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Liberty Common Elementary School
Phone:(970)482-9800
Fax: (970)482-8007
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
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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.,
January 21, 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.
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Mark Your Calendar
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January 12|6th Grade Registration Mtg. 2:00 p.m., LCS Gym. Parents are invited to attend.
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January 12|Geography Bee, 3:00 p.m.-5:00, LCS Library
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January 14|Spelling Bee, after school, LCS Library
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January 15|5th & 6th Grade Science Fair
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January 18|Martin Luther King Jr. Day, NO SCHOOL
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January 21|
BOD Mtg. , 6:00 p.m., LCS, Teacher's Lounge.
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January 25|
Character Assembly-Citizenship. Representative from the Wild Animal Sanctuary. CLICK HERE for information about the Wild Animal Sanctuary.
January 25|
Public Information Night, LCS, 6:30 p.m.
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January 28|Liberty Lecture-New Orleans and the Birth of American Music, 6:30-8:00, LCHS
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January 29|Liberty T-shirt Day
January 29|6th Grade Movie Night, 5:30 p.m.
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February 8-12|Volunteer Appreciation Week
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February 9|1st and 2nd Grade Concert, 6:30 p.m.
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February 12|Teacher Professional Development Day. NO SCHOOL
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February 15|President's Day. NO SCHOOL
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February 18|BOD Mtg. 6:00 p.m., LCS Teacher's Lounge
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February 19|Winter Carnival, 6:30 p.m.
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February 19|Free Dress Day
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Thank you to all the students and parents who bestowed gifts upon the Front Office. From yummy treats to beautiful plants, we were spoiled. We appreciate your thoughtfulness and generosity.
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 Art Room Volunteers are needed for 2nd grade, 1st Grade, and Kinder Art classes starting at 12:00:
- every other Monday afternoon, beginning Feb 1st. and every other Monday thereafter.
- Tuesday afternoons
- Thursday afternoons
- Friday afternoons
Help students and read aloud as they work on their projects. You don't have to have any special art skill, a child in that grade or class. Just be willing to help students do their best job and prepare materials. It's a lot of fun! CLICK HERE TO VOLUNTEER
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 Attendance Policy
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| 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.
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Dan Knab, Athletic Director
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LCS Sports News
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JH-Girl's Basketball 3:30pm - 5pm, Practice at Elementary School
Friday, 1/15, 5pm, vs Kinard (Scrimmage)
CLICK HERE for full schedule
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The Eagle's Nest
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Volume 19
Issue 19
January 11, 2016
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 Reminder to all 6th Grade Students and Parents | |
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7th Grade Registration Meeting for 6th Grade Students entering 7th Grade for the 2016-2017 School Year will be held tomorrow, January 12th at 2:00pm in the LCS gymnasium.
The 7th Grade Registration meeting is an important nuts-and-bolts discussion about the transition, scheduling, and course offerings. Parents are highly encouraged to attend.
Unfortunately, we will have little time for a discussion about the most important thing - academic strategies and objectives. Therefore, we encourage you to also attend the Public Information Night at Liberty Common High School on tonight, January, 11th at 6:30pm. This meeting will last approximately two hours.
If for any reason you are unable to attend the Registration Meeting on the 12th, a administrator will be on hand to discuss registration questions individually after the Public Information Meeting.
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Chessmates Begins again on January 22nd. Registration is now being done on line only. Sign-up and Pay for 2016 Chessmates by Clicking Here.
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Next Liberty Lecture. Attention all perpetual students: If you consider yourself an intelligent person who enjoys learning, make sure to put on your calendar the next "Liberty Lecture." On Thursday, January 28, 2016 from 6:30 - 8:00PM in the LCHS Great Hall, Maestro Dave Lunn will deliver a spectacular lecture entitled "New Orleans and the Birth of American Music." Liberty Lectures are designed for parents, the community, and students. It's a great way to learn together from authentic academic experts. Don't miss this one.
