Elementary News and Updates (05/03/24)

Dear Elementary Families,

How are we already in May?? This school year has flown by, and the final weeks are jam-packed with many fun activities. Please make sure to mark your calendars.

Parent Survey: Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to complete the parent survey. If you have not had the opportunity to fill out our survey, please do so. I truly appreciate your feedback and will use your feedback to make changes and improvements to STEM Elementary.

Field Day

Field day is next week. Our K-2 students will have field day on May 8th and 3-5 will be on May 9th. The time is from 8-11:30 a.m. for both days. Your student will need a sack lunch on their field day as classes will be having a picnic lunch on the playfield. Parents are encouraged to come watch and join your students for their picnic lunch. To make check-in easier, if you do not enter the building on the field, you do not need to check in with the front office and can proceed to the playfield. If you plan on entering the building for any reason, you will need to check in with the front office for a visitor’s pass. If you are interested in volunteering please contact Steve Broll (stephen.broll@https://stemk12.org).

Driveline

Drop-off for students is no earlier than 7:10 a.m. There is no adult supervision before 7:10 a.m. Please wait to drop your student off until the driveline team is out and ready to go. Please pick up your student at the appropriate time. Next year, we will reinstate the late pick-up charge for students not picked up at their designated time.

• Kindie and 1st – 2:25 p.m.
• 2nd through 5th – 2:35 p.m.
• Students with secondary siblings -2:55 p.m.

Only students with secondary siblings should be picked up after 2:55 p.m. If your elementary student does not have a secondary sibling, they must be picked up prior to 2:55 p.m.

Lost and Found

Our lost and found is overflowing with items. Please have your students check the lost and found for missing items.

Important Upcoming Dates

• May 6 – New to STEM Parent Night
• May 6-10 – Teacher Appreciation Week
• May 7 – No School
• May 7 – May 7th Remembrance at Civic Green Park 1-4pm
• May 8 – Field Day (K-2)
• May 9 – Field Day (3-5)
• May 10 – 3rd-grade field trip to Golden History Museum
• May 13 – STEM Art Show
• May 14 – STEM Board Meeting
• May 15 – SAC Meeting
• May 15 – Kindergarten field trip to Children’s Museum
• May 17 – 4th grade field trip to Civic Green Park
• May 20 – Graduation Day
• May 21 – Kindie Continuation
• May 21 – 5th-grade Continuation
• May 22- Last Day of School (half day)

Have a wonderful weekend. Please reach out if you have any questions or concerns.

In Partnership,

Amie McElroy, ES Director

Please take a moment to check the STEM All-Events Calendar on our website.

There are lots of events already scheduled so please take a moment to take a look at the calendar to familiarize yourself with some of the events at the start of school. This calendar will continue to be updated throughout the summer as we get closer to the start of school.

Thursday, May 2-Friday, May 10 – Elementary School IA Room

The Scholastic Book Fair is back! More information on store hours and how to purchase and load your eWallet will be shared in soon. Click the button below to sign up to volunteer.

Saturday, May 4, at 3 & 6 p.m. – Secondary Gym

Get ready to celebrate the eccentricities of every family with our smash-hit Broadway musical, The Addams Family! Join us as we bring the beloved characters to life.

Witness Wednesday Addams, the iconic princess of darkness, navigating the complexities of young love. When she falls for a charming young man from a conventional family, she enlists her father Gomez in keeping it a secret from her mother Morticia. For the first time, Gomez finds himself in uncharted territory – keeping a secret from his cherished wife.

Experience the uproarious twists and turns as the Addams family hosts a dinner for Wednesday’s ‘normal’ boyfriend and his parents. Brace yourself for a night where everything changes for this delightfully unconventional family.

Please park on the West Side of campus and enter through the Athletics entrance. Tickets are $20 each, free for staff members.

Wednesday, May 8, from 6:30-8 p.m. – Zoom

Join the STEM PTO for their monthly meeting on Wednesday, May 8, from 6:30-8 p.m. via Zoom.  STEM PTO is comprised of parents from the STEM community who work together to help foster a strong sense of community and provide enhancement activities for students, faculty, staff, and families while also helping to increase educational, social and emotional experiences for the members of their families.

STEM PTO is organized to enhance the quality of each student’s education, the school as a whole, and the entire community through the development of resources and the participation of parents, school staff, and the community. Meetings are open for anyone to attend.

Tuesday, May 14, from 5:30-7 p.m. – Mechatronics Lab in P-TECH/KOSON Building & Zoom

The KOSON/STEM Board of Directors will be holding its Monthly Meeting on Tuesday, May 14, from 5:30-7 p.m. in person and via Zoom.  The BOD is comprised of parents and community members who volunteer their time. The Board’s role and purpose is to provide oversight of the KOSON Schools Chief Innovation Officer, who implements the policies set forth by the Board. The Board also provides support and direction for STEM’s long-term vision and mission. Additionally, the Board is active in making sure that KOSON Schools remains in compliance with all DCSD, state and federal compliance requirements, as well as STEM School Highlands Ranch’s Charter Contract.

Meetings are open to anyone to attend. Anyone who would like to address the Board Members must sign-up in advance by completing the Public Comment Form no later than 12 p.m. the day of each Board meeting. If written testimony or a handout is submitted, presenters are asked to supply one (1) copy via email to communications@stemk12.org.

