The Eagle's Nest
Eagle Mosaic
  

 

Liberty  
Common 
Elementary 
School 
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  
Volume 18 Issue 4                                                  
September 15, 2014
What's Happening at LCS

Sept. 15   |Hot Lunches begin
Sept. 15   |Primary Public Info. Night, 6:30 p.m.
Sept. 16   |School Reach Emergency Test, 2:00 p.m.
Sept. 16   |Forensics Team Mtg., LCHS, 3:30 p.m.
Sept. 17    |Classroom Volunteer Coordinator Mtg.,                   8:00 teacher's lounge.   
Sept. 18   |BOD Meeting, 6:00 p.m.
Sept. 19   |Liberty T-Shirt Day
Sept. 20   |BOD Work Session at LCHS
Sept. 24-Oct. 8|October Student Count
Sept. 26   |Individual Student Photos
Sept. 26   |Free Dress Day

Sept. 27   |Liberty2Liberty 5K Run(see announcement  and order form 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.(see announcement below)


Only An Emergency Test

In the event of a weather-related school closure, or a school-wide emergency, Liberty uses three ways to contact Liberty families.  To find out if school is closed for the day, you may consult the local media or check our school's website - CLICK HERE.

 

We will also notify you through an automated system called School Reach via text, email, or a recorded message.  Unless you contact the school's front office to opt out of this program, School Reach will call you with a message in the event of a school closure.

We will be running a test call to all families using School Reach tomorrow, Tuesday, September 16th at 2:00PM.  This is only a test.  We ask that you listen to the test message in its entirety.  If you do not receive this test call, please contact the front office so we can get you properly connected to this emergency-notification system.

 

 

Fall Festival, October 3rd

Fall Festival Just Around the Corner

 

This year's Fall Festival is Friday, October 3rd from 5:30-8:00 p.m. in the gym and south yard.  There will be games, crafts, bouncy houses and prizes. We will be offering baked pasta from Panino's Restaurant, available for purchase. Tickets and meal vouchers are required for all activities(see order form below). 

Many volunteers are needed to make the Fall Festival a fun Liberty event, please contact Vedra Osborn at [email protected] if interested in volunteering. Thank you for your support. We look forward to a fantastic, fun-filled Fall Festival.  

 

School Attendance is Vital
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.
Liberty Carpool Families

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.

 

Please Use PowerSchool
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.

Liberty Common Forensics Team

Interested in improving your public speaking skills? There's still time to join the Liberty Common Forensics Team! Interested 6th graders are invited to join us on Tuesday, September 16th at 3:20pm. We will be meeting at the high school in Mrs. Scarlett's room.  

If you have any questions or would like more information, please contact Christi Seidman at  [email protected]


Vesta Graduates!

Anna (8th) and Paige (5th) Langford's Guide Dog puppy Vesta, who spent many hours in Liberty, graduated from the Guide Dog training program! Vesta was chosen to be a breeder, which is considered Summa Cum Laude in the Guide Dog program. Only the very best dogs are chosen to have puppies. Anna and Paige put in countless hours training Vesta. The socialization at Liberty greatly helped Vesta prepare for her advanced training at the Guide Dog campus. Now instead of helping one blind person gain mobility, Vesta's puppies will help many more people in the Guide Dog program. At Liberty, students learned quickly that Vesta, was "working" and could not be played with or pet. Thank you to all Liberty students that helped in Vesta's training!

Paige and Anna Langford speak at the advanced-training graduation ceremony for Vesta the guide dog.  The sisters helped train the dog including work-out trials among Liberty students.

  

In This Issue
What's Happening at LCS
Emergency Test
Fall Festival
October Count
Carpool Lists Available
PowerSchool
Forensics Team
Vesta Graduates
King Soopers Gift Cards
Target Supports Liberty
LCS Employment Opportunities
Support Our Eagles
Principal Writing by Bob Schaffer
Save the Date
Fall Festival Meal and Ticket Order Form
Share Your Action Photos
Liberty 2 Liberty 5k
Contact Us
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.


Please call our      attendance line by 8:30 a.m. if your    child will not be attending school due to illness, appointment or is out of town.
(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]

Board of Directors
Sarvjit Gill            227-4202
Joel Goeltl           593-8556
Paulette Hansen 282-8455
Jeff Webb            545-9636
Bill Werst             631-8379
Denise Benz       420-4184
John Rohrbaugh 225-2259
 

You may contact all members of our Board of Directors at  

 
September 18, 2014  
Teacher's Lounge
Liberty Common School

1725
Sharp Point Dr.


 

King Soopers Gift Cards

 
Take Charge of Education� 

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.  

LCS Employment Opportunities  
 
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]

Support Our Eagles

 
Secret Traditions of Liberty
by: Bob Schaffer, LCHS Principal 
So how did they do it?  That has been the recurring question in all of the media interviews we have done in the past few weeks as reporters probe for secrets behind the record-breaking academic success of Liberty's students.

