schools across the front range.
- First place in the Centaurus Invitational, the Runners Roost Invitational, and the St. Vrain Invitational.
- 150 girls participated in volleyball
- Members of the volleyball team worked as shaggers at the state CHSAA volleyball tournament.
- 174 boys participated in basketball
- 85 students competed in the UNC competitive math contest
- 30 students competed in Math Olympiad competitions
- Math Club engaged more than 50 students in practicing for Math Olympiad competitions and MathCounts club activities.
- Students selected to participate in Honor Music Ensembles:
- Band
- Combined League Jazz Band – 3
- Combined League Honor Band – 6
- SVVSD Honor Band – 9
- CU Honor Band – 3
- Choir
- SVV Honor choir – 17
- Colorado All State Honor Choir – 6
- Orchestra
- SVVSD Honor Orchestra – 17
- Notable SVVSD Honor Orchestra Seats/Chairs from Westview
- Concertmaster: Carina McCall
- Principal Violin 2: Meira McCall
- Associate Principal Violin 2: Emily Payne
- Associate Principal Viola: Makayla Curfman
- Associate Principal Cello: Benjamin Kohn
- Band
- The band, choir, and orchestra performed at Art Walk on Main Street in Longmont. The band joined the Longmont High Marching band at the Halloween Parade, and in the Jazz Band performed at Planet Bluegrass along with Lyons Midle School Jazz Band.
- We have more than 15 clubs that engage hundreds of students in high-interest additional learning activities and recently started a Python programming club.
- The Wired Creativity class was busy using the design process to design and build carnival games for our elementary schools and provided games for Central Elementary and for the YES Ambassadors event at the Innovation Center.
- The Plains to the Park program resumed their two week summer institute in June, and continues as a club over the course of the school year. This fall they took field trips to Rocky Mountain National Park and Button Rock Preserve to continue their environmental research.
Staff and Professional Development:
- Teacher Librarian Lisa Herrmann was awarded the Leadership Badge through the Colorado Department of Education Highly Effective Schools Through Libraries Program.
- Westview submitted an application for redesignation as a Colorado Trailblazer School to Watch. Westview has been a school to watch since 2015 and we look forward to continuing to be part of this dynamic community of schools.
High Schools
Attendance:
- School-wide improvements in both chronic absenteeism and attendance rate between 2021-2022 school year and 1st semester of 2022-2023 school year.
Academics:
- 827 students are taking 1,132 AP exams
- 20 AP courses offered + the AP Capstone Program
- AP success rate 21/22 (5 year pass rates):
- 2018 – 60%
- 2019 – 59%
- 2020 – 68%
- 2021 – 68%
- 2022 – 68%
- Juniors averaged 1033 on the NMSQT October 2022 administration, increasing their mean score between April PSAT 10 and October NMSQT by 20 points
- 78% of EHS Juniors meet the Evidenced Based Reading and Writing Benchmark
- 32 students on track to complete Academy of Aerospace and Engineering Program in Class of 2023.
- Number of students on who earned the AP Capstone Diploma or the AP Scholar Distinction in the Class of 2022:
- AP Scholar: 95
- AP Scholar with Honor:23
- AP Scholar with Distinction: 42
- AP Capstone Diploma: 18
- AP Capstone Certificate: 18
- AAA programming
- 2 days per week of Math
- 2 days per week of English
- 8th / 9th grade transition
- Collaborative music events in Choir and Instrumental Music among EHS and EMS and SHPK8
- Open House for interested 8th grade families in November 2022; 8th Grade Registration Night on January 19, 2023
- E-credit
- 69 courses completed during the day with a 87.34% completion rate
- 19 courses completed after school with a 100% completion rate
Student Awards/Recognitions/Scholarships:
- Daniels Scholarship Finalist in the Class of 2023 – Stephen Hampton
Student Engagement:
- Two student teams placed in the top three of the Northern Colorado Stock Market Challenge in December 2022.
Athletics:
- 365 student-athletes competed in fall athletics (21% of student population)
- Softball – FRL champions; regional champions; state CHSAA 5A final four; Tobin Echohawk was FRL Coach of the Year
- XC – boys team qualified for state, Senior Evan Kraus placed 16th; 1 individual girls qualified for state
- Boys Soccer – Class 4A state tournament qualifier (lost in Round of 32)
- Boys Golf – 2 state qualifiers
- Boys Tennis – #4 doubles team qualified for CHSAA 5A state tournament
- Volleyball – qualified for CHSAA 5A regional tournament
- Football – Northern League Champions, CHSAA Class 4A Final Four, Jeff Giger was named Northern League Coach of the Year
- Cheer- 2022 CHSAA Class 4A state champions
- Dance- 2022 CHSAA Class 4A state runner-up
- Outstanding participation in the Unified Bowling program, and we just had our first Unified Basketball game on January 11th
- Currently, 148 student-athletes competing in Winter Sports (8.5% of student population)
Music/Performing Arts:
- Choir – 13 students selected to All-State Choir
- Orchestra – 1 student selected to All-State Orchestra; 9th grade student Vittoria Pugina was accepted into the Western States Honor Orchestra Festival
- Band – one student selected for all-state Band
- Theater – outstanding fall production, “The Odd Couple”; 30 students participated in Thescon in December
Extracurricular Activities and Community Engagement:
- Mock Trial – Mock Trial worked hard to prepare for our upcoming competition. We are fielding two full teams for the first time in Erie’s history. We work with two attorneys from the Boulder District Attorney’s office, as well as an attorney from a private practice firm. We will compete in February at the district competition, held at the Boulder County Courthouse.
- Model United Nations – EHS has 26 student Model United Nations. Students debate and collaborate in an effort to form resolutions on issues of policy, ethics and global safety. The students will compete in a district competition later this spring.
- National Honor Society – over 150 members of the NHS group at EHS; working collaboratively to organize leadership and community service opportunities, including raising over 1,000 pounds of food for a local food bank for the holidays.
- Trunk or Treat event for area elementary schools. Hundreds of students / community members participated.
- Military Appreciation Letter Writing – National Honor Society students gathered to write letters to military service members in December wishing them a happy holiday and thanking these individuals for their service.
Academics:
- 20 EagleTECHseniors completed an in-person internship across four different partner sites.
- FHS has a net open enrollment gain of 69 students. When comparing comprehensive high schools (excluding homeschool and LaunchEd) FHS has a net open enrollment gain of 120 students.
- EagleTECH PTECH added partner Corden Pharma to join existing partners Agilent Technologies, Tolmar Pharma, AGC Biologics and KBI BioPharma, and have plans to offer paid full time or part time (for those in 4 year college) employment to EagleTECH graduates.
- FHS has developed a new unit recovery system that we believe will be the standard for all schools. In this “Day Unit Recovery” program, students have recovered 73 courses this fall.
- FHS students are on track to recover nearly 200 e-credits this semester. This paired with our early intervention strategies and unit recovery model are systems that will help FHS reach our ultimate four-year goal of having above a 96% graduation rate.
- FHS is proud to be one of the two host sites (LHS is the other) of the LSACE program. This program continues to create great support for our special education students.
- EagleTECH students earned LOTS of AIMS College credit this semester:
- 12th grade -386 credits
- 11th grade -284 credits
- 10th grade – 96 credits
- Frederick’s BioMedical Academy continued a robust partnership with CSU, with more students than ever before partnering with CSU graduate students and professors.
- Frederick High School, along with Timberline and Sunset, was awarded another EARRS Grant that will allow us to expand our at-risk and dropout prevention strategies for years to come.
- 142 incoming 9th graders joined us for JumpStart, extending the school year for over a third of our 9th graders.
