The Weekly Update #4
September 1st, 2023
From the Principal's Desk
Happy Friday, and welcome to September!
We had a wonderful week at Lenski! Our extraordinary 5th grade leaders worked with our Kindie students during morning meetings all this week to help them access their Chromebooks and websites that will be used throughout the year. Observing such kind and caring interactions between our oldest and youngest Superstars was so sweet!
Thank you to everyone who enjoyed QDOBA on Tuesday! We appreciate the support of our fantastic school. We raised nearly $600!
Students also began their fall iReady diagnostic assessments in math and reading this week. This is valuable information for our teaching staff to understand better our students' unique strengths and ways to target growth for them. Our students are working so hard! Students will retake iReady in the winter as a mid-point check and again in the spring. It is always amazing to see the data related to how much students grow throughout the year.
As a reminder, we do not have school on Monday, September 4th. Enjoy the long weekend!
With Lenski Love,
Jessica
From the Office
Wasp Concerns: The wasps have been horrendous as we have begun the school year. We have worked to set out traps and limit the snacks outside with a little progress. We have partnered with a pest control company and they are working to exterminate the wasps at Lenski. We apologize for the bee stings and tears and worry that this has has caused. Pest control will work with us to help remove the bees and reset traps in better locations throughout the perimeter of our school grounds. We hope that we don’t see any wasps for a long, long time.
Morning Drop-Off: Thanks for helping to keep our kids and community safe by crossing at crosswalks! Car drivers on Fairfax, please plan to stop at the stop sign.
Beginning on Monday, if you are planning to walk your student to the classroom, please plan to sign-in with your ID at the kiosk. Let us know if you have any questions!
PM Pick-Up: Please be considerate of our Lenski neighbors when waiting to pick up your students. Be careful not to block driveways as you wait for your students to find you.
Dogs are the cutest things ever!!! However, we aren't allowed to have them on campus for various reasons. We love this time of year when the weather is so nice and more folks are walking to drop-off and pick up their kids, but we ask that you please leave "Fido" at home when coming on school grounds. Thank you for your cooperation with this!
Football and Recess
Unfortunately, there have been a few incidents of pushing and shoving when students have attempted to play football at recess. We are working with Coach T. to teach a unit on flag football before allowing students to play. Both Dr. Slattery and Ms. Lessmann will work to help supervise football during lunch recess once the unit has been completed. We have received a donation of flags which we are very grateful for. Keeping our students safe is our number one goal at school and we are working to create an environment of care and support. Students can play catch with the football if they’d like. Thanks for your understanding and support related to football play during recess.
LPS Long-Range Planning Committee invites you to give your feedback on the most recent elementary and middle school boundary possible options
Dear families of LPS elementary students who attend schools east of Broadway and families of LPS middle school students who attend schools east of Santa Fe:
The Littleton Public Schools Board of Education recently charged the district Long-Range Planning Committee to continue its review of elementary school boundaries east of Broadway and also review boundaries for middle schools east of Santa Fe. A subset of the original Long-Range Planning Committee is meeting this fall to review new data from the demographer, Western Demographics, which includes information on children aged birth to 4 along with the extensive, accurate data already reviewed by the entire Long-Range Planning Committee last year. The charge for this group is to bring two or three recommendations to the Board of Education in October that will better balance (right size) enrollment at Newton, Powell, and Euclid middle schools as well as all elementary schools east of Broadway, using the Board’s and Committee’s long-established standards and values when possible.
Taking all available data into account, Western Demographics provided possible options for the Committee’s consideration. The Committee spent its August meetings reviewing these possible options, ruling some out, and identifying two elementary and two middle school possible options to ask the community to weigh in on.
The Committee is hosting three identical Community Town Hall Input Sessions where attendees can drop in to learn about these possible options, ask questions, and provide feedback.
It’s important to remember that the boundary scenarios are possible options only. The Long-Range Planning Committee will take all feedback into account before finalizing its recommendations to the Board.
After reviewing all feedback, the Long-Range Planning Committee will provide its findings and recommendations to the Board of Education October 12, 2023. The Board has emphasized its desire to make decisions regarding boundaries by the end of October 2023–likely during the October 26, 2023 Board meeting - to give families as much time as possible to plan ahead.
Learn more about the ongoing work of the Long-Range Planning Committee on the district website. All materials reviewed by the Committee are available on the website as part of the Committee’s commitment to transparency. It is important to note that this includes possible boundary options no longer being considered by the Committee.
Community Town Hall Input Sessions:
Tuesday, September 19, 2023
5:30–7:00 p.m.
Powell Middle School
8000 South Corona Way
Littleton, CO 80122
Wednesday, September 20, 2023
4:00–5:30 p.m.
Euclid Middle School
777 West Euclid Ave.
Littleton, CO 80120
Thursday, September 21, 2023
5:30–7:00 p.m.
Newton Middle School
4401 East Arapahoe Rd.
Littleton, CO 80122
From the Counselor
Parents be on the lookout for STAR tickets, as our Superstars get recognized for STAR behaviors in school.
Keep up the good work!
Ms. Ritchey and Ms. Baez
Volunteer to be a ROOM PARENT for the '23-'24 School Year!
Do you want to be involved with your child’s classroom but can’t commit to a set schedule? Being a room parent is an AMAZING and REWARDING way to be involved in your child's classroom with minimal commitment of in-class volunteer time as much of the planning and coordination can happen on your own time as your schedule permits. On average, being a room parent is a commitment of about 10 hours of volunteer time per year.
Whether you are a first-time room parent or a veteran, we need your help and would love for you to be involved this year! A room parent's responsibilities include planning for the fall festival and assisting the PTO with teacher appreciation week in the spring and the Lenski fundraising fun in the fall. For 5th GRADE room parents ONLY, we'd like you to be involved and spearhead the various 5th grade continuation subcommittees. So, if you know you want to be involved in 5th grade continuation planning, now is a great time to sign-up and also be a 5th grade room parent!
More details on each of these activities will be shared with the room parents at the room parent orientation meeting in September. There will be two room parents for each classroom so you can share the fun (and the responsibility) with another parent in your class! If you're interested in being a room parent for this year. Please sign-up at https://www.signupgenius.com/go/30E0F4DA5A82AA20-lenski1 by September 1st.
If you have any additional questions, please reach out to Stephanie Wilcox.
Superstars of the Week!
Important Dates
September 4th: Labor Day-No School
September 8th: Family Movie Night in the Lawn
September 21st: Lenski Restaurant Night at Red Robin (Yummmm!)
September 22nd: Lenski Fun Run Day!
September 28th: Peter Brown, Author Visit Day!
September 29th: No School for Students
October 6th: School-Wide Fun Run Celebration Day!
October 13th: Donuts with Grownups
October 16th-October 19th: Conferences
October 19th, 20th and 23rd: No School for Students