December Principal Message

12-6-18

Happy Winter FSE Families,
It is so hard to believe that we are mid-way through the school year!  During this time of year, I find myself reflecting on the last several months and the accomplishments of our students.  I am truly blessed to work in such a wonderful community with supportive and dedicated families, students and staff.  Flagstone is a place that collectively puts the students at the heart of what they do, every day.  I am so proud of the hard work that our students do each day to show kindness to one another, problem solve real-world situations and set personal goals to improve their learning.  Flagstone is a place that I love to serve and am thankful every day for the staff that also serve this wonderful community.  Have a wonderful holiday season and a spectacular New Year.

Happy Holidays,

Kelli Smith, FSE Principal

Need Your Help With Student Safety

Recently there has been an increase in dangerous driving during the FSE after school pickup.  We ask that parents go very slow when coming into our neighborhood to ensure the safety of our kids and our drivers. We are seeing an increase in drivers that are turning right out of our lot (this is the expectation at dismissal) and then after a short distance doing a U-Turn.  This practice is VERY dangerous and we need parents to stop doing this.  Kids are crossing the street here, drivers are blocking the street and someone is going to get hurt.  Please take the extra time to go around the block to ensure the safety of our kids, they are worth it.

Student Led Conferences

What a wonderful conference week we had the week before Thanksgiving Break.  Our students did a great job sharing their personal goals and the progress that they have made this year.  It was so fun to see our students present their work to their parents with pride and accomplishment.  Thank you for spending this time at school with your child to honor their hard work.

FSE PTO Holiday Shop

Thank you to our wonderful parent volunteers who are working in the holiday shop this week.  This is such a fun way for our students to shop for their families where they feel such pride in being able to find just the right gift for their loved one.  What a special program that these folks give to our students!

I-Ready Assessment

This month your child has taken or will take, the I-Ready Assessment (in reading and math) test again. This is a universal screening (meaning every student in K-8 in Douglas County takes this assessment) that is given in August, December and May to measure students growth in both reading and math. We use this as one measure of students growth in reading and math along with other teacher created assessments.  Teachers discuss this data to personalize instruction for your child through various groups across each grade level.  

Elementary Progress Reports

Elementary Progress Reports will be available December 22nd, these will be a comprehensive report of your child's progress for the first half of the school year.  Our FSE commitment to parents is that you will receive monthly communication regarding the progress of your child through teacher communication, conferences, and these elementary progress reports.  If you have a specific question about the report please contact your child's teacher.  Please see below for instructions on how to access these EPRs

• Parents/guardians will use the same username and password they use for access to the IC Parent Portal. 

CLICK HERE to Access Your Child's EPR via the EngagED Parent Portal

• Instructions & Support

Once logged in, parents and guardians will see a student card for all students enrolled in the district. For all elementary students, parents/guardians will see a Most Recent EPR link. 

In most cases, parents/guardians will first see a Highlights page for the EPR that is a school selected summary of that semester's report card. To see the Full Report Card, parents/guardians can click on the "Go To Full Report Card" button in the upper right corner. 

From the Full Report Card view, parents/guardians can return to the Highlights view or can elect to access/download/print a PDF of the current report card using the buttons in the upper right corner.

If you are in need of technical support, please email parenthelp@dcsdk12.org or call the DCSD IT Support Center at 303-387-0001. 

FSE November Happenings!

November Principal Update

November Principal Update
     This past month has been a busy one for our students and staff.  Please read through this communication to see all the wonderful things that our students have been participating in throughout the month.  At the end of this communication are important updates for all families to know.   I hope you all had a wonderful Halloween and we will see you all at conferences next week!

Kelli Smith, FSE Principal

Halloween Parade

Author Visit at FSE

Mrs. Jaimes and her 5th graders welcomed Dusti Bowling, the author of the following books, to our school.  She did a wonderful presentation on her process for writing her books for our upper-grade students.  What a great experience for our students!

          

Thank You, PTO!

As a reward to our students for meeting our $25,000 goal during our Flagstone the Musical Fun Run all students received a Kona Ice!  Such fun!!