- FHS and CETC have created an incredible relationship where FHS PTECH students earn college credit in manufacturing at the CETC.
- FHS was proud to accept 13 foreign exchange students this year, allowing us to share FHS excellence globally.
- The collective CU Denver, AIMS, and FRCC classes have allowed FHS students to earn college credit at an incredible rate. These robust concurrent enrollment classes are a great option alongside our AP classes, allowing students a wide variety of ways to earn college credit while at FHS.
- Additionally, FHS has continued to add additional numerous concurrent options for FHS students.
- FHS has added AP Comparative Government to our existing 18 AP Courses.
- FHS implemented four interventions for 9th graders as early dropout interventions:
- Small group weekly pull-outs with a focus on executive functioning.
- At-Risk Guided Study class called “SOAR” in coordination with Laura Hess and SPED.
- Intentional Algebra 1 and English 9 grade tracking during staff collaboration time.
- The addition of our Unit Recovery Model allowed us to transition our after-school tutoring back to current grade and content support rather than after-school unit recovery.
Athletics/Activities:
- Frederick’s Boys Basketball is currently ranked #1 in the state and has notched wins over powerhouses Mead and 6A Denver South.
- FHS fall sports had incredible seasons with regional and state tournament successes by Football, softball, volleyball, cross country, Tennis, and Unified Bowling.
- The Golden Eagle softball team made it to state and finished in the top 4 in the CHSAA 4A State Tournament and was the only team in the tournament to score against eventual state champion Lutheran.
- Matteo Tavagnacco was the first male tennis player to qualify for the 4A CHSAA State tournament in school history.
- The Music Program continues to thrive and create real-world learning experience.
Student Awards/Recognitions:
- Four FHS students earned the “College Board National Hispanic Recognition Award” for outstanding performance on the PSAT/SAT/NMSQT exams.
- Six students earned the “College Board National Rural and Small Town Award” for outstanding performance on the PSAT/SAT/NMSQT exams.
- Cruz Zamudio is a Beottcher Scholarship Semi-Finalist and Finalist for the National Merit Scholarship.
- Jayce Scudder received congressional nomination from Congressman Buck as he applied to our military academies, making five years in a row that FHS has had a student receive a congressional nomination.
Student Engagement:
- At the State Thespian Festival, the 27 competing students of Frederick Theatre earned 18 scores of Excellent and four scores of Superior.
- The Golden Eagle Broadcast Network had an amazing semester with an all-student run broadcast team, including some great calls and on-site experiences at CU.
- Owen Willis (senior) travels with the Innovation Center’s Mobile Lab to Middle Schools in the district as well as robotic tournaments outside of the district and helped live stream robotics tournaments.
Academics:
- TrojanTECH is currently registering our class of 2027 inaugural cohort of 30-35 students
- 188 fall enrollments (number of courses) through Front Range Community College
- Largest FBLA chapter in the state of Colorado
- 26 AP courses offered
- 12 LHS teachers certified as CU instructors giving us one of the largest CU Gold programs in the state
- 53 AP Diploma candidates grades 10-12
MBSA:
- 27 seniors completed summer or fall internships and successfully completed their capstone projects!
- Seven students are currently doing their internship this semester.
SMART Team:
- 19 students on the team this year
- We are working with three CU graduate students on several protein projects: adrenergic receptor, prion proteins, and p53 tumor suppressor protein.
- We submitted three scientific abstracts to the ASBMB (American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology) and will be presenting posters of their work at an undergraduate poster session at the ASBMB Annual Conference in Seattle, WA
College Board National Recognition Program Awards:
- Kimberly Hernandez: National Hispanic Recognition Award
- Lauren Pavot: National Hispanic Recognition Award
- Rowan Premer: National Hispanic Recognition Award
Daniels Fund Scholarship Finalist:
- Katja O’Malley
Boettcher Scholarship Semi-Finalists:
- Greta Wedel
- Briona Loughran
- Izaac Stone
Daniels Fund Finalist:
- Katja O’Malley
Fine and Performing Arts:
- 100 year anniversary of LHS Marching Band
- Three LHS All State Orchestra musicians:
- Andrew Delker, bass
- Jesse Arnt, violin
- Nate Bonin, horn (upcoming tryout at The Julliard School in New York City)
- 12 LHS SVVSD Honor Orchestra musicians:
- Jesse Arnt, violin
- Ana VanDusen, violin
- Kroeger, Kaylin, violin
- Sophie Foraker, violin
- Kyle Buck-Gengler, cello
- Luke Beckett, cello
- Andrew Delker, Bass
- Sophia Eyl, clarinet
- Lucius Kadlecek, clarinet
- Ronja King, oboe
- Ben Findley, trumpet
- Henry Staats, trumpet
Athletics:
- Boys Golf: Trace Sauders qualified for the state tournament
- Boys Tennis: Wyatt Saunders, Owen Jones, Jack Kujawa and Miles Walcott qualified for the state tournament.
- Cross Country: Uma Champe qualified for the state meet
- Football qualified for the playoffs
- $30,000 of upgrades made to the weight room
- Trojan Cross Country team finished first and girls finished 3rd in the Lake County Invitational
Clubs:
- LHS founded a new club this year, “Unidos,” to build community and support within our Latinx population.
- Club sponsors (Gina Quintana-Carnes, Counselor; Alma Doton, Community Liaison; Quinn Lacey, Student Engagement Specialist)
- Here is a short video of our students in action
- Robotics: Team 2654H Hyphen win Tournament Champs.; Team 2654P Pronounce This win Robot Skills & Excellence Award
- The yearbook staff went to Colorado State University for the Colorado Student Media Assn’s annual Journalism Conference. Students were awarded All-Colo honors for the 2022 yearbook, placed in Best of Show photo competition & the Priam Yearbook was inducted into the All-Colorado Hall of Fame!
Other Community Celebrations:
- 40 College Rep Visits to LHS this Fall 2022
- Twin Peaks Rotary Student of the Month:
- October “Community Service” Katja O’Malley
- November “Forensics/Creative Writing” Greta Wedel
- December “Music/Theater” Nate Bonin
Staff Recognition:
- Monica Herzog, AP Physics Teacher: Knowles Fellowship
- Sam Holloway, Science Teacher: Knowles Fellowship
Academics:
- Doubled the number of students taking courses at the Career Elevation and Technology Center and Innovation Center from fall 2021 to fall 2022
- Fall 2021 CETC/IC Enrollment: 23 students took a total of 26 courses
- Fall 2022 CETC/IC Enrollment: 42 students took a total of 52 courses
- Four students received the National Rural Small Town award for their performance on PSAT/SAT/NMSQT Exams: Alex Dugan, Henry Jones, Cole Thomas, and Anna Felt.
- Cole Thomas is a Boettcher Scholarship semi-finalist.
- Lyons students recovered four courses that helped them stay on track for graduation. Our biggest success is a senior who transferred in this school year with 13.75 credits. Nate not only is on track for graduation, but his confidence is through the roof as he feels unprecedented success.
- 23 students involved in VRC and VEX Robotic, an increase in participation. Several teams are hoping to compete at the national level.
Environmental Leadership:
- Science and Leadership program has 47 high school students (23%) of the student body. These students are developing environmental science and leadership-based lessons each month in partnership with Lyons Elementary School.
- Students attended a leadership retreat in the fall where they learned about leadership skills, team-building activities, and community service.
- Students have partnered with Ocean First Institute, Left-Hand Watershed, and Colorado State College of Natural Sciences to develop projects to study their local environment and present their findings at our second-annual Confluence Event in the spring.
