I hope that all D’Evelyn students enjoyed a great Prom and After Prom on Saturday. The conclusion of Prom weekend serves as a transition to the very exciting, fun-filled, and incredibly busy end of the school year at D’Evelyn. D’Evelyn seniors will return from Prom with only 12 more days of school, and students in grades 7 - 11 will only have 19 more days of school before Summer Break.
My hope for all students is that the conclusion of the school year will be engaging, rewarding, and fun. I know for our senior class of 2019, their graduation marks the culmination of many years of hard work, personal growth, and academic achievement. It is a very exciting time in the lives of those students and families, as they look ahead to a new chapter in their respective lives. For our younger students, my hope is that the end of the year will be a rewarding culmination of all the work and effort they have put forth in and out of the classroom during this school year. Among the many events that lead to the conclusion of the school year, I highlight the following for you, in an effort to draw them to your attention and share their importance. Junior High Play - Beware the Jabberwock - please join us and support our dedicated and hard-working junior high school actors and stage crew members by attending this year’s junior high school play, Beware the Jabberwock. Dates are May 2, 3, and 4, 7 pm start time, and tickets are $8 at the door. End-of-Year Instrumental and Vocal Music Performances - the talented D’Evelyn instrumental and vocal musicians are working diligently to prepare for their end-of-year concerts. The high school instrumental concert is Tuesday, May 7th, the high school vocal concert Friday, May 10th, the junior high school choir concert Monday, May 13th, and the junior high school instrumental concert is Thursday, May 16th. All start times are 7 pm. We would love to see a great audience for these culminating performances from our hard-working D’Evelyn musicians. Awards Nights - the annual Senior and Junior High School Awards Nights are an important opportunity to recognize outstanding students, citizens, and scholars in our school community. While this event is reserved for the recognized students, along with their families and friends, we hope to see a great turnout of the honorees for this important recognition. If your student is being recognized at the high school event, you should have already received an invitation, and junior high awards night recipients will receive invitations next week. These two events are an annual highlight for me as principal, as we have a chance to recognize the excellence exhibited by so many students. AP Testing - AP Testing is an important culmination of the AP coursework completed by 100s of D’Evelyn students this year. In the AP Testing window from May 6 - May 17, D’Evelyn will administer more than 500 AP Exams for our students. Please join me in offering best wishes to our students on a successful 2019 administration of the test. D’Evelyn students have a rich history of outstanding achievement on AP examinations, a credit to the hard work of students, knowledge and dedication of our teachers, and the quality of the D’Evelyn liberal arts program. I am excited to see how well our students will do in 2019. 2019 Graduation - On Saturday, May 18th, the D’Evelyn Class of 2019 will graduate at the Ellie Caulkins Opera House at 9 AM. The Class of 2019 represents the 22nd graduating class in D’Evelyn history. I am thrilled with anticipation for the excitement our soon-to-be graduates will display at this important event. It is an annual highlight to shake hands with our graduates and wish them well in future endeavors. Please accept my very best wishes on an outstanding conclusion to the school year for your student(s). The finish will certainly be busy and perhaps frenetic at times, I am confident that it will be fulfilling and rewarding as well. School Safety & Security This past week has been uniquely challenging as a result of the statewide impact of the threats made against our K-12 schools in Colorado. While I am relieved that the threat that led to school cancellation on Wednesday, April 17th, has been resolved, the safety and security of D’Evelyn students, faculty, staff, and families remains of the utmost concern. I am grateful that this week concluded without incident in our schools, but I know that we have substantial ongoing work and responsibility for ensuring the continued safety of all D’Evelyn community members. This week I am particularly grateful for the services and support of the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office. They have been involved in the safety and security of D’Evelyn and other schools in unincorporated Jefferson County for years, but their involvement, along with many other municipal, county, state, and federal law enforcement agencies, was exceptional this week. Deputy Greg Everhart, the School Resource Officer for D’Evelyn, has actively engaged in ensuring the safety of our students during the school day for many years. The acute nature of this week’s threats highlighted the value and positive impact Deputy Everhart has in our school community. If you have occasion to do so, please thank him and other law enforcement officers for their care, concern, and attention to the security threats of this week. An important component of maintaining a safe school is a strong and engaged community. Our faculty, staff, and administration are vigilant in efforts to build strong relationships with students, and we have a unique ability to monitor student well-being and safety. However, we rely upon students, parents, family members, and friends to share pertinent concerns with the appropriate school personnel should they arrive. As a school, we are here to support our students’ personal and academic development. We are grateful for our engaged parent/family community and ask for your continued support in ensuring the well-being of our community members. Thank you for your support and patience during this challenging week where school safety concerns were paramount. As an administration, faculty, and staff, we are consistently reviewing and reflecting upon methods to sustain and enhance safety and security at D’Evelyn. Your partnership and support are important to our success in maintaining a safe school environment. Prom / After Prom During the week of April 22nd, we will be celebrating Prom Week, which will include student-led spirit events and culminate in Prom on Saturday, April 27th and After Prom on Sunday, April 28th. Prom and After Prom are important community events for our students. I ask for the support of parents and family members in encouraging their student(s) to have a fun, safe, and enjoyable weekend at these two events. It is important for all students to consider that as