Liberty Common Elementary School 
1725 Sharp Point Dr. 
Fort Collins, CO 80525 
Phone:(970)482-9800
Fax: (970)482-8007 
www.libertycommon.org

OfficeHours:7:50-4:00
Attendance Line:
(970)482-9800,option2   
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, and A Gilder Lehrman Affiliate School  
   

Board of Directors  
You may contact all members of our Board of Directors at BOD@libertycommon.org or by telephone:
  • Patrick Albright: 232-8257
  • Joel Goeltl: 593-8556
  • Paulette Hansen: 282-8455
  • Jeff Webb: 545-9636
  • Denise Benz: 420-4184
  • John Rohrbaugh: 225-2259
  • Aislinn Kottwitz: 217-5925
Next Board of Directors Mtg., 
December 17, 6:00 p.m. 
Liberty Common Elementary


  
In an effort to keep students safe during drop-off and pick-up times, please refrain from using cell phones. The front, middle and back drop-off and pick-up areas are designated NO CELL PHONE AREAS. 

Mark Your Calendar

November 30|Character Assembly
8:10-8:45 (K-3rd grade)
8:55-9:35 (4th-6th grade)
December 1|3rd and 4th Grade  Concert, 6:30 p.m.
December4|***Note date change
3rd & 4th Grade Soccer-3:15-4:00
5th-6th Grade Soccer- 4:05-4:50 

December 4|Chess Club
December 4|5th Grade Movie Night
December 11|Free Dress Day
December 11|Chess Club
December 14|Character Assembly
Cooperation
8:10-8:45: (4th-6th grade
8:55-9:35: Kinder-3rd grade

December 14|Music Concert
6th Grade Band
5th and 6th Grade Choirs
6:30 p.m., LCS

December 15|
3rd & 4th Grade Soccer-3:15-4:00
5th-6th Grade Soccer- 4:05-4:50 

December 17|BOD Mtg. , 6:00 p.m., LCS.
December 18|T-shirt Day
End of 2nd Quarter 
December 21-Jan. 1|Winter Break

CLICK HERE for 2015-16 School Calendar

Attendance Policy
Please call our attendance line by 8:30 am if your child will not be attending school due to illness, appointment or is out of town.
The number is 482-9800, option 2.

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 included on the sign-in sheet.

If your student is ill and you want any/all homework, please contact the teacher my email as early as possible and homework will be available after 3:00 pm in the Front Office. 
 
COLD WEATHER
As the weather starts to get cooler, please remember to send jackets, gloves and hats with your child. Students will go outdoors unless it is raining or the temperature is below 15 degrees. Thank you. 

Dan Knab, Athletic Director
LCS Sports News

GO EAGLES - CLICK HERE to access our webpage.
This Week In Junior-High Sports:
 
JH-Boy's Basketball 
11/30, Monday, 4pm, Home vs New Vision
12/03, Thursday, 4pm, Away @ Heritage Christian
 
JH-Girl's Basketball Tryouts:
12/16 & 12/17, 3pm - 5pm, Elementary Gym
 
Jr-High Boys Basketball
With a short week last week, the team looks to finish out the regular season with only one loss.  If it wins the final two games this week they will have earned the 2nd seed and look to host the first two playoff rounds next week.
    

Please mindful of our requests of no cell phone usage in the office, building or classroom.  Using cellphones in these areas is disruptive to business and learning. Thank you.  

The Eagle's Nest

Volume 19
       Issue 15  

November 30, 2015
Newsworthy Announcements; Events, Activities and Reminders:
Mental-Health Matters  
A parent- and community-education event is being held this
Thursday, December 3, 2015 at Poudre High School (PHS) entitled "Mental Health Matters."  The event is open to the public and covers mental-health topics including anxiety, body image, depression, self-harm, substance abuse, grief, and more.  PHS is located at 201 Impala Dr., in Fort Collins.  
CLICK HERE for more information. 
Late this fall, LCS sixth graders were able to visit the Little Thompson Observatory (www.starkids.org), a completely volunteer based non-profit organization, to get a closer look at the astronomy being studied in class.  Students used telescopes and learned about the constellations and locations of stars on the Observatory Star Wall.  The staff graciously took time out of their evening to host Liberty students free of charge, of course donations are always accepted. The students had a great time and were able to view the Andromeda Galaxy and several double stars. Thank you Little Thompson Observatory for being great hosts.



History of Liberty Common School
Liberty Common School has a unique history that is important for all to know. There were many hardships and roadblocks encountered along the way. The Founders persevered to make our school what it is today, but it wasn't easy. We are fortunate to have had such persistent pioneers with a vision to make one of the best charter schools in Colorado.

Last week we ran Part One of "The History of Liberty Common High School" by Mrs. Michelle Provaznik and LCHS Principal Bob Schaffer, founding parents. This week, we are publishing the latest chapter of our Liberty story. Our hope is that by sharing our history, we will better value the efforts by our Founders to get where we are today. It is because of their vision and foresight that we have the top elementary and high school in the state of Colorado.

We continually thank our founding parents for their hard work and dedication. We could not have asked for a better educational system to educate children. Our hope is that you feel the same.
   