- Science teacher Jeff Klipstein was awarded a St. Vrain Education Foundation grant to study water chemistry along the St. Vrain River. Students will collect water samples and study them for microplastics in partnership with Colorado State University professors.
- Lyons students developed passion projects in their technology class that required them to innovate to better their local environment and community. Projects included:
- Building fire sensor prototypes to send weather information and data from the forest to Lyons Fire Department.
- Students collaborating with Colorado State University to collect water samples from various spots along the St. Vrain River to study microplastic parts per volume and are making recommendations to the Lyons Town Ecology Board.
- Students building a garden in partnership with the Town of Lyons that includes a solar shed and microTech watering system that will produce high efficiency garden yields.
Music and Performing Arts:
- Allison Zema was awarded the Colorado Music Educators Association’s Outstanding Young Educator Award and will be recognized later this month at CMEA.This award is only given to two teachers across the state each year.
- Dr. Karen Gregg was recognized by School, Band and Orchestra Magazine as one of 50 Band Directors Across the Nation Who Make a Difference.
Athletics:
- Softball qualified for the state tournament with 10 athletes in the program.
- Junior Cecilia Chiaravalle was named to the 2A All State Team. Ceci is ranked 2nd in Colorado for strikeouts behind a pitcher for 4A Lutheran (State Champion).
- Football was 9-0 and League Champions. They qualified for the state championship bracket and finished in the top eight in the state for the eight man classification. Our team was selected as the Broncos game of the week and hosted Steve Atwater and the Broncos cheerleaders.
- Senior Dequlyn Keller and Junior Miles Dumbauld received eight man All State Honorable Mention.
- Both girls and boys cross country teams qualified for the 2A state championships.
- Senior Cole Thomas and Junior Sage Wynja received 2A All State Second Team recognition.
- The Game Day Cheer team qualified for the state finals and placed 5th in 2A.
- Hadley Larson, female swimmer for the Longmont Trojans, is currently ranked 1st in the 500 free in her league and 8th in the state.
- Ashley Booth, female wrestler for the Mead Mavs, won the 140 weight class at the NCCT and is currently ranked 2nd in the state in her weight class.
- Jaden Gardner won 157 at the Wray tournament pinning all competition in the first period.
School Spirit, Branding, and Facilities:
- Partnered with SVVSD Communications to enhance the visual impact of our school including several short-term projects and other long-term projects in which we plan to get community input.
- We started a library redesign that will hopefully provide a greater collaboration space for students and staff and will hopefully be a hub for A.G.I.L.E. next school year.
Academics:
- Mead had three National Merit Semi-Finalists: Kyra Haan, Wren Pritchett, and Maggie McMillan
- Gage Duetsch and Ellie Youngs were identified as Boettcher Scholarship semi-finalists.
- Over 35% of our students are in AP courses this year. We ordered 646 exams which is a 65% increase from participation last year.
- 158 students earned credit by taking concurrent enrollment classes through Front Range Community College. That equals 474 college credits and over $58,000 in college tuition savings.
- 24 students earned college credit for College Algebra through CU Denver’s CU Succeed program which equals 72 credits at a cost savings of over $24,000.
- Mead has added four new clubs, on top of the 15 clubs already offered.
- The Mav Newspaper and MavTV continue to win awards at the state level for their excellence in student run journalism programs both online and via our video production.
- 50 students completed 90 courses in eCredit recovery this semester alone.
- Teachers are administering common unit tests and final exams linked to state standards, essential learnings, aligned with the SAT, and including various depths of learning.
- Mead students passed over 95% of their classes this first semester by successfully completing over 8,400 courses.
Performing Arts:
- The bands played in more than 30 events this fall including games, parades, competitions, community events and more.
- Andrew Deba was named to the All State Jazz Band.
- 12 students earned spots on the SVVSD Honor Band.
- Choir put on two amazing performances this semester in addition to many other events.
- Michael Reeder was selected to All State Jazz Choir. Choir had 10 students selected to All State, the second most in SVVSD.
- Orchestra held two concerts and our new teacher, Ms. Holli Young, has inspired students and is growing the program.
- Drama put on a great performance of “Shakespeare in Love” and sent 15 students to Thescon.
- Our music programs continue to build strong feeder relationships by playing with both of our feeder middle schools and elementary schools.
Athletics:
- Six fall varsity sports made the state playoffs – soccer, volleyball, softball, boys cross country, girls cross country and Unified Bowling
- Freshmen Booth Hayes qualified for the 4A State Golf Championships
- Softball won their home regional and at the state tournament beat Pueblo West and Windsor before falling to Holy Family in the semi-finals to cap off an amazing season.
- The boys and girls cross country teams qualified for the state tournament for the second time in school history. The girls finished 7th overall and the boys finished 8th. The girls were paced by Frances Hudson and her 13th place finish.
- Nolan Hoffman became the surprise of everyone outside of Mead by winning the 4A Boys Cross Country Championship with a record time of 15.31.40 winning by .30 seconds to claim Mead High’s first ever cross country individual championship.
- Mead cheer finished in the top 20 at the state tournament.
- Mead poms also finished in the top 20 in the state.
- Unified Bowling finished in 3rd place at Regionals and qualified for the state championship for the first time in program history.
- Five athletes have already committed to playing athletics at the next level:
- Joslynn Veltien: Softball, Weber State
- Frances Hudson: Cross Country, Weber State
- Kyra Haan: Basketball, Embry Riddle
- Jorja Haskin: Softball: Dawson Community College
- Nolan Hoffman: Cross Country, Colorado School of Mines
Staff Engagement:
- Counselors met with every single student this year to talk about support, credits, and postsecondary planning.
- The Mead Counseling department planned two major postsecondary events this fall. The first was a college fair with over 70 colleges and universities present. The second event was a career fair that brought in over 60 organizations representing different industries, career paths, apprenticeship programs, trade schools, and other employers who are hiring our graduates. SVVSD was also present sharing all of the different career opportunities we have available.
- MHS is implementing SVVSD’s new AGILE remote learning system and has students taking classes at other high schools in our system without leaving campus. We have a team of school and district level staff who have helped increase parent participation in our Cafecito program aimed to support our multilingual families.
- Our teachers continue to implement many new instructional strategies that encourage student engagement and rigorous thought processes like Thinking Classrooms, Powerful Teaching and Brain based learning, CERA writing prompts, and more.
- The English department is offering many new English electives for students including Science Fiction, Young Adult Literature, Creative Writing, and Speech and Debate.
- MHS is implementing SVVSD’s new AGILE remote learning system and has students taking classes at other high schools in our system without leaving campus.
Community Engagement:
- Mead Rotary has formed a partnership with our schools and is recognizing two students every month. We are also in the process of starting an Interact Club in partnership with them.
- Student Council hosted our Veteran’s Day Assembly and Recognition. This had been on pause due to COVID. We had an amazing turnout from our community veterans which provided for a very moving event that also included a fundraiser for local veterans support.
- National Honor Society and Student Council ran successful canned food drives, supported families in need by collecting gifts, conducted road cleanups, volunteered at Community Days, and increased school spirit through gear sales and pep assemblies.
Academics:
- Boettcher Scholarship Semi-Finalist: Olga Rokhlenko
- National Merit finalists:
- Henry Stauch
- Marguerite Stokes
- Angela Wu
- The Class of 2022
- Garnered $22 million in scholarship dollars
- Over a 97% graduation rate
- 99% IB Diploma receipt rate
- Hosted FAFSA Support Night and Financial Aid Night
- 414 students are registered for 689 AP exams in May of 2023
- 185 students are registered for 420 IB exams in May 2023
Performing Arts:
- Five students successfully auditioned for District Honor Band held at LHS in February
- Five students successfully auditioned for Combined League Honor Band held at the UNC campus in February
- Seven students successfully auditioned for the Combined League Honor Jazz Band event held at Frederick High in November.