Fun Food Friday

Mrs. Ripp's class creates and makes a new recipe of food each Friday and delivers it to staff.  This is becoming a tradition we all look forward to each week!

Country Mouse City Mouse

Shout out to Mrs. Ordway and our second and third-grade students for an outstanding presentation of Country Mouse City Mouse.  It was a spectacular presentation of music, oral speaking, and musical presentation skills.  Way to go! 

Design Thinking at Flagstone!

These awesome kids in Mrs. Sprigg's class created their own products to sell in their economics unit. They designed, created on their 3D printer, and marketed through the creation of video commercial, their products and sold them to staff and students. Incredible work!

       

Students Learning about Goods and Services

Students in Ms. Valdez's class rocked their presentations on goods and services. They impressed their teacher and friends with their knowledge.

Awesome Visit from the National Guard

Members of the National Guard came to FSE this month to talk to kids about the importance of living a healthy life. All students had the opportunity to tour a Blackhawk helicopter and pose for photo ops. Thanks so much to our wonderful military!

UPDATES

Preparing for Conferences
Your children are very excited to share their academic progress and personal goals that they have been working towards at conferences next week.  Please make sure you come ready to ask lots of questions to your child and prepare yourself to be very impressed with their progress and abilities!  If you haven't signed up yet please do: the information is below.

Fall conferences are upon us!  Please sign up for a 30 minute conference time with your child's teacher by clicking here for our online scheduler.  Once you log in our password is mustangs.

FSE Conference Schedule Sign Up

Dear Parents,
Fall conferences are upon us!  Please sign up for a 30 minute conference time with your child's teacher by clicking here for our online scheduler.  Once you log in our password is mustangs.  These conferences are led by your child and facilitated by your child's teacher. You will have the opportunity to hear your child present their current work, progress towards goals and then talk privately to your child's teacher with any additional questions you might have. If you have additional questions please feel free to reach out to your child's teacher.

Sincerely,
Kelli Smith, FSE Principal

October's Principal's Message

Dear FSE Parents,

      This month was packed full of work and fun here at FSE!  After students took our I-Ready reading and math assessments teachers spent a planning day looking at student data and planning for next steps to personalize learning for each of our students.  This year, grade levels have a 40-minute block of time each day where students are rotated through the grade level and taught a targeted skill at their particular level.  We are excited about this collaboration model for our students and the possibilities that it will open up.

    Our PTO sponsored the fun run, Flagstone the Musical, and it took place this month!  There are tons of pictures at #oneflagstone and if you want to see more than are loaded in this blog check them out.  Thanks to the wonderful support from our community we were able to raise $25,000 (and met our goal) to purchase a new sound system for the music teacher, more books for the library, ipads for our K-1 students and an art installation.  Thank you so much for your support! Please join us tomorrow, Friday, as we announce the winners of different categories in our fun run and to see the Principals get a pie in the face since we met our fundraising goal!  This assembly starts on Friday at 3:15.

BOND/MILL LEVY Information

Bond & Mill

As you are aware, the Douglas County School District Board of Education voted to place a $40 million Mill Levy Override (MLO) and $250 million no-new-taxes Bond on the 2018 ballot. Additional funding would directly benefit Flagstone in the following ways:

Flagstone would be able to...

• Retain more teachers by offering salaries that are competitive with neighboring Districts
• Increase mental health support offered to all students
• Continue to have a healthy building budget that allows for low-class size
• Replace classroom technology 
• Continue with our specials and intervention support programs

We would also be able to upgrade/repair our building with the following needed improvements...

• Replace and upgrade our heating and cooling systems: we consistently have trouble keeping the building at a comfortable temperature in the summer and winter
• Replace and upgrade our plumbing systems: Our plumber is out all the time to help regulate our water temperature to ensure our students are using water that is not too hot or too cold.
• Replace roofing
• Replace and upgrade fire alarm system

If the mill does not pass and building needs arise, money would be taken from the general fund. This could significantly decrease the amount that is allocated to all schools. Decreases to Flagstone's building budget would significantly impact our ability to hire the staff needed to support small classes, specials etc.

Click here for additional information regarding the funding needs of the District.

Black Hawk Helicopter Landing at FSE!

