October 2019
October 28
November 8
We are excited to host our second annual Veterans Day assembly on Monday, November 11th, starting at noon at D’Evelyn. On behalf of the D’Evelyn students, faculty, staff, and administration, I invite D’Evelyn parents, family members, and friends that have military experience from our school community to attend this assembly. It will be hosted in the D’Evelyn Main Gym. Please extend an invitation to veterans among your family and friends. In order to start our assembly on time, we ask that our veteran guests arrive at D’Evelyn by 11:30 am on the day of the event, so that they may check in at the D’Evelyn Main Office and get settled in the gym prior to our assembly. We will also have a luncheon for veterans after the assembly. The D’Evelyn Founding Document calls for an emphasis on patriotism among students, staff, and parents. The Veterans Day assembly is one way that we can honor the veterans of our school community while helping our students deepen their appreciation of our great nation, and the men and women that have dedicated their lives to protect it. As a community, we are honored to have the opportunity to recognize the dedicated veterans of the American armed forces. We hope to see a great turnout of veterans at our assembly - thank you to our students, parents, and families for sharing this invitation with interested veterans. Fall Break: October 25 - 28
As you can tell from the lengthy list of achievements and updates, there is a lot going on at D’Evelyn. Our students are working hard and keeping busy. It is an important reminder during the month of October, which can be a long and challenging month in schools for students and teachers alike. It is important that all members of the D’Evelyn community are mindful of the busy nature of our students’ lives, and that we support them towards success. Along those lines, I am thrilled that Jeffco Schools has brought back a Fall Break, offering students and families for a four-day weekend from October 25 - 28. It is my sincere hope that this break will be a great time for students, teachers, and families to recharge and refresh as we prepare for the final six weeks of the semester. In order to keep up with events, performances, and athletic competitions for D’Evelyn students, I encourage our families to become familiar with our school calendars and check them periodically. Link to School Calendar (includes concerts and performances) Link to Sports Calendar To follow timely updates and recognition of D’Evelyn students, faculty, and staff, please follow our official D’Evelyn social media pages: Facebook: /develynjrsr Instagram: @develynjuniorsenior Twitter: @develynjrsr Additionally, in an effort to support family’s access to important upcoming school events, I plan to include a list of events for the upcoming weeks in my weekly Principally Speaking article. Please know that this list will not be comprehensive, but hopefully helpful in quickly directly families to important school events. At the midpoint of the fall semester, it has been a week of great accomplishments at D’Evelyn. I am proud of the outstanding effort and achievement demonstrated by D’Evelyn students inside and outside the classroom, but this week has been particularly noteworthy. On Wednesday, D’Evelyn juniors completed the national administration of the PSAT/NMSQT, the test used to determine qualifications for the National Merit Scholarship Program each year. We are grateful for the efforts of our students on these tests and look forward to seeing the results of our students in the future. D’Evelyn student-athletes, musicians, and performers have been hard at work in the heart of the fall season. Congratulations to the students and leaders involved in the Fall Play, “As You Like It” - last week we enjoyed a three-night run of the D’Evelyn High School performance of “As You Like It”, a Shakespearean comedy. I am consistently impressed by the diligence and commitment of our student actors and stage crew members as they take on challenging, complex dramatic performances. Congratulations to the students and teachers involved in organizing this great production. Congratulations to D’Evelyn students in vocal and instrumental music programs - We enjoyed a wonderful series of concerts from our junior and senior high vocal and instrumental musicians this week. Thank you to the teachers, Mr. White and Mrs. Paschke, for their hard work and dedication in preparing those students for their outstanding performances. Congratulations to the D’Evelyn Marching Band - on Monday in Parker, the award-winning, 7-time state champion D’Evelyn Marching Band earned 1st place in their Regional Meet. They enter the Colorado Bandmasters’ Association state championships as the #1 overall seed for the state competition, held on Monday, November 4th in Grand Junction. Good luck to the Marching Band as they defend their state championship in a few weeks. Congratulations to the D’Evelyn boys tennis team - in the past few weeks, the D’Evelyn boys tennis team won the Jeffco 4A League Championship and placed 2nd at their regional meet. All three D’Evelyn singles players and all four D’Evelyn doubles teams earned the chance to compete at the state meet in Pueblo on Thursday 10/17 and Friday 10/18. We are excited to see how well the team does at the state championships. Results from the state meet can be found here. Congratulations to the D’Evelyn girls cross country team - On Friday, October 11th, as the snow was melting, the girls cross country team won their 2nd consecutive Jeffco 4A league championship, and on Thursday, they had an amazing performance to win their Colorado regional meet. The team of Eliana Thompson, Sonja Morin, Kati Livingood, Jayden Miller, Molly Rogers, Emma Kjellsen, and Marley Somers were outstanding in yesterday’s meet. The entire girls team thereby qualified for the Class 3A state championships, held next weekend in Colorado Springs. Good luck to the girls cross country team at state next weekend. Congratulations to the D’Evelyn girls softball team - for the first time in school history, the softball team earned a top 8 seed in the state regional softball tournament, which gives the program the opportunity to host regionals on Saturday, October 19th. Best of luck to the softball program as they seek to earn a place in the state tournament next weekend. Regional tournament brackets can be found here. Congratulations to D’Evelyn senior Medhaj Shrestha - Medhaj had an outstanding senior season as a leading member of the boys golf team. This week, he was recognized as a 2nd-team all-state performer by CHSAA based on his great performance at the state meet in Montrose on October 7th and 8th. The D’Evelyn girls volleyball, boys soccer, and football programs are in the midst of concluding their regular season schedules as they all push to reach the postseason. Good luck