- Lucas Haratsaris was selected as one of only two tenor saxophones in the Colorado All-State Jazz Band held at the Broadmoor in January.
- The fall concert band had its largest enrollment yet, 30, with two successful concerts during the fall semester. A big area of growth for us.
- The NHS Marching Band(76 students) had an excellent season performing in five home football games and four parades.
- The NHS Drumline (11 students) continued its tradition of playing cadences the afternoon of home football games. #CougarSpirit
- One student successfully auditioned into the Western States Honor Orchestra Festival
- Two students successfully auditioned into the National Honors Orchestra Performance Series this year and will be performing at the Carnegie Hall in New York in early February
- Two students successfully auditioned into Colorado’s first All State Mariachi this year: Mariachi Estelares de Colorado. They were among 12 students from the state of Colorado to be selected to participate in this event. These exceptional students were invited to perform with the Grammy-nominated Mariachi artist, Lupita Infante in the Viva Southwest Mariachi Festival.
- Three students successfully auditioned into the All State Orchestra and one has made into the 1st violin section
- Four students successfully auditioned into the Combined League Honor Orchestra.
- Five students successfully auditioned into the Longmont Youth Symphony.
- Eight students successfully auditioned into the District Honor Orchestra.
- The Mariachi Ensemble doubled its size again this year, 18 members total, and had an outstanding performance at our District Gala.
- Seven students attended the CU Honor Reading Choir at CU Boulder.
- Eight students successfully auditioned into the Colorado All State Choir.
- 42 students successfully auditioned for District Honor Choir.
- One student was selected to perform in the Youth Honor Choir for the Honor Performance Series at Carnegie Hall this spring.
- Chamber Singers and Sedalia performed at the District Fall Choral Festival.
- Our five choirs held two choir performances, and our Music Theater class put on a successful Music Theater Revue.
- Drama students put on four amazing performances of Mamma Mia which included over 40 cast members, 20 crew members, and seven pit members. The show produced the largest amount of ticket sales in Niwot history.
- Drama students also put on four amazing performances of Noises Off! which included two separate casts, 150 hours of rehearsals, 50 hours of construction, 20 tech crew students, and a fully rotational set.
- 30 students attend the 58th Colorado Thespian Convention. 16 students competed in individual events. Five students received Superior ratings and seven received Excellent ratings. Tech competed in the Tech challenge and got 7th place.
- Two students were chosen for the Colorado All State Thespian opening number where they performed in front of 3300 student thespians around the state.
- Senior Audrey Asbury represented Niwot on the Colorado Thespian Student Board. She was only one of 10 students chosen from all around the state and the first ever from Niwot High School.
- Advanced Drama students put on a night of One Acts fully directed and produced by the students of the Advanced Drama class.
Athletics:
- Four student athletes have already committed to continue their academic and athletic careers at the collegiate level:
- Grace Demmel: Volleyball, Regis University
- Jamieson Legh: Swimming, Dartmouth
- Madison Shults: Track, Stanford
- Kimora Northrup: Track, Texas Christian University
- Honors for athletes/coaches this fall:
- Eight CHSAA All-State athletes
- Four BOCO Preps Athlete of the Year
- One CHSAA Coach of the Year
- Boys Cross Country:
- League Champions, Regional Champions, State Runner-Up
- Girls Cross Country
- League Champions, Regional Champions, State Champions, National Runner-Up
- Football
- Hosted first-ever varsity football game at Niwot High School
- Boys Golf
- Individual State Qualifier
- Gymnastics
- Regional Champions, 3rd place at State
- Kylee Schlepp State Champion
- Boys Soccer
- League Champions, State Quarterfinals
- Cheer
- National Qualifier
- Boys Tennis
- League Champions, State Quarterfinals
- Unified Bowling
- State Qualifier
- Volleyball
- Regional Champions, State Quarterfinals
- Katherine Cui competed with Longmont’s FBLA and received 5th place at state at the end of 2022. She also attended the FBLA national competition.
Other Celebrations:
- Cafecitos in the building and the community
- Full-time bilingual family liaison addition to our staff
- College application and scholarship support
- 37 first-generation students attended a field trip to UNC in October (with two teachers and a counselor chaperoning) to tour the school and learn about its offerings.
- Three students will be participating in the International Blues Challenge in Memphis.
Community Engagement:
- More than 200 alumni attended our Tours and Tailgate event.
- In-N-Out Burger served families and staff at Back-to-School Night.
- We hosted Fall Fest where community members, students, feeder schools and families trick-or-treated, painted pumpkins, went on scavenger hunts, and more.
- Our students created, hosted, and participated in an escape room.
- We set a $5,000 fundraising goal for our upcoming Wish Week benefitting Make-A-Wish, where we have all kinds of fun and exciting activities culminating in a second all-school dance our students have been asking to hold for years.
Academics:
- AP Perfect Scores as recognized internationally by the College Board
- Annabel Green Drawing
- Alyse Alfred Research
- AP Research Student Luke Xu has had his Advanced Placement work, Mindset and Academic Risk, published in the Journal of Student Research.
- Four National Merit semi-finalists
- Three Daniels Fund finalists
- Six National Merit Commended Scholars
- Two Boettcher Scholarship semi-finalists
- 151 Advanced Scholars recognized
- 83 new inductees into the Silver Creek National Honor Society
- Record number of credits (27) in e-Credit for a completion percentage of 69%.
- Silver Creek offers a rigorous academic pathway for students pursuing Advanced Placement and Honors courses with 23 weighted grade Advanced Placement options and numerous weighted grade Honors courses available throughout ninth and tenth grade.
- 46 home visits conducted by the Attendance Team and Creek volunteers, resulting in improved attendance and grades.
Universal High School:
- Sophomores and juniors presented their Fall Presentations of Learning to the Universal High School (UHS) community in October.
- Owen Welsh, Grant Riddle, and Riley Herchert’s FishNet AI team won first place in an international AI competition.
- Zach Rojo is a student representative on the Colorado Association for Gifted and Talented board of directors.
- Zach Rojo and Dillon Rankin were granted interviews for Michael Bennet’s page program in Washington DC after going through a lengthy application process.
- All UHS members are tracking toward an on-time or early graduation.
Silver Creek Leadership Academy (SCLA):
- 64 students are completing Senior Capstone Projects which is the largest senior class in 10 years. We have 27 Community based projects, 29 projects interacting within the SVVSD, and eight internships. Projects highlights include:
- Talyn Fordham assembled over 100 duffle bags with essential items for kids involved with the foster care system.
- Vivian Nguyen partnered with the Longmont City Council, Longmont Police Department and the DEA to collect expired medications, keeping them out of the local water system. This resulted in collections of more than eight garbage bags of prescription medication.
- Haley Pierce has installed two Little Free Pantries around Longmont to assist with food insecurities.
- Gabby Schultz hosts monthly Mini Medics classes with 4th and 5th graders at APEX.
- Ming Liew and Nixon Williams were selected to attend the Longmont Chamber of Commerce Leadership Longmont Classes representing high school students from the SVVSD. Ming is also completing an internship with the Chamber for his SCLA Capstone Project.
RaptorTECH:
- Class of 2025 (10th grade) 29 students, all successfully completed their CNG 1024 Networking I class at Front Range Community College ( They now look forward to taking two college courses at the same time in the spring semester.
