Welcome to the 2010-2011 school year! For those families who made the move with us, welcome to our new home. And to those of you who are new to our school, we are glad you are joining the Bear Creek family. As I enter my fifteenth year in the Lewis Palmer School District, I’m excited to be opening the new campus after being the principal at Grace Best Elementary School for the past three years. We are so excited to all be together, preschool through sixth grade, under one roof versus four buildings. Although 600 students may conjure up the thoughts of a large elementary, the staff, families, and building configuration do a great job keeping our school a tight knit community. Speaking of community, our move could not have been so successful without the support of this wonderful community and district!

 

There are many opportunities for you to become actively involved in our school and district communities. Please consider being a volunteer within the classroom/school or being an active member of our PTO (Parent Teacher Organization), BAAC (Building Accountability Advisory Committee), DAAC (District Accountability Advisory Committee) or K-Kids (a collaborative club endeavor with the Monument Kiwanis).

 

Our school improvement plan aligns with the district vision by focusing on three areas: student achievement, whole child, and community engagement. Our academic goal has focused on improving our reading achievement. Although tests scores fluctuate, we are pleased with the results of our state reading scores. Pleased does not mean that we don’t have room for improvement: this year we will be implementing a research based phonics program in our kindergarten through second grades that has helped others in our district form a solid foundation in phonics that can be built upon as students’ reading skills grow. We do not measure success by tests scores alone. We believe in educating the whole child and building on their strengths. We offer our students art, music, library, technology, counseling, and physical education opportunities. Our whole child goal is to improve the participation rates in before/after school enrichment activities. We hope your child will find a class or club that matches their interest. In terms of community engagement, we are exploring continuing our community recycling opportunities for paper and aluminum. Even though it was not part of our school improvement plan, we realize that without the high level of community support and engagement; our new playground would not have been a reality.   

 

We have several procedures and programs in place to help us make children as successful as possible. Some of these include: preschool and pre-kindergarten, RtI (Response to Intervention), Gifted Education, Character Counts, Battle of the Books, on-site counselor, art and gym shows, and on-site district run before and after child care, to name just a few.