Josh Griffin, Principal
As a school administration, faculty, and staff, we aspire to provide comprehensive communication with families and students about important updates, events, and information originating at D’Evelyn.  Timely, efficient communication is an element to the establishment and maintenance of positive student, teacher, parent/family partnerships. Those partnerships are critical to supporting student success in the D’Evelyn program.
 
Within our school communication system, we use the following tools:
School Messenger - email updates for all families, or families organized by grade-level, depending upon the nature of the message.  In order to receive School Messenger updates, your contact information needs to be accurate in Jeffco Connect.  

School Website - a steady source of information, including teacher websites and school and extracurricular calendar.  Please visit and familiarize yourself with our school website and the individual websites of our teachers.
  School Website: https://develyn.jeffcopublicschools.org/
  Navigation Page - Teacher Websites:  https://develyn.jeffcopublicschools.org/d_h_s_staff

Parent Portal (Gradebook) - allows access to student gradebooks for each of their classes

Numerous school community events like Back to School Night, Parent Teacher Conferences, Prospective Student Information Nights, Welcome Events - all of these events are designed to offer opportunities to gain more information on expectations for students and families at D’Evelyn in a face-to-face forum.  We encourage all D’Evelyn families to participate in these important school community events.

Jaguar Tracks - now offered in a weekly web-based format, this is an opportunity for faculty, staff, administration, and community members to share important updates with families regarding upcoming events and important issues in the school
  Jaguar Tracks website: https://develynjaguartracks.weebly.com/
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Email & Phone Communication - used when individual, private conversations are warranted 
Additionally, in an effort to highlight the many great things happening at D’Evelyn among our students, faculty, and staff, we have recently added D’Evelyn official social media outlets with Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.  
Facebook - /develynjrsr
Instagram - @develynjuniorsenior
Twitter - @develynjrsr
 
We encourage D’Evelyn community members, past, present, and future, to follow our various social media platforms to receive updates highlighting the many great achievements of D’Evelyn students, alums, faculty, and staff throughout the course of the school year.
 
While we aspire to have thorough, comprehensive communication, I recognize that maintaining this level of communication with thousands of current community members is not perfect.  Families and students are encouraged to contact the appropriate school official directly if they have questions that cannot be answered within the aforementioned existing communication systems.  Please feel free to call or visit the D’Evelyn Main Office - 303-982-2600 - should you need clarification on who the best contact is in the event that you have a question or discussion point with a member of the D’Evelyn faculty and staff. Student, teacher, and parent/family partnerships are essential to the success of D’Evelyn students.  I ask that all community members remain committed to positive, productive conversations throughout the course of the year to support our students.

Please join me in welcoming our four new D’Evelyn faculty members for the 2019-2020 school year.  D’Evelyn follows a thorough and rigorous hiring process, as the hiring of teachers ranks among the most important decisions we make in our school.  Each of these candidates demonstrated an understanding of the school philosophy, a willingness to work in our participatory management system, content mastery, and pedagogical strengths in their respective interview processes.  We are fortunate to add such talented, knowledgeable, and dedicated professionals to our school community.

Gary Black - Mr. Black will be teaching Spanish 1, Spanish 2, and French 1.  He joined the D’Evelyn community after teaching for several years in Denver Public Schools, most recently at Kennedy High School.

Katie Lewis - Mrs. Lewis will be our new Study Hall and Homework Center coordinator.  Mrs. Lewis served as our Health Aide last year, but previously taught at Our Lady of Fatima Catholic School.  Mrs. Lewis is no stranger to D’Evelyn, as she is a proud member of the graduating Class of 2010.

Michael Wolfe - Mr. Wolfe will be teaching 9th grade Literature & Composition and 11th grade American Literature.  He returned to D’Evelyn after teaching several years at Lakewood High School. Mr. Wolfe taught at D’Evelyn for one year in 2014-2015, and we are thrilled to welcome him back to our community.

Brooke Zitricki - Ms. Zitricki will be teaching 7th grade Life Science and 9th grade Biology.  She joined the D’Evelyn community after teaching for several years in the Cherry Creek School District.

While students have been working with these new teachers for several days, parents will have an opportunity to meet them in our upcoming Back to School Night, on Thursday, August 22nd.  Thank you for joining me in welcoming these new teachers to the D’Evelyn faculty.