- Class of 2026 (9th Grade) 33 students visited FRCC on November 14 to obtain their college IDs and become college students. They will be taking their first college course during the spring semester.
- All students in the classes of 2025 and 2026 are on-track for completing the RaptorTECH program in 4-5 years.
- RaptorTECH students represented the program to students and families of the class of 2027 at Flagstaff Information Night, Silver Creek Open House, and the RaptorTECH Information Nights.
- Students continue to build relationships with their mentors during our Quarterly Mentor events. Cisco hosted our first quarterly event of the year at the Innovation Center, while Comcast had RaptorTECH tour their site on the Dry Creek campus in Centennial. We look forward to our quarterly events with Seagate and Peak Resources during the spring semester.
- Students tested out a brand new cybersecurity video game called inCyt created by the company Circadence. This game helps students learn about the human element of cybersecurity.
- Josephine Nguyen represented RaptorTECH with four students from FalconTECH and EagleTECH to accept an award on behalf of the SVVSD P-TECH schools at the Colorado Association of School Board (CASB) conference in Colorado Springs at the Broadmoor Hotel.
Student Engagement:
- Started the Unified Percussion program
- The marching band participated in the annual Veterans Day Parade and performed in the Halloween Parade with the Altona Middle School band.
- All performing arts groups performed in the Winter Gala for two sold out audiences.
- The band was selected to perform at the Colorado Bandmasters Association Festival on March at Fort Collins High School.
- The SCHS orchestra was selected to perform at the Colorado Music Educators Association Conference in January at The Broadmoor Hotel in Colorado Springs.
- Ian Lenick and Zach Kaufman were selected for All-State Orchestra.
- Nine students were selected for the SVVSD Honor Orchestra.
- 19 students were selected for the SVVSD Honor Band.
- Zach Kaufman has been selected as Lead Trombone
- August Falborn who has been selected as 2nd Trumpet
- Eight students were selected for the All State Choralists.
- New courses are being offered in coaching and officiating and lifeguarding
- Student participation in athletics and activities:
- 327 student currently participate in clubs and activities
- 366 fall Athletics
- 178 winter athletes
- 75 for marching band and fiddle group
- 1245 Denominator
- Approximately 74% of students participate in extracurriculars
- Boys Golf: 1st team All-Conference
- Cross Country: Girls League Champions
- Five students in the boys soccer were league runner-state qualifiers and All-Conference
- Girls Volleyball: CO-Player of the Year: Rachel Mau
- Five football students made All-Conference
- Cheer made League Champions – 4A Game-Day Cheer
- Fall collegiate athlete signees:
- Allie Hartman: Lacrosse,University of Michigan
- Rachel Mau: Volleyball, South Dakota School of Mines
- Megan Kelleghan: Track & Field (Pole Vault), University of North Carolina
- Talyn Fordham: softball, The Academy of Art University (San Francisco)
- Grace Moroney: XC/Track, University of Utah
- Alexis Bartels and Marsh Rooney won awards for their pottery at the Boulder Potters Guild show.
- Secured four VEX robotics teams for 2023-2024, working on ordering materials, etc.
- ISA, Instructional Student Assistant
- Peer assistance within the classroom, students tutoring and teaching
- 8 ISA students in the fall,10 in the spring
Community Engagement:
- Silver Creek hosted three Cafecitos that were well attended. In The December Cafectio meeting SCHS collaborated with Altona and Eagle Crest to host 30 families.
- Topics addressed included school safety, scheduling and registration, co-curricular and athletic involvement, attendance, counseling and administrative support, registering for Parent Teacher Conferences
Staff and Professional Development:
- Held professional development workshops focused on general education and SpEd working and planning together using the three pillars of co-taught.
FalconTECH:
- 234 students are enrolled in FalconTECH and since the inception of FalconTECH in 2016, 100% of FalconTECH students have graduated high school in four years. Of those FalconTECH students, 58% have completed their high school diploma and AAS degree as of August 2022.
- In January 2023, 100% of FalconTECH students will be enrolled in a college course. FalconTECH continues to have the mission to serve first-generation college students in our community to provide opportunities for future success. Currently, 77% of Skyline’s students are the first to attend college in their families, and FalconTECH plans to continue to add 55-60 incoming freshmen each year.
- Jobs for the Future (JFF) has joined the team as a partner and will support FalconTECH in becoming a P-TECH Network School with other schools across North America. We are excited about this partnership.
- Skyline’s 9th, 10th, and 11th grade students participated in 4 mentor days in the first semester, and 4 more will happen in the second semester. All FalconTECH students participated with their IBM Mentors and we are transitioning our Mentor Events from IBM Boulder to IBM Denver, beginning January 2023.
- FalconTECH continues to partner with CodeStream Studios on high-level programming instruction for all 9th grade students. This coding curriculum is embedded into our Falcon Tech Guided Study courses for all freshmen.
- FalconTECH Juniors visited CU-Boulder and were given the opportunity to collaborate with the Pre-Collegiate program and First Generation students already on campus. The College of Technology and Design (TAM) hosted the students, introduced them to the newest gadgets in design using technology, and provided a unique view into their future if they become a student in the program.
Academics:
- Skyline’s graduation rate has increased – the Class of 2022 Graduation rate was 83.8%, an increase of 1.2% over 2021. Hispanic Graduation Rate for Class of 2022 was 82%, an increase of 4.2% over 2021.
- Skyline has seen an increase in Advanced Placement Course Participation:
- 411 students are enrolled in one or more AP courses this year, an increase of 24% from last year.
- Total enrollment in AP courses is 651, an increase of 26% from last year.
- 32% of our students are taking one or more AP courses, an increase of 10% from last year.
- 487 AP exams have been ordered for spring 2023 testing, an increase of 87 exams or 22% more than last year.
- 39 students were named as AP Scholars for 2022. 15 were scholars with distinction, and 3 received the prestigious AP Capstone Diploma.
- Three students were honored with the National Hispanic Recognition Award for excellence on the PSAT and AP Exams.
- STEM and VPA Academies
- 79 students are enrolled in the STEM Academy and 162 in our Visual and Performing Arts Academy.
- STEM 79 (9th – 17; 10th – 25; 11th – 16; 12th – 21)
- Visual Arts 61 (9th – 21; 10th – 14; 11th – 19; 12th – 7)
- Performing Arts 101 (9th – 28; 10th – 34; 11th -24; 12th – 15)
- In 2023-2024, Skyline will be offering FRCC credit for select VPA courses so students can receive college credit while pursuing their VPA Certificate.
- 79 students are enrolled in the STEM Academy and 162 in our Visual and Performing Arts Academy.
- All of our 12th grade English students participated in mock interviews with volunteers from Google.
- Skyline had a successful first semester of AAA, consistently serving 20 students and supported by five teachers. We have planned our 2nd semester to support credit recovery from the first semester for our 9th and 10th grade students in core classes, as well as more drop-in support for students, as students have requested.
- 81 students recovered a total of 133 courses through after school e-Credit, with a 98% completion rate.
- Skyline continued co-teaching for most of our Algebra 1 courses which resulted in high rates of success, specifically a reduction in F’s in Algebra 1. Last year, we had 76 Fs in Algebra 1 for the first semester, this year, we’ve reduced that to 52, with more reduction possible through our Credit Recovery program supported by AAA second semester.
- Skyline implemented an Agile classroom in their AP French classroom, providing instruction to students across the district.
- Skyline’s French Classes won the top school trophy from a district wide competition utilizing a new Virtual Reality program, Immerse Me.
