Super School News

Our very own students will be featured on Rocky Mountain PBS "Super School Newscast." Mrs. Liggins, our technology specialist, works with our 5th grade students to conduct the morning announcements on our own television channel here at Sunrise each day. She and our broadcasters were selected to give a report about our school and some of the great things we do here. I hope you'll be able to tune in and catch our broadcast. It will be aired on channel 6 at the following dates/times:

Dec. 21/ 10:25 am, Dec. 22/4:55 pm, Dec. 23/2:55 pm, Dec. 24/10:55, Dec. 26/4:55 pm and Dec. 27/2:55 pm.

School Accountability Reports

Beginning Dec. 9, School Accountability Reports will be available online on the Colorado Department of Education’s Web site, www.cde.state.co.us or you can link to it via Cherry Creek School District’s Web site at www.cherrycreekschools.org.

The Colorado Department of Education (CDE) annually issues the School Accountability Reports, also known as SARS or School Report Cards, for each school in the state. They include information about the school's academic performance, CSAP results, safety and discipline incidents, student/teacher ratio, teacher qualifications and how taxpayer dollars are spent.

CDE gives each school a rating of either Unsatisfactory Low, Average, High or Excellent. More than 60 percent of Cherry Creek Schools were rated Excellent or High. No school in the Cherry Creek School District has ever received a Low or Unsatisfactory rating.In prior years the reports were widely available as a printed hard copy. This year, the primary method of distribution for the reports is electronic. If you would like a hard copy, you can print it from the Web site or ask one of us in the Sunrise front office to do so.

BINGO Night

Thanks so much to all of you who came and enjoyed an evening of BINGO and tacos. We had an amazing turn out and a good time was had by all. I especially want to thank our PTCO volunteers for their time and hard work. They took charge of the planning, cooking, baking and prizes. I really enjoyed getting to visit with our students and their families - it's always such fun to meet siblings, parents and even grandparents at these events. Your dedication to Sunrise is one of the reasons that our school is such a wonderful place where our students can learn, laugh, grow, dream and belong! 

Principals Chats

Today we had our second round of principals chats. This is a time for Mr. Hardy and me to meet with each grade level to discuss relevant topics to our school. Today's chats centered around the topic of tardies. We've had over 1170 tardies in the past 10 weeks of school, so this is definitely a significant issue facing Sunrise. Our students know that coming to school to learn is their job. Many of you know the importance of getting to your job on time and the implications of arriving late. We are trying to instill this behavior in our students as early as possible so it becomes a habit for them. Our office ladies monitored the number of tardies from July 8th through September 10th and came up with the data contained in the above chart. We will continue to monitor and update our data frequently in order to share it with you and our community.

Learning starts at 8:00 am sharp. We allow students in the doors at 7:55 to help this happen. If students come for breakfast they may arrive as early as 7:25 am and enter through the cafeteria. During our chats, students came up with the following ideas for getting to school on time:

• get up earlier
  
• go to bed earlier
  
• pick out clothes the night before
  
• pack lunches the night before
  
• leave the house a few minutes earlier
  

We know one essential piece for students to be successful in school is to be here on time. Not only do we want our students to be successful in elementary school, we want to ensure future success in middle school, high school, college and beyond. Please let us know how we can best be partners to make this happen. Thank you for your support!

First hawks, now bees?! What's the buzz?

You may have heard about a recent infestation of bees here in the building. Luckily, these bees weren't real; they were just staff dressed up like bees (Cristina Calabrese, our school psychologist; Ann Karlberg, our school social worker; and yours truly, Tamara Speidel). We used this gimmick to kick off our revised behavior expectations, "The 3 B's." 

Students at Sunrise are expected to:

1. Be safe.

2. Be respectful.

3. Be responsible.

The students have had specific lessons in which they were introduced to the expectations in different settings around the school and then they had an opportunity to practice what those expectations specifically look like. All of our staff members are holding students accountable for these expectations and graciously dole out compliments when they see students exhibiting the expectations.

This week we awarded many students with "Sunrise Awards" for consistently demonstrating role model behavior. As we progress through the school year, you will hear about other ways we recognize students for being safe, respectful and responsible. Be on the look out for positive recognition stickers, "Dessert with the Principals," and "Principal Awards." We are so lucky to have such a great group of students here at Sunrise! Thanks for all you do to support them each day! 

Hawk Update!

Yesterday, July 15th, the baby hawks were seen having flying lessons in the parking lot. This means that they should be moving out of the nest fairly soon. Once they move away and have vacated the nest for 10 days, we will be able to remove the nest. While we have enjoyed many aspects of hosting the hawk family, because they have shown some aggressive tendencies we will be happy to have them move on. Here is a picture of one of the parent hawks, in case you haven't had an opportunity to see it.

Welcome back to A, C, and D tracks!

After a short break, our students are back at it again, in new classes and making new friends. One of the things you may hear your child talking about this week is the change we've made to how we "do lunch" at Sunrise. Our students now have recess before they eat lunch. There were several reasons we chose to implement this change with the two biggest being: 

1) research indicates students eat more/better lunch when they aren't in a hurry to get out and play, resulting in less wasted food & more nourished students.

2) students are settled down from recess by the time they get back to class resulting in more learning. 

Several of the other elementary schools in Cherry Creek have switched to this recess first format with positive results. 

We welcome students  at school as early as 7:30 am if they are having breakfast in the cafeteria. Otherwise, students should be here no earlier than 7:50 am. Unfortunately, we are unable to provide supervision outside the building before this time.The TAs (teacher assistants) will bring students in the building at 7:55 am so that students will be in class and ready to learn by 8:00 am. 

Please continue to be aware of the hawk presence around Sunrise. The babies have hatched and are having flying lessons. As soon as they leave the nest, we will be removing it in order to discourage the hawks from nesting there again. In the meantime, use caution while walking to and from the school grounds.

Thanks for all you have done to help get our 2008-2009 school year off to a great start!

Winding Down

Tomorrow marks the end of the 2007-2008 school year. We will be saying goodbye to our fifth graders at tomorrow's continuation (8:45 am) and dismissing all students at 10:30. Being on a year round schedule, we will be back in session after a two week break. During those two weeks, the teachers will be enjoying a much deserved break and the office staff will be busily preparing for next year. We will have our front office staffed from 8 am to 2 pm on June 23-27 and June 30-July 3 if you have any questions or need any information.

See you July 8th!