October 2019 Newsletter

14th Annual Golden Gallop

Another successful gallop through Golden. It was a wonderful race day with perfect weather. This year 966 runners and 24 vendors joined the festivities of the Golden Gallop. Click here to see race day pictures. If you won a medal in the 13 & Under Age Group and forgot to pick it up, please contact Kathy at kjpedavoli@gmail.com to receive your medal. Thanks!

GOLDEN HIGH SCHOOL Golden High School is Hosting a Parenting with Tech Night on Oct. 16th. From the Makers of the Award-Winning Documentary SCREENAGERS comes Screenagers NEXT CHAPTER. Golden HS will host this screening on Wednesday, October 16th! This night will offer the following options: Learn to navigate the Tech your student is using 5:45-6:45PM Film Screening 7:00 PM Filmmaker and physician Dr. Delaney Ruston takes the conversation around screens and teens to the next level with Screenagers NEXT CHAPTER: Uncovering Skills for Stress Resilience-a film that examines the science behind teen's emotional challenges, the interplay of social media, and most importantly, what can be done in our schools and homes to help them build crucial skills to navigate stress, anxiety, and depression in our digital age. MOVIE TRAILER: https://www.screenagersmovie.com/nc-trailer GHS Teams & Clubs sign up for the Demon Dash 5K... Meet at the Demon Dash and raise funds for GHS Teams and Clubs!  The more runners, the more your team/club gets! Register online at demondash.co GHS Teachers served Breakfast and enjoyed Restorative Practices Training! Principal Conroy and his Admin staff arrived to school at 4:00am to make breakfast for the full staff on the first work day. The entire GHS staff then engaged in an amazing training around Restorative Practices! All the Golden Articulation schools have now completed training around Restorative Practices. Restorative Practices is an effective approach to teach students empathy and conflict resolution vs traditional disciplinary action.

BELL MIDDLE SCHOOL The school year is off to a great start at Bell Middle School!  According to Principal Ms. DeAndrea-Austin, students overall are doing particularly well with their classes, passing periods and recess time.  A new campus coordinator is contributing to the success of keeping students highly focused and making good decisions. Additionally, a nationally renowned anti-bullying program called Rachel's Challenge, designed to inspire students to be kind to each other and reach out to classmates in need, helped set the tone for a positive and impactful start to the school year. For the third year in a row, Bell Middle School won the Summer Jeffco Library Reading Challenge!This year Bell narrowly beat Dustan Middle School. Additionally, Bell has once again been rated a "performance" level school by the Colorado Department of Education. This rating is based upon Bell's 2019 spring CMAS scores. Way to go Bell students!!! Bell's student council is currently organizing a food drive for families in need in Golden.The drive starts this week and encourages Bell students to bring in non perishable food. Bell's annual popular talent show, Bell's Got Talent, auditions are approaching quickly! Auditions are October 1st and the show will be October 17th.  Good luck performers!!! KYFFIN ELEMENTARY Off to a great start! Kyffin was excited to start the school year with many great celebrations and activities.  PTA sponsored a welcoming and fun Kyffin Kick-off Picnic, Curriculum Night was well attended, students engaged in play and community building during Fall Follies and at the CO Rockies Make an Impact assembly.  In addition, Kyffin was excited to learn that their assessment data showed great improvement in both achievement and growth across most categories! School improvements and technology! Thanks to a generous donation from PTA, Kyffin´s books and technology is now housed in a newly designed and furnished library!  The library make-over includes a new Lego Wall and space to learn and use our new Sphero robots.  Teachers have been exploring the use of new technology tools and Kyffin´s fifth graders are eagerly preparing for and awaiting the arrival of their 1:1 devices. More learning and fun. Social Emotional Learning is well underway at Kyffin with the support of two full-time mental health providers in the building.  Kyffin´s students are gaining life long learning skills in addition to mastering their core academics through access to Second Step, BrainWise, and Restorative Practices.  Kyffin´s teachers are continuing to work as part of Professional Learning Communities, or PLC's, as they develop clarity around prioritized essential learnings based on our Jeffco curriculum.  During this time they work collaboratively to pre-plan interventions and extensions for all of Kyffin´s students.  The Kyffin community is looking forward to celebrating the creative arts through Reflections and our third grade music performance in October. MITCHELL ELEMENTARY

Lower Playground Revamp. After 2 years of aggressive fundraising, the Mitchell PTA was able to complete Phase I of the Lower Playground Project!!!  The new playground was unveiled in a special ceremony at Mitchell's Meet & Greet on August 13th. Fundraising efforts are still in full swing with a goal to complete the entire revamping of the lower playground with Phase II.