school-sponsored events, all D’Evelyn and Jeffco student conduct policies are applicable. We expect that our students will enjoy their Prom weekend in a manner that is safe and law-abiding. Thank you for your partnership in encouraging our students to enjoy this important school event. Thank you to all the parent volunteers and dedicated staff and students for their efforts to organize this important community event. Prom and After Prom are two annual highlights for D’Evelyn students, and we aspire to keep that rich tradition alive and well in our school. We could not do that without the dedication of so many key contributors from our community. Please accept my best wishes for a successful and enjoyable Prom Week. For those students attending Prom and After Prom, I hope that they are able to have a fun and safe weekend and make many great memories among their friends. In the process of providing D’Evelyn students an outstanding education that will prepare them for a happy and full life, the D’Evelyn faculty, staff, and administration bears the important responsibility of maintaining a safe, secure, and orderly school environment for all our students during each school day. Safety and security are particularly in the forefront of the minds of school leaders in Jefferson County as we approach April 20th, which this year marks the 20th anniversary of the senseless tragedy at Columbine High School. The D’Evelyn faculty, staff, counselors, and administration maintain an acute focus on school safety and security as well as student well-being. We are fortunate to have a faculty with so many dedicated and talented professionals. We are also fortunate to have the services of two full-time Campus Supervisors, Mike Dobrowski and Kim Racine, and the support of Jeffco Sheriff Deputy Greg Everhart, all of whom are prominently involved in safety planning, decision-making, and response. Education and preparation are two key components of maintaining a safe learning environment for all students. As a result, we lead frequent drills in our school to help students and staff prepare for emergency response, in the unfortunate event that response is required during a real emergency. One type of drill is a lockdown drill, where students and adults in the building respond to our lockdown alarm by quickly moving to a secure location behind a locked door, out of sight. On Monday, April 29th, during 7th hour, we will administer our 2nd lockdown drill of the school year. During the drill, we have asked teachers to discuss unique safety considerations that are more “off script” than the traditional response to a lockdown situation. As examples, teachers and students will discuss matters like what to do if a student is in the hallway or bathroom, or what to do if they are outside during an emergency. We are confident that these discussions will provide a great learning opportunity for our students in our efforts to prepare for potential emergencies. I share this with parents and families for a variety of reasons. Primary among them, school safety and security are most effective when all community members are engaged and focused on the matter. I cannot predict how all students will respond to conversations about safety that can be personal, emotional, and/or upsetting. I encourage parents to have open conversations with students about school safety, but after this lockdown drill, to check in with their students to see what they learned and offer any additional support as needed. Perhaps most importantly, we ask for the partnership of all students, parents, and families in the maintenance of a safe and secure learning environment. If you ever have a concern about the safety or well-being of your child or another D’Evelyn student, please contact the most appropriate D’Evelyn faculty/staff member or our front office immediately. We also have the valuable support of the Safe2Tell system, and concerns about student safety and security can be anonymously reported through Safe2Tell: https://safe2tell.org/ 1-877-542-7233 Thank you for your partnership during the D’Evelyn educational experience of your child(ren). Your consistent support and encouragement are an important component of the success of our great school. On Tuesday, April 9th, D’Evelyn will host a variety of standardized tests for students as part of the Colorado SAT/PSAT Day for 8th, 9th, 10th, and 11th grade students. The D’Evelyn liberal arts program offers our students a rich, challenging academic program that supports their intellectual and personal development in a manner that should prepare them for a successful life. While our timeless curriculum is not modified to attend to changes and shifts in standardized testing protocols, we are very proud of the great achievement D’Evelyn students reach in the myriad of state-mandated tests that they encounter each year. The hard work of students and teachers, and the support of parents, families, and staff all contribute to the overall success of D’Evelyn students, success that is made possible and enhanced by the liberal arts curriculum. I am happy and proud to serve as the principal of this great school. The 11th grade SAT test administration represents an important day for our juniors. Please accept my best wishes for all juniors on a very successful performance on this significant exam for the college admissions process. I am confident that the academic preparation and personal commitment to learning shown by our students will shepherd them to success on this exam. Additionally, D’Evelyn freshmen and sophomores will take the PSAT on April 9th. With recent shifts in standardized testing policy from the state, the PSAT 9 and PSAT 10 are the official state assessments for 9th and 10th graders in Colorado. My hope is that this test will provide students helpful foundational information in preparation for future administrations of the SAT. The PSAT data will also provide our school administration and faculty with more useful information about student achievement at D’Evelyn, in a manner that will highlight potential areas where additional support may be needed for students. Finally, the D’Evelyn 8th grade students will be completing their CMAS Science testing during the day on April 9th. I appreciate the efforts of our junior high students to complete this testing on the PSAT/SAT day, as it allows us to minimize the impact to important class time. D’Evelyn 7th and 12th grade students will have the day off school on April 9th. Please join me in encouraging your student(s) to offer their best performance on these upcoming tests. I am confident in their abilities, and in the level of preparation they have for success. I hope that the testing day on April 9th, as well as subsequent CMAS standardized testing for D’Evelyn students, go very well. |
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