The Eagle's Nest
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Liberty
Common
Elementary
School
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Common Knowledge, Common Virtues, Common Sense
A National Charter School of the Year, A Nationally Recognized Blue Ribbon School, A Certified Official Core Knowledge Site School, A John Irwin School of Excellence , A Gilder Lehrman Affliate School
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Volume 18 Issue 3
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September 8, 2014
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Sept. 8-10|Eco-Week-6th Graders
Sept. 10 |Oct. Lunch Calendars due to Front Office
Sept. 12 |Chess Club, 3:15-4:15
Sept. 12 |Liberty Road Runners Club Parent Mtg. 3:30, Mrs. Schupp's classroom
Sept. 15 |Hot Lunches begin
Sept. 15 |Primary Public Info. Night, 6:30 p.m.
Sept. 18 |BOD Meeting, 6:00 p.m.
Sept. 19 |Liberty T-Shirt Day
Sept. 24-Oct. 8|October Student Count
Sept. 26 |Individual Student Photos
Sept. 27 |Liberty2Liberty 5K Run(see announcement below)
Sept. 30 |Character Education Respect Assembly,
K-3 attend assembly from 8:10-8:45
4-6 attend assembly from 8:55-9:35
Speaker from Jon D. Williams Cotillions
Oct. 3 |Fall Festival, 5:30 p.m.
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Liberty Carpool Families
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Liberty Carpool Lists are ready to pick up in the Front Office. Thank you to parent volunteer Beth Scott for compiling the list. Save gas, money and time and take advantage of this great resource.
Once your carpool is organized, please make sure that parents and students are aware of the location of carpool pick-up; front, middle or back. Communicating with all parties will reduce the amount of confusion and decrease the need for telephone calls and pages. Thank you for your help.
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School Attendance is Vital
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All public schools in Colorado receive funding from the State based on the number of students who attend their school. It is critical that your student be present during the October Count period. The count occurs Sept. 24th-Oct. 8th. October 1st is the official count date set by the state. If your child will be absent for more than two days in a row during this time period for other than an illness, please contact the office for an official document to sign.
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Please Use PowerSchool
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PowerSchool is a valuable resource that allows parents to access lunch transactions, grades, attendance records and fee payments. This year we are using a daily bulletin option that alerts you of any "happenings" at Liberty. To access the Daily Bulletin, log into your child(rens) PowerSchool account, look on the left hand side of the screen and click on Daily Bulletin.
Please use this communication option to keep you and your family informed of Liberty news and important dates. If you are a new family to Liberty Common and have not received your student's log-in information, please visit the Front Office to obtain.
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Seeking 6th Graders for the Liberty Common Forensics Team! Meeting Sept. 9th at LCHS
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 Did you know that "forensics" does not just mean crime scene investigation? In fact, it is also used to refer to the art and study of speech and debate. If you're interested in learning more about debate, impromptu speaking, or poetry recitation, join us! If you would enjoy writing and presenting your own original oratories, join us! If public speaking makes you nervous and uncomfortable, and you'd like to learn some strategies for overcoming that anxiety, join us! Participation in regional forensics tournaments will be encouraged, but is not required. The Liberty Common Forensics Team is open to 6th - 12th grade students, and practices will be held every Tuesday after school.
Our first meeting is an info session for students and parents. It will be held at the high school on Tuesday, September 9th, 3:15pm in Mrs. Scarlett's room. If you have any questions, please contact Christi Seidman at [email protected] or Natalie Scarlett at [email protected].
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Remembering Sept.11th, 2001
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Thursday, Sept.11th marks the 13th anniversary of four coordinated terrorist attacks that ended the lives of 2,996 people and set America on a course of warfare that continues today. LCHS Principal, Bob Schaffer, was a Member of the U.S. Congress at the time of the attack and chronicled his experiences including his visit to "Ground Zero" one month after the attack. Schaffer's memoir has been used in Liberty classrooms in past years drawing the lessons of 9/11 close to home. CLICK HERE and scroll to the bottom of the page to read. |
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Liberty Common Runner's Club
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Contact Us
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Liberty Common School
1725 Sharp Point Drive
Fort Collins, CO 80525
Phone: 970-482-9800
Fax: 970-482-8007
Office Hours: 7:50-4:00 p.m.
Our attendance line is (970)482-9800, option 2, please call by 8:30 a.m.
If you need to take your child to an appointment during school hours, please come to the Front Office, sign them out and we will call them out of class.
All students who arrive after 8:00 a.m. must be signed in at the Front Office. It is important that a reason be written as this determines if the tardy is excused or not. If your student is ill and you want any/all homework, please contact the teacher by email as early as possible and homework will be available after 3:00 p.m. in the office. If you have any questions about these policies please contact Mrs. Ronen at [email protected]
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Board of Directors
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Sarvjit Gill 227-4202
Joel Goeltl 593-8556 Paulette Hansen 282-8455
Jeff Webb 545-9636
Bill Werst 631-8379Denise Benz 420-4184
John Rohrbaugh 225-2259
You may contact all members of our Board of Directors at
Teacher's Lounge
Liberty Common School
1725Sharp Point Dr.