- Skyline’s STEM students again have partnered with CU Boulder and the PISEC program. The Partnerships for Informal Science Education in the Community (PISEC) program connects CU Boulder volunteers with local K-12 students to engage in inquiry-based science activities.
Fine Arts:
- Three students made All-State Choir.
- Three students were nominated and accepted into the All-Colorado Honor Band.
- Four students received Superior ratings at the Colorado ThesCon Festival and qualified for the National Thespys Conference to be held in June.
- Band, Choir, and Orchestra held feeder concerts in the fall and had a winter gala.
- Skyline’s Mariachi Groups will be performing for CMEA – first Mariachi to play at this event.
- The drama department put on a fantastic “Spongebob The Musical” in November and had a great crowd for all performances. Additionally, over 550 of our feeder school students came and watched a performance.
Activities and Athletics:
- In addition to athletics, students are involved in 22 active clubs.
- Skyline’s Model United Nations Team (Model UN) competed for two days at the University of Colorado’s statewide Model United Nations Conference. Skyline fielded a team of 14 delegates and competed on three levels, Advanced, Intermediate, and Beginner Security Council. We took a team consisting of four seniors and 10 new members – a mix of freshmen, sophomores, and juniors. Led by seniors Kira McCracken, Kaden Downey, Nate Vaughn, and Amy Rubio, our young squad developed new research, collaboration, writing, and presenting skills for a successful conference. We look forward to building on this success this year.
- The Student Council is back and sponsoring tons of events. They had a successful Homecoming with the largest crowd we’ve had in years.
- Skyline’s football team made it to the playoffs for the 6th year in a row and advanced to the second round. The football team hosted the First Annual Home Football game at Skyline High School on October 28th for Senior Night!
- Skyline’s soccer team had a very successful season and lost to the eventual State Champion, Northfield, on penalty kicks, in overtime in the semi-finals.
- The wrestling team is off to a great start with an undefeated dual start to the season and back-to-back wins at the Denver North and Mike Standley Invites at the end of December.
- The Athletic Department implemented a new initiative that supports all of our students with free admission at all our sporting events with their student ID.
Family Engagement:
- Skyline held their first three Cafecitos for families during the first semester. We also hired a new Family Liaison to help with this work, and we have a strong Family Engagement Committee made up of administrators, teachers and support staff.
- One Cafecito focused on College and Career Readiness where parents learned what it takes to be work/college ready. Parents then joined the college fair to visit colleges with translation support from Skyline staff. In addition, families joined the FAFSA/CAFSA to learn how to support their students in the application process.
- Alongside their Freshman Jump Start, Skyline hosted a Summer Parent Jumpstart. Parents joined campus tours to get acquainted with the campus/programs.
- Skyline continues to strengthen two-way communication by allowing teachers to schedule times with their family liaison to make phone calls home, connect with families, and build relationships.
- Skyline is partnering with the Our Center to support their feeder students and offer a safe place for students to go in the neighborhood.
Staff Engagement:
- All Freshman Seminar teachers worked closely with interventionists and counselors on a research-based social/emotional curriculum such as Sources of Strength and 7 Habits of Highly Successful Teens to help students learn new skills, feel safe, and connect at school. Through this work, over 65% of 9th Grade Students were engaged in a club or activity during the first semester, and many more students plan to enroll in spring athletics
- With the support from the Office of Professional Development, Curriculum and Assessment departments, Skyline’s professional development during the first semester focused on Academic Conversations, and the book by Jeff Zweirs. Staff were able to explore instructional strategies focused on Multi Language learners, how to better support Sped students, blended learning, or continue to explore strategies encouraging more academic conversations in classrooms.
Other Celebrations:
- Skyline hosted a District College Fair in October with over 40 colleges and universities in attendance.
- Nine Skyline teachers completed the AP for All Summer Institute in Summer 2022.
- Skyline hosted two rounds of Career Talks for students with local businesses, military branches, technology companies, and other industries that were presented to our students. Ball Aerospace, Wells Fargo, Longmont Public Media, the Latino Chamber of Commerce and several other presenters were in attendance.
- Scott Duckworth, Science and STEM Teacher, received the Stapp Toyota Teacher of the Month Award for October.
- FalconTECH alumni, Jilissa Macias, spoke at the St. Vrain Education Foundation Gala in November.
- Skyline successfully continued with Sophomore Seminar classes for this year. We were able to reach over 35 students. These were students who struggled as a Freshmen.
Alternative Schools
AgriSciences:
- Lauren Hart, premier AgriScience teacher, continues to develop outstanding partnerships in the AgriScience Program. Last year, she was awarded the Farm to Table grant by the State of Colorado and the USDA. CETC students in the program supported hundreds of middle school and elementary school students with learning about agriculture and growing vegetables. Additionally, the grant supported the Nutrition Services Department. This work continued over the summer and into early fall. Here is a great article on the grant: SVVSD Farm to Table Article
- Lauren’s program continues to receive attention for its desire to be innovative. As a result, our next venture is in Vertical Farming. We recently partnered with Hilary and Theresa Spires to write a $150,000.00 grant to secure a vertical farm from Farm Box. Farm Box is on the cutting edge of innovative practices in farming. If this funding is secured, we will house a vertical farm on our campus and partner with the Innovation Center to help run this. Farm Box not only helps produce gourmet produce at rapid speed, it, more importantly, focuses on providing opportunities for sustainable food production.
- After rebuilding our active FFA student participation following the pandemic, we increased overall student leadership organization engagement by more than 80% compared to the last two years.
- More than 90% of our students this semester created a plan, if not implemented, their work-based learning project in one of five areas: entrepreneurship, research, service learning, placement, and school-based enterprises.
Advanced Manufacturing Academy:
- Last year, CETC and Frederick High School partnered to support students in the EagleTECH program. Our instructors provided a 2 ½ week Summer Bridge program and received credentialing from Aims Community College to offer college credit via our program. This past semester, students earned seven credit hours through Aims. This is a huge win for the program, as it is the first time we could offer concurrent enrollment in the pathway. P-TECH Students are now entering their second semester at CETC and learning a ton about the principles of manufacturing. This partnership with FHS has been incredible. We love being a part of P-TECH and value this relationship. We plan to continue this partnership in the 23-24 school year.
- CETC amazing teachers, Chester Clark, Austin Reid, and Katie Spendlow, have spent time receiving additional credentialing and certifications to ensure our students receive the most relevant industry training and certifications and training in this pathway.
- Through the rebrand/remodeling, CETC remodeled a room into another Manufacturing space. The goal is for this classroom space to become a “clean room,” mimicking the industry standard in some of the best manufacturing companies.
- Curt and Nancy Richardson toured all of CETC, spending a few hours with our staff and students. They were very impressed with our facility. Mr. Richardson stated that he had never seen an Academy with our capabilities. We are currently working with Mr. Richardson on a partnership in the AMA and a strategic role on our Advisory Board.
- So far, eight electronics students have received their IPC-JSTD aerospace-level certifications in the Electronics class.
- Two students have secured two-year apprenticeships at PTA plastics through CareerWise.
- We have secured more state-of-the-art equipment in the AMA. For example, the 5th axis add-on for the CNC Mill is operational. This is at the cutting edge of industry technology and vastly expands the team’s/student’s fabrication capability. The ability to program this machine will help students be on track to secure jobs with starting pay at over $40.00 per hour.
- Two years ago, we received a 300,000 equipment donation from Otterbox. We were able to secure a room that meets the standard to run this equipment. Additionally, our teachers have secured the software to program the equipment. This will lead to more industry-level certifications and experience for our students.
- We are in the process of working with Hilary and a team to pursue funding for the AMA via the Opportunity Now 1350 grant. This grant could potentially support additional internships, apprenticeships, and industry certifications for our students.