By Josh Griffin, Principal

The 2019-2020 D’Evelyn Junior/Senior High School Back to School Night will be held on Thursday, August 22nd.  The schedule of events for the evening will be as follows:

• 5:30 PM - Meeting for parents new to D’Evelyn - Auditorium
• 6:00 PM - Meeting for all parents - Main Gym
• 6:30 - 8:00 PM - Parents rotate to 6 classes following student schedules

 
Because of the size/capacity of our classrooms, D’Evelyn Back to School Night is an event designed for parents only.  Students should not attend Back to School Night.

Back to School Night is an important opportunity for families to hear directly from D’Evelyn faculty and administration.  During my presentation in the Main Gym at 6:00 pm, I will share important updates about our school program, upcoming events, timely information, and the great accomplishments of our students.  I hope to see many families in attendance for my presentation.

During the classroom rotational period, parents will have an opportunity to follow the student’s schedule and hear directly from their student’s classroom teachers.  In these 10-minute sessions, teachers will go through introductions, course topics, classroom expectations, and grading policies. I ask that all teachers and parents work together to stay focused on the important information needed for parents to support students throughout the year.  The student, teacher, and parent partnership are critical to the success of D’Evelyn students.
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Back to School Night is an important event to allow parent and teacher community members to come together.  I am excited to see many D’Evelyn families in attendance to learn more about the great things already happening, and the exciting opportunities that lie ahead in the 2019-2020 school year.

Please accept my very best wishes to you, your children, and your family on a wonderful, restful, and relaxing summer break.  The 2018-2019 school year has been filled with great success and achievement for D’Evelyn students. I know that success and achievement is the result of hard work, dedication, and sacrifice from students, and requires significant support from parents, family members, and teachers.  I am fortunate to lead such an engaged, dedicated school community, and I appreciate the efforts of all our community members to make this a memorable school year.

I often find myself saying, “summer break arrives at the right time every year.”  This year is no different. It is my most sincere hope that our students, families, teachers, and staff find time to rest, pursue their hobbies and passions, read for leisure, and spend meaningful time with family and friends over the course of the summer break.  I wish all members of the D’Evelyn community safe travels throughout the summer.

During the summer, the D’Evelyn administration will be working to prepare for a great 2019-2020 school year. We look forward to seeing our refreshed and recharged students, families, and teachers ready for another great school year in August.  In the meantime, enjoy your summer.

I am saddened and heartbroken for the STEM School community in the aftermath of the senseless tragedy that occurred in their school on Tuesday, May 7th.  My heart goes out to the victims and their families, and all of their community members whose lives were changed so dramatically Tuesday afternoon.  The frequency and intensity of school violence in recent years has had devastating impact on school communities all over the nation.

            Horrific tragedies like the one at STEM School last week are an important reminder of our essential role to remain vigilant in providing a safe and secure school environment for all of our students.  As I’ve written numerous times this year, the D’Evelyn administration, faculty, and staff are steadfast in our commitment to ensure a safe and secure environment in our school.

            As a D’Evelyn staff, we are dedicated to maintaining physical safety and appropriate training for our community members.  We are reflective in our practice of maintaining safety and work tirelessly to ensure that we are keeping the school safe.  That process of continuous reflection on safety is ongoing.  I have received questions and feedback from community members during the course of the week, and I appreciate your contributions to our conversations.  The D’Evelyn administration and security team is working through those questions/feedback, and we will adjust our safety protocols as appropriate going forward.

            An essential component of school safety is a strong partnership between all D’Evelyn community members with intentional focus on safety, security, and wellbeing of our students and staff.  One of the best preventative measures we have in our community is open, honest communication.  I ask that all D’Evelyn parents, students, faculty, staff, and community members remain dedicated to the important work of vigilant attention to safety.  Please share concerns with the appropriate adults at D’Evelyn as they arise, and if you don’t know who to contact, you may simply call the D’Evelyn Main Office for any concerns that arise during school hours.  The phone number is (303) 982-2600.  I encourage you to input that phone number in your contacts, so that it is immediately available when needed.

            If concerns arise outside of school hours, or anonymity of the reporter is an obstacle that could stop the report, please use the Safe2Tell program we have available in Jeffco.  Safe2Tell gathers information from reporters, and immediately communicates with law enforcement, district security, and school personnel.  Safe2Tell can be accessed by phone or internet:

• https://safe2tell.org/
  
• 1-877-542-7233
  

            Thank you for your ongoing support of our efforts to maintain a safe, secure learning environment.  More importantly, thank you for entrusting us with the safety, wellbeing, and education of your child(ren).