Dear Lyons Elementary School Families,
Whether you moved into the community over the summer, open enrolled from another attendance area, or are seasoned veterans to the school and community - WELCOME! I am thrilled and honored to begin my third year as the principal at Lyons Elementary.
Some of you may be sending your son or daughter off to school for the first time as a preschooler or kindergartner, or even reminiscing about the elementary years as your child is entering 5th grade; regardless of the grade or age, each school year brings new stages of learning, growth, development, and experiences in your child’s life. I continue to value each of these stages, not only with all of your children, but also with my own. With Sierra now entering her last year in elementary school, and Aleah, the youngest, now a second grader, I often scratch my head and wonder where the time goes. Nonetheless, I have truly enjoyed every step of the way as I continue to remind myself of how precious the time is. Thank you for sharing your children with me and trusting us to provide them the best education at Lyons Elementary!
While I dedicated my summer to spending time with family and reconnecting with friends, it has also been an opportunity to reflect on the past two years at Lyons Elementary, while planning ahead for this year and the future. I attended a week-long leadership institute with thirty other principals from across the state in June. While many of us are facing similar challenges in education with budget constraints, heightened levels of accountability, and the pressures of ensuring that all students in our schools are equipped with 21st century skills, I left feeling inspired, renewed, and that much more committed to our students, staff, school, and community. I realized how fortunate we are at Lyons Elementary to have such a supportive community, hence my continued belief that “It takes a whole village to educate a child.” Thanks to our exceptional staff, proactive and committed PTO, and the parents and community members in Lyons, I have every bit of faith that we will not only rise to the challenges ahead, but surpass them by working together.
We have two new staff members to welcome into our Lyons Elementary family. Tim Ambrose, an experienced intermediate teacher, will be teaching fifth grade and Erik Bahnsen, all the way from Sitka, Alaska, has been hired as a special education paraprofessional. Please welcome them aboard! Also, please welcome Doug Stahl to third grade and Heidi Genty to fourth grade.
While I participated in learning over the summer, many of our teachers have also been involved in professional development in order to launch our new math curriculum, Math Expressions, as well as the new Colorado State Standards, which are being officially adopted this school year. Our district has also moved towards a more cost and time efficient mode of communication via gmail. In alignment with this initiative, at LES, we embarked in the spring on streamlining more of our school communication electronically via our school website. The school calendar, announcements, forms, and other updates will be maintained on the school site and we encourage families to check this on a regular basis. We even have our parent lending library now accessible online via the PTO tab. Teachers will also utilize their teacher pages to post announcements, share newsletters, and keep parents abreast to important information. More will follow about technology integration at Back to School night and what can be expected for the coming school year.
In addition to advances with technology, we will use the collective vision that was finalized as a staff in May to continue to move us forward with ensuring that every student at Lyons Elementary makes a minimum of a year’s growth. With our school improvement goals set in writing, we can celebrate some significant CSAP gains! These gains are not only evident in the scores themselves (go to www.schoolview.org to access current CSAP results), but in the student writing that families have the pleasure of reading monthly in the Lyons Recorder and again this year during our Author’s Gallery Walk on November 30th. The professional development, purposeful collaboration among teachers, guest authors, and parent follow through have all made the difference on the achievement of our writers! As a staff, identifying agreed upon instructional practices (Bottom Lines for teaching writing) has also made a notable difference.
Back to School Night is Tuesday, August 16, 4:30-7:00. Families with preschoolers-fifth graders are ALL welcome to attend a “bring your own Brown Bag Picnic” from 4:30-5:15, as well as the principal welcome, 5:15-5:30 (please see Back to School night agenda). Learn about ways to get involved by making a “PTO 3 for ME” pledge; a representative from Nutrition Services will be on hand to provide free and reduced lunch applications; MESA and our gardening program will be available, and our Community School Director will share information about after school programming and enrichment classes.
Class lists will be posted on Monday, August 15th, at 4:00 on the marque. Please understand that significant time was spent in the spring creating balanced class lists. It is uncommon for a change to be made to student assignments; however, I welcome the opportunity to meet with parents regarding specific concerns.
Drop Off/Pick-up/Parking Lot:
If extra time is needed with a child that would result in delaying an immediate drop off, please park in a parking spot so as not to delay others and only park in the handicapped spots if you have an appropriate sticker. Please keep our students safe by observing the crosswalks when driving and walking students. Kindergarten morning drop-off will be on the playground blacktop and pick-up will be at the main entrance of the school. Preschool drop-off and pick-up will remain at the 4th Street entrance.
For this year’s late start schedule, changes to lunch dues, start and end times, and other pertinent information, please refer to our staff handbook.
Thank you for your partnership in learning!
Sincerely,
Christa Keppler, Principal, Lyons Elementary
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