Automotive Technologies:
- In the first semester, students in the automotive program earned 176 certifications. The certifications qualify for CDIP reimbursement, potentially bringing in tens of thousands of dollars to the school district.
- Brian Smallwood, our outstanding Automotive teacher, has launched the Sunset Automotive repair project team. Students have worked hard to diagnose, service, and repair customer vehicles after school. These students promote the shop, bring in customers, write the repair orders, provide estimates and give the vehicle back to the customers. So far, students have made a profit for their program of approximately $3,500.
- The partnership with A Woman’s Work is finalized and has been great. Brian and his students have worked through the process of acquiring six vehicles, performing a full inspection, diagnosing repair needs, performing necessary repairs on the vehicles, and then delivering these vehicles to the six grantees to receive a newer car. Students have also diagnosed and repaired many other vehicles for Woman’s Work grantees. This work and service to the community have been very rewarding for the students.
- This past summer, one student from the Automotive program competed in the National SkillsUSA competition in Atlanta, Georgia.
CETC Counseling:
- CETC counseling has over 400 concurrent enrollment requests approved for this semester.
- NMHS counselor, Kater Topham, coordinated five middle schools this past fall. They have additional middle schools touring this semester. The goal is to tour every 8th grader in SVVSD.
Health Sciences:
- 18 EMT students in Karen Carr’s EMT program have completed 307 clinical experience hours and on-the-job training during the first semester. These experiences were completed at CU Boulder, and we will expand to Ball Arena. Several students have worked side-by-side with EMTs and paramedics to care for over 50 patients.
- EMT students are also putting their skills to use by supporting local school staff and Campus Security with first aid and CPR training.
- Nine students in Leigh Levesque’s Introduction to Sports Medicine class secured an internship with their home high school athletic trainer. These students have received hundreds of hours of experience in addition to their classroom work. Thank you to Chase and our high school athletic trainers for their support.
- Our four outstanding health sciences teachers, Karen Carr, Leigh Levesque, Jennifer Moreno-Leyva, and Valerie Swanson, have been working with UC Health on securing post-secondary opportunities for our students. As the Health Sciences Academy is one of our most robust career pathways, the opportunities for students in the field are extraordinary.
- The team is looking to create an after-school opportunity/class where students can earn their EKG certification.
- The health sciences team is participating in the Science of Learning Collaborative to innovate their teaching practices in this field.
- Thirteen students competed in the International HOSA (Future Health Professionals Conference) competition this summer in Nashville, Tennessee. One student placed 3rd in the nation in her Health Career Event.
ProStart/Culinary Arts:
- Extraordinary ProStart Instructors Yvonne Justice and Hope Nazzaro are gearing up to continue last year’s partnership with district nutritional services. This partnership allows ProStart students to work at their home high school cafeterias to learn industry skills and establish connections while supporting our school district.
- ProStart has a strong partnership with MSU (our concurrent enrollment partner). Past students are continuing in industry jobs and are enrolled at this university. Our current students are excited about opportunities for post-secondary education at MSU.
- Hope and Yvonne hosted an exceptional Veteran’s Day and Kiwanis luncheon. Our team included Sunset Middle’s music program in this event. It was a great success! Here is a video highlighting the celebration: https://vimeo.com/770073389
- The students are excited to cater events for community organizations. The program catered two exceptional events for school district administrators and leaders in December. Additionally, students are gearing up for their intense competition season and are looking forward to bringing home some wins!
Interactive Media:
- One student in the program completed an internship with Longmont Public Media this summer.
- Interactive Media teacher, Amy Dellwardt, completed a Summer experience in Unreal Engine. Now, our students can receive training in this Suite of Tools that are used in the film industry.
Pre-Law:
- We hired possibly the most-talented lawyer and teacher combo possible, Dave Elchoness. Dave has been instrumental in the launch and success of this program.
- Dave developed and rolled out a new Introduction to Law course consisting of a modified first year of law school curriculum (Constitutional Law, Torts, Criminal Law, Contracts, etc.) with a focus on honing critical thinking, reading, writing, and speaking skills.
- Dave has also developed a new Criminal Justice course for spring 2023 consisting of units on foundations of the criminal justice system, criminal law, law enforcement, courts, corrections, and current topics in criminal justice. Once again, this course will focus on honing critical thinking, reading, writing, and speaking skills.
- In preparation for next year, Dave is developing two advanced classes for year two of the Pathway: Civil Rights and the Law and Business Law. Both will be designed as a realistic simulation in which students, as junior lawyers, will be given “client questions” to research and analyze before providing written and verbal advice to the instructor playing the role of Senior Partner and CEO, respectively.
- Dave has used his industry connections to build partnerships with various stakeholders, including lawyers and college law libraries.
- This program has been a resounding success. His enrollment has shown a 32% gain from Semester 1 to Semester 2.
- We have tried to research national CTE pre-law programs for high school students. We have yet to discover a single CTE pre-law pathway in the nation. We are hopeful to become the first (if not one of the very few). Our work continues with the State to make this a reality!
Welding:
- The CETC Welding department is now a SENSE-registered organization. This means that we are recognized as meeting national industry welding standards and are viewed as a national Welding education program. This is in addition to our ability to provide American Welding Society (AWS) certifications. All of this is due to the outstanding work of program teachers Bill Anthony, Andres Garcia, and Riley DuFour.
- The Welding program is a high-demand program. We are grateful for our additional FTE, which resulted in adding our third teacher, Riley DuFour. Fun fact, Riley is an FHS grad who completed the AMA program in high school. In addition to the three full-time teachers, we also offer a night section of Welding to support additional students in the program.
- Our Welding Program is home to the State Champion Individual Welder and Team Fabrication Welders. These four students competed at the National Level this past summer in Atlanta, Georgia. As we head into competition season, this program is looking to defend its titles.
Tours:
- CETC continues to be a premier tour site. School districts and industry partners continue to request to tour our facility to view our outstanding programming. In addition to our previous tours and current industry partners, some highlights include:
- Littleton Public Schools tour of the Advanced Manufacturing Academy
- McKesson Pharmaceutical Manufacturing
- Poudre School District
- Douglas County School District
- Eve Bois with Bloomberg Philanthropies
- Getting Smart Organization
- National Leadership Institute Participants
- Curt and Nancy Richardson with Otter Cares
- Noel Ginsburg and CareerWise will be touring CETC. He is interested in supporting us in pursuing apprenticeships inside of our AMA, Automotive, and Health Careers pathways.
General Celebrations:
- CETC is in its 51st year of offering premier career and technical education programming to the St. Vrain Valley School District students.
- CETC continues to lead efforts in high-quality work-based learning. As a result, the Weld Trust granted us $100,000.00 to fund their first Internship Coordinator.
- Out of the 330 industry-level certifications submitted this summer from the school district to CDE’s CDIP (Career Development Incentive Program), CETC produced 281 or 85% of those industry certifications. This resulted in the school district receiving approximately $131,000.00, which supports CTE programming across the entire school district.
- CETC Enrollment for this school year is approximately 1300 students. This is our highest enrollment number to date.
- CETC already has over 1800 course requests for the 2023-2024 SY. This excludes all 23-24 freshmen, smaller schools, home school students, and out-of-district students. We once again anticipate over 3,000 requests for next school year. This is a testament to our staff and their relentless outreach to engage our community in learning more about our CTE programming.
- CETC now offers eight program pathways (new this year, Pre-Law) with multiple strands offered within each pathway.
