As a thank you to our students for all of their hard work this quarter, Mrs. Harth and Mr. Thompson are giving students a free dress down day tomorrow. Please help your student follow the dress down day dress code. Have a great fall break!

Starting after fall break, PCK will only send notices of COVID-19 exposures if there is an outbreak in a class (currently defined as five or more connected cases in one class). Under the new public health order, we are no longer required to send notices of individual exposures. Because we have over 800 people in our school community, please assume your child has been exposed daily and watch for symptoms. It is essential that students displaying any symptoms of COVID-19, even mild ones, stay home for monitoring. If the symptoms don’t resolve within 48 hours, your child must be tested before returning to school. Thanks for your help in keeping our community healthy.  

Thanks to our purple dress down day fundraiser on Wednesday, we raised $737.93  for the Alzheimer's Association. Did you know that more than six million people are currently living with Alzheimer's disease in the United States? The Alzheimer's Association is the largest nonprofit funder of Alzheimer's and dementia research. This organization is dedicated to conducting critical research to develop treatments, prevention, and eventually, a cure. Mrs. Puckett and her family are truly touched by and grateful for your support. Thank you to the student council for organizing this fundraiser.

As you may be aware, elections are fast approaching for our local Douglas County School District (DCSD) Board of Education. There are four open positions on the school board, and many things to consider regarding the best interests of your family and our PCK community. Luckily, DCSD is providing ample opportunities to get to know all of the candidates that are running. If you missed the candidate forums earlier this week, there is still a chance after fall break to get a better idea of where each candidate stands on the issues in our schools. The forum is a student-led town hall that will host both an in-person and virtual opportunity for parents to attend. These elections can have an impact on the working relationship between DCSD and all charter schools within the district. It is important to understand the level of support that each candidate has towards charter schools. With the elections coming up, our community will benefit greatly by having informed and engaged voters. Please save the date for the upcoming forum.

Monday, October 25

Legend High School

6:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.

22219 Hilltop Rd, Parker

Online Link: https://youtu.be/hnjl-jqqauk

You can get more information and RSVP here: 

DCSD Student-Led Board of Education Candidate Forum Web Page

In today's Thursday Folders, you will find a sheet titled "My Hero Is." Please help your student use this form to tell about someone your family knows who is a veteran or active duty member of the US military. These sheets will be shared on a bulletin board in honor of Veterans Day, so they need to be returned to the front desk or to Mrs. Daniels by Friday, October 29. If you need an additional sheet, you can get one here (note: it prints on legal size paper, so feel free to attach a separate sheet to the bottom if you don't have legal size paper at home).

We are also looking for volunteers to help with our Veterans Day breakfast. Click here to see how you can help!

All veterans and active duty service members, along with their families, are invited to join us on Thursday, November 11, in the Events Gym. We will have a reception with a light breakfast from 8:00 - 8:30am, followed by an assembly at 8:30. Service members who would like to visit a kindergarten - 6th grade classroom after the assembly to talk about their time of service are invited to sign up to share. Please RSVP for the morning here. Those who would like to visit a classroom and talk about their experience in the military can sign up here. Please note, all guests will need to sign in through our Raptor system, so please bring your drivers license or other government-issued ID.

The new school directory is here! You should have received an email from DirectorySpot with the directions to set your password. Please carefully review the information on file for your family. If you need anything added or changed, or should you wish to opt-out, please email bhaines@ckcs.net.

Thanks to everyone who came to our introductory session on Parenting With Love and Logic. The session gave parents insight into the principles of the Love and Logic philosophy. The nuts and bolts of the philosophy, and advice on applying it to your own family, are detailed in a six-week course.

The class starts Wednesday, October 27 and runs from 6:30 - 8:30pm for six weeks (we will take a break the week of Thanksgiving, so the course runs through December 8). It is taught by Kim McNulty, the same trainer who led our introductory session. The fee of $150/person or $200/couple can be paid directly to the instructor at the first class with cash, check, or Venmo. Register for the course here.

 The principles of Love and Logic are used school-wide at PCK, and many of our teachers have had the Love and Logic For Educators training. The six-week course for parents provides practical tools and techniques to help you form a foundation of good behavior and healthy decision making. You will gain knowledge and strategies to make parenting more fun, increase the odds of raising responsible kids, and prepare them for the future. The Love and Logic approach uses humor, hope, and empathy to help you create calm and loving solutions. We highly recommend this course for parents with students of all ages.

If you've ever wondered what a day at PCK is really like, become a substitute teacher and find out! Substitutes are paid $125 per day, and right now it is easy to get a sub license. Watch this short news clip about getting a sub license, and get your questions about a one-year license answered here. You can set up an account to apply for a license online from the Colorado Department of Education Licensing here. We'd love to have you apply for our sub team, and you can submit your application to PCK while you're waiting for your sub license so both processes can move forward at the same time. Apply at ckcs.net/careers. 

This week many of our classes started a unit on empathy. It includes several lessons on identifying and understanding one's own feelings, as well as the feelings of others. Use the Home Links below to continue the conversation at home.

Kindergarten - Being assertive
First grade - Identifying feelings
Second grade - Identifying feelings
Third grade - Showing compassion
Fourth grade - Conversation and compliments

All students are invited to enter their drawings for the Yearbook Cover Contest! The theme this year is "Level Up" to a Great Year at PCK! Get the details here. Entries are due after fall break on Monday, October 25.

The PCK Athletic Department is in search of two volunteer girls basketball coaches for the upcoming  season. Coaches need to know the skills, fundamentals, and game of basketball. Team tryouts will be in November, with a couple of pre-season games in December. Regular season games are in January and February. There will be JV and varsity teams. 

If you are interested, please email Heather Brownell at hbrownell@ckcs.net for more information and a possible interview.