Dear STEM School Highlands Ranch Elementary Families,

As we returned from Spring Break, I shared a message with all of you about the work we were embarking on with our afternoon Driveline. It has been two weeks, and we’ve seen a significant increase in our processing and dismissal times, so much so that we have our last large wave of cars loaded by 3:05 p.m.

We are incredibly proud of the team’s internal work, as well as the improvements that our parents have made in making sure they are announcing and displaying their placards. All of this has helped us to be more efficient, and we are incredibly grateful. 

I wanted to provide our Elementary Parent Community with an update on some additional areas we will be focusing on, as well as the next steps for what we need our parents to do. 

• We are finally fully staffed and do not have to pull staff from other positions to assist with the afternoon driveline. We are still in need of volunteers to assist us in stacking cars and getting students to their cars, so if you’re interested in volunteering, please email volunteer@https://stemk12.org.
• As a reminder, the driveline process starts at 2:15 p.m. when we open the parking lot. The driveline process ends at 3:15 p.m. All students should be picked up prior to 3:15 p.m.
• Please make sure you are picking up your student(s) at the appropriate time. Your pickup time is based on your oldest student at STEM. Forgrades  K/1, pick up starts at 2:25 p.m. For grades 2-5, pick up starts at 2:35 p.m. Pick up past 2:55 p.m. is only for families who have Secondary Students as well as Elementary Students.
  • If you only have Elementary students and are picking up at 2:55 p.m., please begin to make the adjustment to pick up during your designated time.
  • All students must be picked up by 3:15 p.m. Families who do not pick up their students within the Driveline timeframe will receive a phone call outlining next steps if it continues. One step includes charging for the timeframe in which the student remains at school after 3:15 p.m. 
• It is imperative that parents please stay in their car during pick up. We’ve seen an uptick in parents getting out of their cars to load their students, and or look for their students. This slows down driveline.
• We’ve noticed that the changeover from the Orange to the Yellow placard is less efficient than we’d like it to be because we are not able to find students quickly as they are heading down to their class stones. 
  • We will be working on improving this changeover this week. Part of improving this will be to ensure that families coming to pick up at 2:55 p.m. or later will need to start announcing their students and making sure they have a placard.
  • If you need help with the PikMyKid app, please click here
  • If you need a placard, please email support@https://stemk12.org with your student’s name, grade and number of placards needed.

The team will reassess in two weeks to see how the improvements have been going and provide feedback to the parent community. 

That will mean that the first phase of our driveline improvements is complete and we will begin to move into our second phase. 

Our second process includes the following:

• Enforcing our TMP requirements off of our campus. 
• Identifying the cars that are lining up on the street before their designated pick-up time.
  • Cars will receive up to 3 warnings before receiving a fee assessed in the student’s MySchoolBucks account.
  • This process is outlined in our TMP, which is located on our website. 
• Identify cars that are parked in our surrounding businesses.
  • Cars will receive up to 3 warnings before receiving a fee assessed in the student’s MySchoolBucks account.

Our goal in this second process is not to penalize families but to encourage families not following the TMP to start making adjustments so that we do not have to issue tickets.

We’ve received a few questions as to why it matters when cars stack on the street before their pick-up time, and here are a few reasons why:

1. Green placard cars get stuck in line and cannot pick up their student during their designated pick-up time. When green placards cannot access their pick-up time, it then overflows into our orange placards, which overloads our dismissal capacity during that time frame.
2. Forces cars to use the center turn lanes as an active driving lane, posing a safety hazard.
3. Blocks driveway entrance and exits for our neighbor businesses; inconveniences them; creates a dangerous situation when cars attempt to exit those business parking lots due to obstructed visibility.
4. If an emergency happens and first responders need to access our campus, they need to be able to do so safely. 
5. Violates our TMP.

Thank you for your patience with all of this information. We hope that by sharing this with enough notice, we can all make the necessary changes together to improve our efficiency and all pull in the same direction. 

You may see an officer out during driveline this week to start assisting us with moving cars off of Barrons Blvd., who are stacking on the street prior to their pick-up time.

Please reach out with any questions.

In partnership,

Amie McElroy, Elementary School Director

The DAC is currently accepting applications for membership for 4 Parent Representatives. Please click below to apply.

Early Bird pricing is over, but you can still place your order online for an Elementary School Yearbook by Friday, March 29. Click the button below to place your order.

• Please remember that Driveline opens at 7:10 a.m. and that students should not be dropped off prior to that time. The Elementary Aides will come out to open the car doors when we are prepared to receive students.
• School starts at 7:40 a.m., so all students should arrive prior to that time. Any students who arrive at 7:40 or later must be signed in by their parent/guardian.
• In the afternoon, please ONLY come at your designated pick-up times. Click here to review your pick-up times.
  • For families who are coming to pick up for the 2:30 p.m. time frame, please do not park on the street and/or block the business driveways along Barrons Blvd. Prior to break, we noticed many cars blocking driveways and trying to access the driveline prior to 2:30 p.m. If this continues, we will request for the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office to come out to issue tickets to anyone stopping/standing on an active roadway. Please help us be good neighbors by following the Traffic Management Plan.
• Please make sure that your PikMyKid information is up to date and that you have your student’s pick-up mode updated in the app. If someone other than you is picking up your student, please make sure to have your delegations set prior to pick-up time.
• If you are in need of a new placard, please email support@https://stemk12.org to request a placard. Please include your student’s name, teacher’s name and number of placards requested.