Staff Development/Celebrations:
- Principal, ToniJo Niccoli, and Assistant Principal, Buck Webber, were selected to present at the National ASCD Conference 2023 in Denver on the power of Revitalizing Career and Technical Education and forging a pathway to ensure that every student is future-ready.
Academics:
- AGILE Program: LaunchED is providing Art History and AP Art History to students throughout SVVS.
- K-5 students won 3rd place in both the summer and fall Myon Reading challenges.
- Webex equipment installed in our Lincoln Street Campus classroom has allowed teachers to provide optional in-person/hybrid activities including science experiments, robotics, coding and design challenges.
- All 6-12 students participate in an Advisory class where they are building an online community and learning about how to best organize and focus their time in an online learning environment for academic success.
- Academic Advancement Classes are a bi-weekly opportunity for all secondary students to extend their learning throughout the week. Students self select projects and work with cross grade level teams to integrate and expand their subject area knowledge.
- AAA Programs at the elementary and secondary levels are supporting students in catching and keeping up academically in the areas of Math and Reading.
- More than half of all middle school students were named to the honor roll for first and second quarters.
Student Engagement:
- Launched first student leadership team, students in grades 4th-12th meet regularly to discuss ideas, programming, and activities for the school.
- STEAM Stars: Our first elementary club for students in grades K-5 to meet either in person or online (in our AGILE hybrid learning room) to participate in STEAM challenges including robotics, coding, design thinking and more.
- STEAM Team: Our first middle school club for students in grades 6-8 to meet in person or online and complete STEAM challenges and projects. This club is also focused on teamwork between students.
- A cross-grade level team of students worked to design a pollinator habitat for our LaunchED campus and won a grant to install their garden.
- K-5 parent is spearheading a project to give families the opportunity to make connections outside the classroom with other classmates K-5 for social opportunities assisting with positive social and emotional health.
- Students participated in state and national sports and activities including: softball, dance, hockey, barrel racing, martial arts, and soccer.
Staff and Professional Development:
- Our STEAM teacher was selected for the STAPP Toyota Inspired Educator Award.
- LaunchED represents SVVSD at two state-level blended and online learning:
CDE Online Leadership Learning Cohort and the I Learn Collaborative Online Leaders Consortium. - LaunchED represented SVVSD at a national convening of online learning leaders and innovators in Dallas through The Learning Accelerator.
- Completed the CDE Multi-District Online School Application to allow LaunchED to accept students across the state into our SVVS K-12 virtual program.
- Participating in Project LaunchED for summer – the program was very successful last summer.
- Implementing a comprehensive program for supporting students who are chronic non-attenders by meeting individually with students and families and creating attendance contracts with follow up on improvement.
- All elementary/K-5 teachers are participating in the District Literacy Initiative.
- School-wide K-12 focus on increasing engagement in asynchronous learning opportunities. All teachers have created goals around this common focus.
- LaunchED K-12 staff are participating with District curriculum initiatives to implement newly adopted curriculum and enhancing online implementation strategies.
- LaunchED staff are participating in four district curriculum adoption committees: Elementary Literacy,Elementary Science, Secondary History, Secondary Math.
Academics:
- Main Street School has seen an average iReady growth of 50.1 points at mid-year assessments in both Language Arts and Math.
- Sierra School was successfully absorbed into Main Street School and SVVSD staff.
- Main Street students participated in field trips for secondary students to FRCC, Innovation Center, and CETC to explore options.
- There have been six successful student transitions back to primary enrollments (most in one semester).
Student Engagement:
- Activate engagement of our high school students in homeschool activities (dances, football games, classes).
- GSA club started.
- Unified Sports program is offered.
Parent Engagement:
- 100% participation in Back to School Night and fall parent teacher conferences.
- Main Street has had positive and proactive engagement with families and building staff.
Community Engagement:
- Sprouts staff have been running a cooking workshop with students.
- Longmont Dairy donated chocolate milk for the second annual building-wide hot chocolate bar.
- Longmont PD partnership has promoted positive relationships with students.
- Partnerships with the Longmont Public Library and Longmont Humane Society.
Other Celebrations:
- Large staff engagement in Walktober.
Academics:
- New Meridian’s graduation rate was 76.2%. This is the highest rate in school history. Staff and administrators are working to maintain a high graduation rate above 70%.
- New Meridian’s AP Psychology class is now in its fourth year.
- New Meridian’s PTEACH partnership is in year two. Students have access to classes with CU Denver and continue to complete field experience at Indian Peaks Elementary. The Teen Parenting program Nursery Director and Nursery Para are participating in the program during the evening at the IC.
- Approximately 27% of our student population is accessing advanced coursework at CETC.
- New Meridian students recovered 160+ courses via e-credit. This is amazing.
- New Meridian relaunched their AAA course recovery program in mid-November, and students recovered 11 courses
- In the first semester, New Meridian graduated two fifth-year Seniors.
- Forty percent of students earned a 3.0 or better GPA, and 27% of students earned an attendance award. Also, 83% of students achieved our credit-earning expectation for our school.
- New Meridian continues to work on their partnership with Metro State University. Next school year, we are planning to partner on an American Sign Language Course and provide our students with access to another foreign language, Additionally, they will continue to explore classes in the Liberal Arts Pathway.
Grants Awarded:
- New Meridian was awarded a second round of the Student Re-Engagement grant from the Colorado Department of Education. This has provided an additional $300,000.00 in funding to our school. That brings the total funding to $600,000.00 in the past four years. These funds are used for FTE centered on student and family engagement, post-secondary support, and academic intervention.
- This summer, New Meridian was also awarded another $10,000.00 in grant funding. We are using this funding to work with the Colorado Education Foundation on ICAP work.
Student Engagement:
- Students participated in Free College Application Day, and the acceptances are starting to come in! So far, students have been accepted to Metro, FRCC, CU Denver, and Aims.
- The student body is engaging in Sources of Strength campaigns, with the Student Advisory leading the work. Students encourage others to show gratitude and build a positive social network using peer leaders.
Other Celebrations:
- Over the past three years, we have been working on rebranding our school. We changed our name and now have “upped our game” with a beautiful new remodel. This remodel has resulted in a stunning new student center for the students of New Meridian. We are beyond grateful to SVVSD Leadership and the community for investing in our campus.
- This will be the first year, New Meridian students will participate in the District Art show to showcase student work in Sculpture and Photography.
Staff Development:
- Science teacher, Brandon Grossman, continues to develop partnerships with multiple stakeholders. He has engaged with Stanford University, a world-renowned Scientist from Cambridge, and the University of Madison-Wisconsin, and most recently established a partnership with US Fish and Wildlife to support learning in environmental science and animal behavior courses. Additionally, Brandon was awarded an Education Foundation grant to promote his work with the Birds of Prey program.
- Tracey Sanders, our ACE Business Program teacher, was awarded a grant from the Education Foundation to help launch a school-based enterprise.
- Journalism teacher, Amanda Cronin, has introduced students to the world of podcasting. The students participating will be entering their podcasts in the NPR Student podcast challenge.
- New Meridian teachers continue to be relentless educators for their students. They continually develop meaningful learning activities to engage students in their content. With the addition of our Forensics Science and Animal Behavior classes, students are earning credit while pursuing their passions. It has been very exciting to hear positive feedback from students.
Academics:
- St. Vrain Virtual High School had seven graduates in December.
- There has been an increase in student enrollment over last October’s count.
- There is a 95.12% course completion rate for credit recovery and 50% of students have completed three or more classes.
Parent Engagement:
- St. Vrain Virtual High School has seen great participation in family engagement events.
Staff Professional Development:
- CEI training has led to increased ICAP conversations.