On Thursday, October, 18th at 10:15 in the morning we will have the National Guard land a Black Hawk helicopter on the field at FSE.  The National Guard reaches out to schools during Red Ribbon Week to talk about saying no to drugs and making healthy choices in life.  These wonderful folks talk to the kids for a bit about being healthy and why they should live a healthy life.  At the end of the short talk, they let the kids come out to the helicopter and check it out.  Please feel free to come and watch and bring siblings.  We ask that you stay on the blacktop with the rest of the school until it is time to look at the helicopter.

Second Step

Second Step is the name of our new Social Emotional and Anti Bullying Curriculum that our counselor,  Patti Roberts, is helping to implement along with our classroom teachers.  Please read her note here for more information:

Dear FSE Families,

We want your child to be as successful as possible at school. Success in school is not just about
reading and math. It is also about knowing how to learn and how to get along with others.
We will be using the Second Step program in your child’s classroom to teach these critical skills.

The Second Step program teaches skills in the following four areas:

1. Skills for Learning: Students gain skills to help themselves learn, including how   

   to focus their attention, listen carefully, and be assertive when asking for help

   with schoolwork.

2. Empathy: Students learn to identify and understand their own and others’

   feelings. Students also learn how to take another’s perspective and how to

   show compassion.

3. Emotion Management: Students learn specific skills for calming down when

   experiencing strong feelings, such as anxiety or anger.

4. Problem Solving: Students learn a process for solving problems with others in

   a positive way.

Your child will be learning a lot this year—and he or she will need your help! Throughout the year,
your child will be bringing home Home Links that go with several of the Second Step lessons.
Home Links are simple, fun activities for you and your child to complete together. They are a great
way for you to understand what your child is learning and for your child to show you what he or she
knows.

If you have any questions about the Second Step program, please do not hesitate to contact us for
more information. Also, visit www.secondstep.org using the activation key SSP5  FAMI LY75 to
watch videos about the Second Step program and get information about what your student
is learning. Thank you for supporting your child in learning the skills that lead to success in
school and in life.

Need Support to Help your Child with their Math Homework?

Bounce Pages is an app that comes with our math program and you can download it on your smartphone.  See link HERE for information.  Once you download the app scan the camera over the homework page and it will load a video tutorial of how to do the math on the homework page.  It is a great tool when your child comes home and is stuck on a problem!

FSE Happenings

September Principal's Message

September Principal's Message

Dear FSE Families

I hope the school year has gotten off to a fantastic start for everyone.  At FSE we have been working hard to establish relationships, set classroom procedures and plan personalized learning for all our students over the past month.  As we dig into another school year I wanted to share our curriculum and school-wide goals for this school year.

Goal 1 Curriculum:

• Math continues to be an area of focus for us at Flagstone.  We value students understanding of the process of solving a problem and focus our discussions and instruction on different ways to solve problems rather focusing on finding the right answer.  We believe it is much more important for our students to dissect different ways to solve a problem and then be able to explain their thinking.  We teach our students to focus on a growth mindset and to persevere through difficult problems in order to push their mathematical thinking.  
• Reading instruction is also an area where we continue to develop our expertise.  Through the support of our community, we were able to purchase over 1500 new titles of books to use specifically for guided reading instruction.  Our teachers continue to target their reading instruction to the specific reading skills of each child in their classroom using these guided reading texts.

Goal 2 Communication:

• As a school, we pride ourselves in effectively communicating with our families around student progress.  This year all parents will receive a mid-September progress report that will include current progress of each student in addition to collaborative goals that the students have set with their teachers.  Every month you will receive updated progress reports on your child.  Part of this communication is through our student-led conferences.  We believe that our number one job is to create self-reflective learners that are collaborators with their teacher in their learning.  With this in mind, your child will share their progress with you at our student-led conferences in November and April.  We encourage you to support your child in this oral presentation.

Goal 3 Social Emotional Learning:

• As a Douglas County High School feeder school, we are participating in the implementation of Second Step in collaboration with all the schools in our feeder.  This program emphasizes social-emotional development, problem-solving with peers, and the safety and well being of our students.
• ROCKS: Responsible,  Open Minded, Citizen, Kind, Safe and Friendly: We continue to teach to these character traits in our class meetings and in our school-wide positive behavior support systems.  We believe teaching character development skills just as important as teaching academics.

