Weekly Blast
PRIDE CART Parent Volunteers
We are looking for parent volunteers to come into school to help run our PRIDE cart. It is a great way to get involved and help support our Positive Behavior System. Please sign up where you can help out! Thanks! https://www.signupgenius.com/go/4090E4FACAF29A5F49-parent
PTA News
THANK YOU again to all of our Pronghorn families who enjoyed a meal from Mici's! Our NRE night raised $251.05 to support our school!!
Our first annual Family Game Night on January 27th was a blast! Thank you to our volunteers and to everybody who came out to play!
What's happening next?
February 6-10 is the NRE Valentine’s Knock Down Hunger Challenge with Backpack Society!
Help us knock down hunger in our local community by donating boxes of cereal. NRE will collect items and then work with Backpack Society to distribute the much needed supplies to people in our community. Just bring in as many boxes of cereal as you can. At the end of the drive we will line the boxes up like dominoes and Principal Lynch or Assistant Principal Lehnert will have the honor of knocking them down! Please see flyer below for more details.
Next Restaurant Night to support NRE... TOKYO JOE'S!
What's for dinner?! Tokyo Joe's!!! Wednesday, February 8th from 4:30-8PM all purchases made at the Tokyo Joe's on Broadway and HRP will raise money for NRE! Tokyo Joe's will donate 25% of sales back to Northridge!! Be sure to mention Northridge Elementary when ordering in person and by phone or use the code SCHOOLFUND (all caps) when ordering online. California roll and edamame anyone?!
More February Fun! Save the Date for an AMAZING evening out at Candeeland!
On Wednesday, February 15th, the brand new and amazing Candeeland will be hosting all Northridge families for a special NRE fundraiser! Candeeland is owned and operated by one of our very own Northridge families!
CANDEELAND KIDS IS OPEN! Candeeland is the Denver area's newest and most amazing indoor kids play place, and it's finally here!
Extra exciting is that Northridge gets the very first fundraiser night they will ever host!
Please bring your families any time after school on Wednesday, February 15th. You can support Northridge Elementary and a Northridge family at the same time, since 30% of admissions will go back to our NRE PTA. The cafe will be open for dinner if you want to make an evening of it. Candeeland is fun for kids and kids-at-heart of all ages!
Please consider donating to the Northridge PTA using the below:
RaiseRight (formally Scrips) Gift Cards
Purchase RaiseRight (formally Scrips) gift cards to pay your monthly expenses such groceries and gas. Depending on the retailer, NRE can receive anywhere from 1% to 5% of your purchase. A $500 grocery card could mean $5 to $25 for our school.
Retailers include: Safeway, Target, Walmart, Home Depot, and many more! Join RaiseRight (formally Scrips) with program code: 55D136EB54266.
Amazon Smile
NRE PTA receives around $400 each year from Amazon Smile courtesy of our great NRE community. When you shop at Smile.Amazon.com, Amazon Smile donates 0.5% of the purchase price back to Northridge PTA. All you have to do is click the link below and choose Northridge PTA as your charity of choice. Make sure the word SMILE is in front of Amazon to ensure your purchase is credited back to us. We appreciate the 5 minutes this will take you to set up! Click Here to link to Amazon Smile
Unfortunately, Amazon will be ending it's Smile fundraising program near the end of February. Please sign up and make as many Amazon Smile purchases as you can in the coming weeks! Thank you!
Please click below to check out our new PTA website!
School Accountability Committee (SAC)
If you were to look up what a SAC does for any school, you would likely find that a SAC is a mandated legislative, parent-lead committee that each school must have to assist in the preparation and evaluation (developing and evaluating) of the results of the school improvement plan and to assist the principal with the annual school budget. Given this information, most people may falsely predict SAC meetings to be pretty dull and unappealing.
The reality is that SAC meetings are where you go to find the "pulse" of the school as a whole. At every meeting, there are updates given directly from staff about what each grade is currently focusing on. There are updates given directly from Katie Lynch, the principal, on specific details about the school- (i.e. accomplishments, test scores, yearly goals, and areas of opportunity for growth). PTA and DBC representatives both offer information on upcoming events and current status. The meetings are full of information for sure, but, in true NRE style, the meetings have many moments of laughter and passionate conversations. All participants are encouraged to engage during the meeting and to offer personal feedback on extremely impactful topics. We encourage you to come to our next meeting and see what SAC is truly about!
Correction: Our next meeting will be held on Friday, February 24th at 7:30am. Our meetings, as always, are open to all NRE community members and we hope you will consider attending even if you have not done so in the past. Feel free to bring along your kiddos, and if they are NRE students- send them off to class once the morning bell rings. We think attending SAC meetings is one great way to demonstrate and encourage your children get involved and speak-up and out in areas that are important to them.
Hope to see you there!
Meet Your SAC Members
Katie Lynch - Principal
Q: What does Someone in your role on the SAC do?
a. I want our community to know time sensitive information. This could include topics like budget, class sizes, UIP, upcoming events, major curriculum changes etc. I want parents to be a part of the team that helps provide feedback as part of the decision making process.