The History of Liberty Common High School
By: Mrs. Michelle Provaznik and Principal Bob Schaffer
(Founding Parents)
 
(Continued from last week)   
The school would offer a classical, liberal-arts curriculum
building upon the Core Knowledge Sequence.
Director of the Elementary School,
Casey Churchill organized the move from LCS to LCHS and the expansion at LCS. It was an enormous undertaking of brilliant coordination.
It would accentuate the humanities, and excel in math, science and engineering. Committees of parents were convened to further refine the curriculum and the course schedules.

Public meetings were held to describe the school, its goals and plans. Administrators described the kinds of teachers they envisioned hiring and who from the current school would go to the high-school building. A relaxed high-school Dress Code was developed and elated ninth graders were allowed to try it out for their last semester at the old Liberty Elementary School.

The House System was developed. Ninth and eighth graders who had committed to attending LCHS were assigned to one of three Houses: Domus Scientiae, Domus Virtutis or Domus Prudentiae. They began working on House projects such as House crests, logos, mottos and events.

Still, one question loomed over all of these discussions and activities: Where would the new high school be located? Hopes for a high-school property adjacent to the current school were fading. Visions of a single Liberty campus were becoming dim. All options considered had turned into dead ends. The school was now well into 2010 - the year the high school was scheduled to open, but there was still no building in hand.

One mile south of the elementary school stood a building that had been occupied by a defunct charter high school for a few years and had been abandoned for a few more years since. Would that building work?

Peter Kast approached the building's owners, and obtained a key allowing the Board to wander through the dusty vacant facility. After the walkthrough, the Board huddled in the parking lot looking on the abandoned school as the winter sun set over its roof. The group began mulling numbers and options. If the price came down, with some remodeling, and with additional classroom expansion over a few more years, this location could work. The Board decided to pursue the building at 2745 Minnesota Drive, and to continue searching for other options.  

It quickly became apparent the poor economy stressing Liberty's finances was simultaneously working to the school's advantage as a buyer of an abandoned building in a slow real-estate market. The price of the building was, by the week, dropping further below its original asking price. With the help of an investment corporation FCCS, LLC, headed up by local developer and charter-school backer Troy McWhinney, a solution materialized allowing Liberty Common School to lease the building and purchase it a few years later.

Tenancy stretched the Liberty budget to its limit, but the numbers added up - barely. With solid enrollment and aggressive fundraising among the parent community, the Board believed it could make ends meet.

A Letter of Intent was signed in February of 2010. Once an agreement was finalized, the landlord opened the building right away so parents could take a tour. From that moment, excitement punctuated all the work and countless hours required to get the building ready to open by August 18th of 2010.

Teachers needed to be hired. After attending numerous job fairs and accepting applications from literally around the world, a first-rate team of LCHS educators was assembled.

The high school's roster of inaugural instructors was announced: Jared Dybzinski, Dr. Charles Hubbeling, Dawn Karr, Marques Kem, William Kranz, Kay Lannen, Jerry Lavin, Torgun Lovely, Duane Staton, Dr. Barbara Werner, Ken Vetter, Sarah Aguilar-Francis, Megan Ellis, Connie Logsdon, Dave Lunn, Susan Porter, Donny Reeves, Wade Torgeson and Erin Voorhies.

LCHS opened under the guidance of Director of Secondary Schools  Bob Schaffer who was soon after named school principal by the Liberty Board of Directors.
Chairman of the Colorado State Board of Education, former U.S. Congressman and State Senator, and founding parent Bob Schaffer, who had been hired as project manager for the high-school expansion, was named Director of Secondary Schools, and later Principal. Along with Liberty's headmaster, the school's new administration would direct the opening and operation of Liberty Common High School.

Architects and contractors worked feverishly throughout the summer remodeling the building. The administration shopped at auctions for used school furnishings and equipment. New lockers - cherry red ones - were ordered and would eventually line the empty hallways. New lunchroom tables were ordered, too. There was no turning back now. LCHS would open on time with its leading class of 10th graders. In three years, these pioneering students would become Liberty's first graduating class - the inaugural Class of 2013. 

The night before LCHS was set to open, students grades 7 - 10 came together at Liberty Elementary School for the last time. Elementary Principal Casey Churchill lit a ceremonial lantern that was carried by students at the head of a 2.2-mile long procession along the Poudre River then West up to the high ground upon which Liberty Common High School sits. This was Liberty's first "Torch Trek," which has been reenacted by Liberty students every year since.
Liberty Common School provides two Handicapped Parking spaces for those in need.  Please do not park in these spaces unless you have a Handicapped Parking Pass.  These spaces are not to be used for short term parking, for example, picking up an ill child or returning a student after an appointment.  Thank you for your consideration of others. 
 Liberty Clothes Closet
Thank you to all who have generously donated to the Liberty Common Clothes Closet.  Currently, the Clothes Closet is in desperate need of  girl and boy pants, all sizes and in good condition. Please refrain from bringing in shorts and shirts, until our supply runs low.  Remember the Clothes Closet is open 8 am-4 pm and items may be traded in or purchased for $1.00.