to all three programs as they seek continued success in the remaining regular season games and in the postseason. I am proud of the accomplishments of our students. I believe strongly in the value of student participation in athletics and extracurricular activities during their years in secondary education. These activities are an important complement to the experiences of D’Evelyn students during their tenure in our liberal arts academic program. The skills and traits needed for success in the classroom translate well to supporting success in sports, theater, music, art, and other extracurricular endeavors. We are fortunate to offer so many opportunities for our students to shine outside the classroom - these opportunities will help to positively shape the lives of our students. By Josh Griffin, Principal D’Evelyn juniors will take the PSAT on Wednesday, October 16. There are many benefits for students taking the PSAT, but in this particular instance, the national PSAT 11 testing day serves as the National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test. D’Evelyn is one of a handful of schools in the county that offers this examination for all students. We wish the Class of 2021 the very best for this test. Over the past years, we have been fortunate to have many students recognized as Commended Scholars, Semifinalists, and Finalists in the National Merit Scholarship program, and we are hopeful that many hard-working D’Evelyn scholars in the Class of 2021 will be similarly recognized. We are proud of the effort and accomplishments of all D’Evelyn students in their academic endeavors and believe the high quality performance on these exams is a clear reflection of our challenging liberal arts program, along with the hard work of students, teachers, and families during their time at D’Evelyn. The October PSAT/NMSQT administration is the one opportunity annually that D’Evelyn juniors have to qualify for the National Merit Scholarship Program. The administration of the PSAT 11 is aligned well with the new Colorado framework for standardized testing. In the spring, Colorado 9th, 10th, and 11th graders will all take either the PSAT or SAT for their annual state assessment. These tests will be administered at D’Evelyn in April 2020. We believe that the PSAT/NMSQT, along with the PSAT 9 and 10, offer an opportunity for students to prepare for the upcoming SAT exam for college admissions. With the addition of new Colorado high school graduation requirements for the Class of 2021, this additional administration of the PSAT will be an important opportunity for our junior class to continue to prepare for the SAT in April 2020. To learn more about the state’s new graduation requirements, please visit our D’Evelyn Counseling webpage. In the D’Evelyn program, we do not modify curriculum or instruction to align with standardized testing expectations. However, our students have a strong history of great achievement on both the ACT and SAT, two important tests in the college admission process. While our first priority will always be the success of students in the D’Evelyn liberal arts program, we do hope that by students completing PSAT 9, PSAT 10, PSAT 11, and SAT 11 in succession over roughly two years, students and families will have more information about and exposure to the SAT testing format and expectations. I also encourage families and students to consider creating a College Board account, where many more additional resources are available to understand the tests and how your student performs. Khan Academy offers free SAT prep coursework for students that aligns with data that, with permission, their program gathers from College Board. For more details about creating a College Board account, please contact your student’s counselor. Please join me in encouraging your junior student to give their best effort this Wednesday on the PSAT. I look forward to seeing their great results and performance. After the completion of the PSAT on Wednesday, juniors are dismissed for the rest of the school day. The remainder of D’Evelyn students will have classes on a slightly modified schedule, from 7:35 am - 2:30 pm. We are just over a month away from the 2019 D’Evelyn Dinner Auction. I am excited to invite you and your family to attend this wonderful event, occurring Friday, November 8th at 6 PM at the Baldoria on the Water Event Center in Lakewood, Colorado. Families can buy tickets, purchase sponsorships, and pledge donations on our Handbid event website: https://events.handbid.com/auctions/a-night-of-notes Last year, the Dinner Auction sold out several weeks prior to the event, so we encourage families to purchase tickets early this year. The D’Evelyn Education Foundation (DEF) was established in 2004 as a non-profit organization designed to provide the financial support necessary to maintain the academic, athletic, performing arts, and scholarship programs at D’Evelyn Junior/Senior High School. The financial support of DEF is essential to the continued success of our great school, and serves an important function of supporting D’Evelyn students, teachers, and staff both inside and outside the classroom. For the 2019-2020 school year, DEF has pledged over $180,000 of support to D’Evelyn students, teachers, and staff members. Among the various programs DEF supports, this year, the fundraising efforts will support:
DEF fundraises through a variety of methods and events each year, including the D’Evelyn Dash, the Auction, the Annual Giving Campaign, and the Annual Golf Tournament. As a result of the amazing work of the D’Evelyn Dash Crew, as well as the engagement of so many D’Evelyn community members, the 2019 D’Evelyn Dash was the most successful fundraising Dash on record. We hope to continue that level of engagement and support in our Auction, because it is annually the largest fundraiser for DEF. In order to provide this ample support to D’Evelyn students and teachers, we ask D’Evelyn families to consider opportunities that they can support this event, by attending the Auction, or by volunteering to support, sponsor, or donate one or more items to the Auction. If you have further questions or ideas on how you can get involved, please contact Jenna Spendlove, our Auction coordinator, at [email protected]. D’Evelyn Junior/Senior High School is a special school. The commitment of our students, faculty, and staff are integral to the success of our rigorous liberal arts program outlined in the D’Evelyn Founding Document. The support of D’Evelyn parents, families, and alumni allows for our academic and extracurricular community to be special. I am touched by the steady and consistent support we receive in so many different ways from D’Evelyn families. It is my sincere hope that you will be able to join in this important community fundraising event on November 8th. |
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