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King Soopers Gift Cards Making A Difference
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Take Charge of Education®
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Help us support Liberty Common School. Target will donate 1% of your REDcard purchases made at Target and Target.com. CLICK HERE to learn more about this easy way to contribute to our fantastic school.
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LCS Employment Opportunities
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Liberty Common School has job openings for the following positions: Nighttime Custodian and Assistant Business Manager. Please
CLICK HERE to view job descriptions and application requirements. Any questions regarding the employment opportunities can be directed to Mr. Casey Churchill at [email protected]
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Continuous Improvement
by Casey Churchill, LCS Principal
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Goal setting is an important component of any organization. It is hard to have any direction if there isn't an end result to achieve in place. Each year Liberty Common School sets goals. The students write goals, the teachers write goals, and the school writes goals. I do not believe is making huge shifts in initiatives each year. Goals should slowly change and morph as the needs of the building slowly change. Below are the goals for the elementary this year.
Liberty Elementary 2014-2015 Goals
1. Improve student success through Response to Intervention (RTI) process. |
| a. Over the summer all staff read Practice Perfect by Doug Lemov.
The staff will meet throughout the year to discuss this book. 
b. Pearson Inform, our data mining system, will aid in our decision making process of what students to help and how to best help them.
c. AST (academic support team) will no longer be pulled to help with state or benchmark testing accommodations. They will continue to work with their students to preserve continuity of instruction. TAs will help with testing accommodations.
d. Our academic focus this year will be around writing. All staff went through a Writing with Structure and Style seminar on their first two days back. Now the teachers can use similar vocabulary around writing and properly sequence writing steps between grades. Students will develop the necessary skills to grow from grade to grade.
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2. Core Knowledge leaders in Colorado
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a. Liberty staff will attend the Colorado Core Knowledge Network on Feb 13th. The staff will meet with other Core Knowledge leaders in the state to share ideas around best teaching practices when teaching CK.
b. Continue to develop Unit and Lesson Organizers (Domain Maps). Each grade level team develops maps outlining each unit taught. This is a powerful document that provides a road map of each unit. Units developed so far can be seen here. |
3. Work as a team
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a. Because of a shorter year and increased testing, all staff begin work one week before and stay one week after the school year. This provides all staff, not just teachers, with the necessary professional development to start the year. The better we can be prepared for our classes the more the students will learn.  b. We have worked hard to provide professional development for all TAs. This will help them better assist with instruction in the classroom. Their understanding of the academics taught in each grade level and the use of technology around benchmark testing is critical more than ever.
c. We will continue discussions around working as a team whether it be within a grade level or between grade levels. We have invited Paulette Hanson (parent and BOD member) to talk with staff about Authentic Communications (excerpts from Conscious Business by Fred Kofman). This foundation will give staff the skills they need to better communicate and work together.
d. The last one is simple but completely necessary. All the staff will come to my house to have a party. Nothing better than celebrating the great year ahead.
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These three goals frame up the initiatives for this coming year. By setting these goals we can reflect on our progress and areas for improvement for the years to come. It is because of this type of continuous improvement that we outperform other schools in the area. We are looking forward to another great year.
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Share Your Action Photos
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Mr. Reeves and Mr. Wilcox are looking for photos of Liberty students participating in their favorite sport or activity (soccer, volleyball, rock climbing, etc.) to fill a bulletin board outside of the gym called "Liberty Common Athletes in Action!"
If you have a great action photo you would like to share, please turn in a 4x6 print to the front office or directly to Mr. Reeves or Mr. Wilcox. We ask that you do not send in pictures to be printed out at the school. Pictures will not be returned at the end of the year. If you have any questions please contact Mr. Reeves or Mr. Wilcox.
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Supporting Charter Schools
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Truth About Charter Schools. Liberty Common School is associated with the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools which recently launched a campaign to dispel many of the common misperceptions and fallacious criticisms about the charter-school movement. The series The Truth About Charters is a weekly rollout of "What You Need to Know About Charter Schools." If you ever find yourself in a discussion with someone critical of charter schools and need talking points about how charter schools improve American public education, just GO TO THE ALLIANCE'S WEBSITE.
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Liberty 2 Liberty 5k
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 The time has finally come! The 5th Annual Liberty 2 Liberty 5k will be on September 27, 2014 at 9:00 a.m. (cross country races will be run earlier). CLICK HERE for the registration form, or they can be picked up from Mr. Mayer, (room 253), Dr. Robinson (room 256), or at the front office, and are due to the front office by September 19th for an early-registration discount. The registration fee is $20 if received by 9/19, but $25 after that (including race-day registrations). Please note: if you turn in your forms by the 19th, you will receive your t-shirt on the 27th when you check in; however, if forms are turned in after that, then you will get your t-shirt at a later date. Volunteers are more than welcome! If you or your student wishes to volunteer, contact Olivia Bachelet at [email protected] Please come out and join us! It should be a great time to meet new and old Liberty families while bringing our Liberty community closer as a whole! |
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