Q: Why did you join the SAC?
a. It is required from the state of Colorado and I love my NRE community.
Q: What are some interesting facts about you?
a. I was born in the town of Niagara Falls and grew up on an island where I met my best friend in the 3rd grade. I married my high school sweetheart that I met in junior high math class. I've been in DCSD for 23 years.
Principal Letter
Dear NRE Community -
I will start with the with happier parts of the week and end with the harder parts of this week in this letter as it has been quite the emotional week here at NRE.
This week was COLD! If you didn't notice, it was one of our chillier weeks this winter and we had a couple of days where the students had to have indoor recess which is definitely not a preference for the majority of students or staff. We did get more games by way of our Discovery Booster Club for classrooms that wanted them which was awesome; thank you DBC! Students were wishing the week away because they could tell today was going to be much warmer and it certainly was so they got to get outside.
We were glad the weather was getting a little warmer because we needed some of the snow to melt so we could get the rest of the "construction project" completed this weekend. Do you know what it is? It's located in the corner of the far end of the grass of the baseball field down by the playground. It will be an enclosed area and you play with one ball at a time. The ball cannot hit a player below the knees or they are out. Do you know what the game is? Hopefully it will be finished this weekend and the kids will get to play on Monday. Updates and pictures will be in next week's Weekly Blast.
Now to the harder part of the week. One of our staff members as you have probably read had a medical emergency yesterday at school. Our staff jumped into action and did exactly what was needed and we are beyond thankful for each person in the school who played a part. I'm happy to report that the staff member is home and resting and not being a very good patient :) What do I mean by that? They want to come back to work already! What does this person need? They need to rest and heal until they are ready to come back. If you pray, please do for healing. If your child wants to make a card, please drop it by the main office and we will get it to them. We will be making sure our staff member is taken care of and I know the students are anxiously awaiting their return but for now they truly just need to rest. We are so grateful for our SROs, EMTs, nurse, teachers and staff and our parent volunteers who helped whether it was with the staff member, students, traffic etc. NRE is truly an amazing community filled with wonderful people.
Lastly, we say so long for now to Laura Carey as she moves on to the business world. Laura, as you may know, came to NRE shortly after I came here as the principal. I hired Laura at CRMS and then begged her to come to NRE as my secretary. She is a bright ray of sunshine and knows what I need most days before I do. The students and staff love her because she is so hard-working, kind, and truly just a wonderful person. Unfortunately, DCSD cannot offer her the salary she needs and deserves so she must move on to other adventures. She will be missed on the daily but I look forward to hanging out with her as pure friends and not as co-workers. We love you Laura!
I hope this weekend you are all able to hug your loved ones a little more, laugh a little harder, and feel a little deeper. We are lucky for each day that we get and I feel very fortunate that our staff member had more than luck on her side. Much love to you all.
Sincerely,
Katie Lynch
PTA Family Game Night
Connect Four Fun
The Stare Down :)
Game Night Shenanigans
Connect Four
Go Fish!
Games+Smiles=Happiness
Community :)
Candeeland Fundraiser Coming Up! Mara and Raven checking it out before the Grand Opening!
Kindergarten celebrating the 100th day of school!
100 year old teachers
100 year old man :)
100 year old students
A bunch of grannies :)
District and Other Information
For 65 years, the Douglas County School District has been guiding students through discovery, exploration, and skill development to find a purpose and determine the best path for the future.
The Expo will highlight Postsecondary Readiness options available to our students including Career and Technical Education, Concurrent Enrollment, and Work-based Learning experiences. Students from across the district will share insights from participating in these programs and how the experience is preparing them to succeed in the future.
There will be a short program beginning at 6:30, however attendees may arrive anytime and explore all of the student-run stations at their own pace. There will also be guided tours of the Legacy Campus throughout the evening. Register for the event here.
Mental Health Supports:
If you are concerned that your child or another loved one may be experiencing changes in their mood or have suicidal behaviors or thoughts, please remember:
Stay with the child or person until you are sure they are safe
Call 911 if there is an immediate threat to the child or others
Call or text 988 for mental health crisis support
You can also chat with someone using the link: 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline
Colorado Crisis Services: 1-844-493-TALK (8255)
Trained Crisis Counselor Hotline: (844) 493-8255 or text “TALK” to 38255
Chat online (open from 4:00 p.m.-12:00 a.m. daily): Click Here
Walk-in Locations (open 24/7): Location List
Information About Types of Services and Answers to Frequently Asked Questions About Colorado Crisis Services
Let’s Talk Colorado (Douglas County Government and Tri-County Health campaign)
Douglas County has an anonymous reporting system available at all times. Anyone with a concern for someone’s well-being or safety can use Safe2Tell (1-877-542-7233) 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Below is a list of community centers in our metro area:
AllHealth Network: 303-730-8858
Denver Springs: 720-410-6319
Highlands Behavioral Health System: 720-348-2800
Peakview Behavioral Health: 888-235-9475