Please click on this image above to watch 9News coverage of Liberty's record-breaking test scores.
The core of the answer lies in the school's classical tradition of doing what works.  We draw from the best examples of history and literature, and our historical horizon goes back all the way to ancient Greece and Rome. There is no secret here.

Since the end of the last school year, the faculty and administration at the high school have been reading Tracy Lee Simmons' Climbing Parnassus.   The book's subtitle is "A New Apologia For Greek And Latin."

Every year, Liberty employees read a new book together; and this one elaborates the meaning and goals of a classical education, which comports with our school's longstanding philosophy.  In fact, in its introduction, Climbing Parnassus quotes the author of Liberty's K-8 curriculum E.D. Hirsch in support of traditional education.

There, Simmons quotes this passage from Hirsch's Cultural Literacy:

"Illiterate and semiliterate Americans are condemned not only to poverty, but also to the powerlessness of incomprehension.  Knowing that they do not understand the issues, and feeling prey to manipulative oversimplifications, they do not trust the system of which they are supposed to be the masters.  They do not feel themselves to be attractive participants in our republic, and they often do not turn out to vote."

It is reassuring indeed to see the architect of our school's curriculum so sagaciously represented in Climbing Parnassus as Simmons builds an airtight case for classical liberal education.  Both he and Hirsch advocate educating children in ways that embrace the best lessons of Western civilization.

Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle stand brilliant against today's standards.  Our students should know about them.  Homer, Ovid, Chaucer, and Milton are authors our students must read.  Pythagoras, Ptolemy, and Euclid revealed truth, beauty, and perfection in ways our students ought to appreciate at the youngest age possible.

If you have not yet seen the recent 9News coverage of Liberty's record-breaking ACT scores, you absolutely should (CLICK HERE).  Reporter Nelson Garcia succeeded in capturing the instructional mastery of English teacher Mr. Jared Dybzinski as he led students through Liberty's traditional Grammar Launch.  

Mr. Dybzinski teaches grammar the way it ought to be taught - the way the best English teachers have taught grammar for centuries:  Classically.

Junior Mady Allen told the camera how a classical education empowers her and her Liberty peers.  And, in reply to the persistent question about how Liberty consistently excels, we once again revealed the enigmatic answer.  

There really is no secret.  We do nothing innovative here.  We do what is old and what has been demonstrated to work.  

Nonetheless, in the broader context of American education, there are few schools around anymore that truly arm youngsters with the knowledge they will need as adults in order to live freely.  Liberty does, and that is what makes the school only seem unique and innovative.  

Last Wednesday afternoon, the high-school faculty gathered to discuss Climbing Parnassus at the first of five such all-staff meetings.  The discussion was led by six of Liberty's founders.  

Classical liberal principles from the book were underscored as reminders of why Liberty maintains some of the traditions we do.  For example, a classical approach to education informs Liberty's handwriting policy, our video-viewing policy, our grammar instruction, our Latin instruction, why we memorize things, and of course, the Core Knowledge Sequence.  

"Liberal education ought to aim not just at furnishing the mind with serviceable knowledge and information, nor even at habituating the mind to rational methods, but at leading it to wisdom, to a quality of knowledge tempered by experience and imbued with understanding," writes Simmons.  "Liberal education civilizes.  It transforms us.  We are better for having run its course."  

And that is the not-so-secret secret to the record-breaking success of Liberty Common School students.

 

Save the Date for Grandparents Day
This will mark the fifth year of a cherished tradition at Liberty Common School.  For the past four years, on the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, both schools have hosted many proud grandparents of Liberty's exceptional students.  On Tuesday, November 25, 2014, we will continue this tradition.  Grandparents Day at the elementary begins at 8:30 a.m. and concludes at 11a.m. The upper school event begins at 12:30 and concludes at 3 p.m. 

Grandparents Day has been incredibly successful in past years, thanks to our amazing volunteers. We can not put on this event without your time and talents.  Please consider volunteering for one or all of the following:
  • Volunteer to set up and decorate the evening before the event, beginning at 5 p.m. in the elementary school gymnasium.
  • Volunteer to assist with set up and final preparations the morning of the event, beginning at 7 a.m.
  • Volunteer to guide and assist grandparents throughout the event at either or both locations.
  • Volunteer to staff the refreshment tables at LCHS.

If you are interested in volunteering for this beloved event, please contact Erin Mihulka, Grandparents Day Planning Committee chairperson, via email [email protected].  

 

On behalf of the Grandparents Day Planning Committee, we look forward to organizing a fun, special and memorable day for the students and their grandparents.

 

Thank you,  

Erin Mihulka 

Grandparents Day Planning Committee Chairperson

[email protected]   

 
Fall Festival 2014-Purchase Tickets Now-Orders Due 10/1


Share Your Action Photos
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.
Liberty 2 Liberty 5k
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!