Math & Science Night was another huge success at Mitchell last week. Several volunteers came together from the School of Mines, Golden Fire Station and our awesome Golden community to create an exciting and educational night. Our students learned about 3D printing, how to make molecules, work real robots, make chemical reactions, observe and touch live reptiles and much more! Special thanks go out to Melissa Sharp who has been our Math and Science Chair for 8 years! ROCKTOBER Week kicked off last week at Mitchell with different events every day to keep our students active and moving! Activities include everything from relay races, exercises, favorite sports team day to a dance party! See the Mitchell Friday Note for all of the details! RALSTON ELEMENTARY Back-to-School Nights. Ralston's Back-to-School Nights saw many, many families joining us to learn about what the 2019-2020 school year will hold for their children. The kindergarten event was held on August 12th to honor the newness of school for our youngest learners and the desire of kindergarten parents to know what to expect on the first day of school. Back-to-School Night for 1st-5th grades was held on August 20th. Parents had opportunities to attend one of two classroom sessions as well as a general session to learn more about Ralston and the highly active Ralston PTA. Facility Improvements. Ralston is happily beginning to see facility improvements. Over the summer, renovations were made to the playground to fix drainage and ground cover issues. Some playground pieces were moved, a new swing set was added, and some of the blacktop paintings were refreshed. We are currently in the process of having exterior lighting upgraded to LED lights. A building walk-through with a district project manager and architects recently occurred as part of fact-finding to determine the scope of improvement projects for completion over the summer. Stay tuned for details!

Run-4-Funds and the Golden Gallop Runners. The many, many Ralston runners are back at it! On September 10th, students all participated in the Run-4-Funds event presented by the Ralston PTA, logging many miles and raising funds to support school programs. This was a warm up for the Golden Gallop in which countless Ralston families and students participating running the 10k, 5k, and fun runs. It was a beautiful day and everyone had a blast running while also supporting the Golden Schools Foundation! Special thanks to our physical education teacher, Nikki Kneuer, who runs two Ralston Run Clubs (K-2 and 3-5) with over 130 participants. This leadership inspires our kiddos to run and develop healthy life habits! "Catch Us if You Can!" Outdoor Classroom Dedication Ceremony. Ralston students and families participated in a brief dedication ceremony on September 6th to thank the Konieczka family for the beautiful new outdoor classroom they funded and built in honor of Kristi Konieczka. Kristi spent years as a Ralston parent, volunteer and employee and we are honored to now have a great outdoor space as her legacy. Students sang a lovely medley as a measure of thanks and we heard from Kristi's husband and daughter as well as our own Mrs. McCarty. We were excited to welcome several members Kristi's extended family, some from out of state. The ceremony concluded with the sprinkling of bird seed by all participants. A huge thank you to Mrs. McCarty for all her hard work in coordinating the entire project and ceremony! SHELTON ELEMENTARY Settling into the New School Year. It has been a busy month for Shelton Students and Staff with several events taking place inside and outside the school. The month kicked off with a Coyote Chase assembly and several clubs nominating new students to dedicate their time to Shelton in different capacities, such as Student Council, Health Heroes and the Kindness Club. Watch Dog Pizza Night was a highlight this month with several new father figures attending and signing up to volunteer. Shelton's Field Day was moved to Sept. 19th, which paid off with great weather. Donuts for Dads was held on Sept. 17th and last but not least we capped off the month with our annual PTSA fundraiser, the Coyote Chase on Sept. 27th.....whew what a month!

DONUTS FOR DADS. Donuts for Dads is a way for us to celebrate all male role models in our children's lives. We encourage all students to bring any male role model along for the morning to spend time with them before school to enjoy donuts, coffee and conversation. This year we changed the event location to our beautiful community garden and it was a huge hit. What a great way to kick off the day!

FIELD DAY! An all-day event for all students Kindergarten thru 5th grade to enjoy all kinds of outdoor activities. Shelton's wonderful P.E. teacher, Ms. Knickerbocker, puts on a great event with something for everyone. There were a lot of smiles throughout the day all the way to the dismissal bell.

COYOTE CHASE. Our annual Coyote Chase was held on 09/27/19 and the students did amazing. It was a beautiful fall day full of sunshine and fun. With new prizes this year for the whole school and gift cards for students who raise over $50.00, they all did their very best and we are proud of them! WELCHESTER ELEMENTARY

Congratulations, Welchester! For being recognized as a Promising Practice by the Colorado Department of Education for our annual Welchester University. Wouldn't be possible without Kira Jones or Deirdra Ochoa. It was also special to shake Governor Polis' hand in gratitude for full day kindergarten.