2018 FSE CMAS Results

We are so excited to share that not only do we continue to score in the state performance category, meaning that we are meeting our achievement expectations by the state but we went from a School Performance Framework of 65% in 2017 to 88.1% in 2018!  More importantly, we EXCEEDED growth expectations in ALL grade levels in reading and in math.  This means that we grew more than our district and our state in all these areas.  As a staff, we are so proud of the hard work of our students and teachers in exceeding these state expectations.  Please come to our upcoming SAC meeting to see our results in more detail.

BOND/MLO Information

Please see the below flier and facts regarding FSE and the Bond/MLO Proposal

Dear Parents and Community Members,

Welcome to the 2018-2019 school year!  Our School Accountability Committee (SAC) has 3 voting member positions open this year to be filled by October 1st.  

What is SAC?
We are an advisory committee (not a governing body) that collaborates with all of our stakeholders including our school's administrative team, teaching staff, support staff, students, community, and parents.  

What does SAC do?
As an advisory committee, we are proud to take an active role in our school regarding the following:

• Input for the Unified Improvement Plan (UIP)
• Review of FSE budget priorities based on community input.
• Review safety protocols throughout the year.
• Assist with the implementation of the district’s parent engagement policy.

Some examples of our past SAC work have included:

• Being an integral part of the 1st SAC Feeder School meeting in 2017-2018
• Supported the staff and the community in the adoption of  a new math program (Envision) based on community input.
• Collaborate with the school on a community survey.

How can I join?
If you'd like to become a voting member, we'd love to have you join us at our September 17th meeting to learn more.  

What is the time commitment?
SAC is required to meet quarterly, but additional meetings can be called if necessary. The time and dates of the meetings will be decided by the SAC in order to accommodate the schedules of our community to ensure the greatest opportunity to attend.

I'm interested but I have more questions…

Please join us on September 17th.  FSE Learning Commons at 4:15 pm. We'll be happy to offer more information and answer your questions.  In the meantime, you can learn more by browsing through the SAC handbook, just CLICK HERE.

Please visit  Flagstone SAC link for  our Sept. 17th Agenda

Hope to see you there!

Sincerely,
Your 2017 - 2018 Flagstone School Accountability Committee (FSAC)

Please see our Thursday Links HERE

FSE Happenings

Teaching each other 21st century skills

6th Grade Outdoor Education

Learning what collaboration means


Leading with class!


FSE FAB Artwork


Practice makes permanent in Music!

Bond/MLO FSE Community Information

Dear Flagstone Elementary Community, 

On August 21, the Douglas County School District Board of Education voted to
place a $40 million Mill Levy Override (MLO) and $250 million no-new-taxes
Bond on the 2018 ballot. Unlike our neighboring school districts, Douglas
County School District has not passed a MLO or Bond since 2006.

If passed by voters, these new funds would be used at our school to:

• Increase teacher and staff pay
• Add counselors for our students
• Enhance safety and security systems
• Make much needed repairs and upgrades to our building
• Replace and upgrade electrical systems and components
• Replace and upgrade heating and cooling systems and components  
• Replace and upgrade plumbing systems and components
• Replace and upgrade fire alarm system
• Replace roofing

Douglas County School District would also evaluate our building for additional needed
repairs that would make our learning environments as safe and productive as possible
for our students.

New MLO/Bond funding would also be used to upgrade information technology
(such as classroom computers) and transportation (such as aging buses), and offer
more student programming opportunities, including additional career and technical
education options.

The average Douglas County homeowner, with a home valued at $470,000, will pay
an additional $17.33 per month ($208 per year) if both measures are approved. If
neither are approved, the average homeowner would see their school property tax
bill decrease by approximately $67 in 2019.

You can read more about Douglas County School District’s funding challenges at
www.dcsdk12.org/funding.

Thank you for continuing to be an engaged and informed member of our school
community!

Sincerely,

Kelli Smith

Principal

Flagstone Elementary School