I am so excited to cheer on our Sabercats at the Battle of the Rock tonight-- I hope to see you there!

Please join the amazing Castle View PTO for our meeting on September 20 in the Library at 5:30pm. I would love the chance to get to know you and work with you to support our staff and students.

Right after the PTO meeting, there is a second opportunity to engage with me and the DCSD school leadership team about the unified high school bell schedule. Please join us on Tuesday, September 20 in the library at 6:30. I would love to see you there, hear your advocacy and concerns, and answer your questions. More context about the unified schedule is below.

Finally, please follow me on my new Instagram username, @SabercatPrincipal! I post pictures of the amazing things our students are doing, celebrations, news and information, and student announcements. Thanks for hanging in there with the account change-- my previous account was hacked and closed.

As always, thank you for sharing your kids with us. It is our honor to serve them.

J

Jeena Templeton, Ed.D.

Principal, Castle View High School

720-762-8132

Instagram: @SabercatPrincipal

etempleton@dcsdk12.org

From Playbill.Com:

Winners of the United States of Frozen contest, which will see 51 U.S. high schools—one from each state and a single school in Germany for children of military families—earn the exclusive rights to produce the Disney musical, have been revealed. The contest is a collaboration between the Educational Theatre Association, Disney Theatrical Group, and Music Theatre International.

The United States of Frozen: Love is an Open Door competition was open to any high school in the U.S., including U.S. territories, with applicants asked to explain how they would use their production to strengthen their school community, provide outreach to underserved groups, and support inclusive and diverse theatre programs. Winning schools, selected by EdTA, will receive rights for up to three performances of Frozen; free access to the work's digital script, score, and orchestrations; a video license, and more.

Congratulations to our incredible Performing Arts Department!

As you may have heard, the DCSD School Leadership team has been in conversation with DCSD high school principals since last winter to adopt a unified schedule across all high schools in Douglas County. By having a common schedule, we can provide more equitable access and opportunity to expanded programming so all DCSD students, including Sabercats, can remediate, accelerate, and explore their passions in a variety of pathways. We are taking this challenge on together, as a unified DCSD high school community.

The major components of a common schedule would include:

• Maintaining our current start and end time.

• Four block classes at just over 90 minutes per period, Monday through Thursday.

• Alternating classes on block days, similar to our current 2A/2B schedule, with some classes meeting on Mondays and Wednesdays and the others meeting on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

• Seven 45 minute periods each Friday.

• Protected time each Friday for teachers to engage in Professional Learning Communities, where they collaborate to improve student learning.

• Protected time for Pride Advisement and structured academic support within the school day.

This new schedule structure will allow us to preserve some of what we love most about our current schedule, as we will work to prioritize what is most important to our students, families, and staff members.

In order for us to do this work well, we need your feedback and engagement. Please join me, our Executive Director of Schools, Erin McDonald, and our Assistant Superintendent, Danny Winsor, on Tuesday, September 20 at 6:30pm in the CV Library for a conversation about the schedule.

Next Friday, I will send a survey to gather feedback from those of you who aren’t able to attend in person.

Students will also have an opportunity to see the new schedule, complete a survey, and engage in a conversation with their Advisement teacher and classmates in the next couple of weeks. Please talk with them about their academic plans and what they might want to advocate for through those avenues.

After gathering feedback, the CV administrative team will work through the fall to craft a master schedule that meets prioritized needs and share back with you our proposed solutions. We know that we need to give our students and counselors time to create individualized coursework plans that allow them to have the high school experience they hope for.

I am grateful to have had the chance to talk with some of you about your questions and concerns about this process. Please don't hesitate to reach out if you'd like the opportunity to discuss this one-on-one.

Dear DCSD Families and Staff,

Thank you to our calendar committee, composed of DCSD parents, students, leaders, teachers, and classified staff members, who have been working since January 2022 to develop four possible academic calendar options for the 2023-2024 and 2024-2025 school years. Now, we welcome feedback from our entire community (including parents, students, and staff members) on four calendar options for each of the above-mentioned school years. Here’s how you can participate.

1. Review Calendar Options on the DCSD website.

2. Take a few minutes to complete our Calendar Feedback Survey (English and Spanish) (Mandarin Survey, Russian Survey) You will be ranking the options for 2023-24 and 2024-25 academic years separately.

The feedback collected from the survey will be used to help the Calendar Committee select the calendar that will be presented to the DCSD Board of Education for approval and adoption.

Please complete the survey by Monday, September 19 at 11:59 p.m.

Thank you in advance for your feedback.

Douglas County School District

Say “HAPPY BIRTHDAY” to your Sabercat with a BIRTHDAY GRAM on the marquee out in front of the school!

For only $10, your student will get a special shout out on our sign on their birthday!!! A perfect opportunity to show them love - and an awesome place to get that photo or selfie!

Use this link to order and pay for your birthday gram! Payment will be done through My School Bucks, link at end of order form.

Deadline is 10 days prior to your student’s birthday.

(Birthdays must fall within our regular class schedule, they will not run on breaks nor over the summer. You may schedule NOW for birthdays through the last day of class in May!)