Future Liberty Lectures. Everyone who misses a Liberty Lecture regrets it when they hear from others what they missed. Put these upcoming Liberty Lectures on your calendars now and make sure you participate in one of the most unique and valuable aspects of our school community:
Tuesday, February 16, 2016 | 6:30-8:00PM | LCHS Great Hall | Topic: Art: The Sustenance of Western Tradition | Presenters: Mrs. Megan Salazar, Mr. Rex Seiple.
Wed, March 30, 2016 | 6:30-8:00PM | LCHS Great Hall | Topic: Living What We Teach: Combating Anti-Intellectualism in Culture and Education|Presenters: Mrs. Natalie Scarlett and Dr. Bob McMahon of Ridgeview Classical Schools.
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Why Liberty? A Project of the Parent- Education Subcommittee
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Spreading the word about our unique philosophies is something our Board of Directors and founding parents believe is paramount to the success of our community. It is the responsibility of each parent to understand our philosophy and the policies that support them. To that end, we will post articles pertaining to each, written by an expert in that domain. Please make the time to read and absorb them. Here is the latest in the series by Dr. Maureen Schaffer, a founding parent.
LATIN II - Part II
By Patrick Albright, Member of the Board
Content knowledge, mutually reinforcing curriculum, emphasis on the development of modern Western Civilization....how do these three values form a nexus at Latin, and specifically 8th Grade Latin? The discussion up until now has primarily focused on Latin being a primary contributor to the English language, aiding in English language acquisition, increasing vocabulary, and improving grammar. These are certainly very important considerations, but also incomplete.
The content of our Latin courses goes beyond simply learning the vocabulary and grammar. The courses also include historical, cultural, and geographical content as related to the Latin language. Pompeiian Graffiti, letters from Julius Caesar, writings of Pliny and Cicero are examples of the type of content included in "Wheelock's Latin", the text Liberty uses. This content not only provides the contextual knowledge for the appreciation of the Latin language itself and its influence on the English language, it is also mutually reinforcing the subject areas of history, literature, and civics, leaving our students with a deeper appreciation and understanding of our roots.
These are good arguments in favor of Latin in general, but the question still remains why Latin II in 8th Grade? From speaking with Marques Kem, coursework in Latin I is focused primarily on vocabulary and grammar. There are specific fundamentals that need to be learned in Latin I before any significant Latin literature can be appreciated, and most of the time in Latin I is spent developing those fundamentals. In Latin II, sprinkled throughout the course are all kinds of literary references to Roman history, culture, and geography. From that, I conclude that the mutually reinforcing aspects of Latin come more into play in Latin II than in Latin I.
In the 7th and 8th grades, students are still under the Core Knowledge sequence. The history curriculum in those two grades covers 1890-present: The rise of America as a world power, the world wars, the cold war, etc. The literature in the English curriculum in those grades serves to reinforce that time-era covered in History. When the students reach 9th grade, they are out of the Core Knowledge sequence and begin the high school history and literature track which begins with Western Civilization I and Western Literature, which heavily focus on Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome. The only link providing that historical and cultural content in the junior high years are the Latin courses. Latin I is a requirement in 7th grade, but students who do not currently take Latin II in 8th grade have a gap. Requiring Latin II will provide a logical and seamless transition from the junior high to the senior high, in addition to providing a capstone to the emphasis we place on Latin instruction throughout the Core Knowledge sequence years.
In conclusion, the content learned in Latin II includes vocabulary, grammar, historical, cultural, and geographical references that serve to increase our students contextual knowledge-which is consistent with our foundational value of teaching content knowledge. The content also serves to reinforce our other subject areas of history and literature, especially as students move into 9th Grade Western Civilization I and Western Literature-which is consistent with our foundational value of implementing a mutually reinforcing curriculum. Finally, the historical and cultural content learned in Latin II and reinforced in the 9th Grade classes deepens the appreciation and understanding of our modern Western Civilization's roots-which serves the foundational value of an emphasis on the development of modern Western Civilization. Within the context of examining Latin II from the perspective of these foundational values, adopting the Latin II requirement makes sense.
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Update from the Liberty Common Board of Directors
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News from the December Board of Directors meeting - Latin Proposal Passes and Financial Update
After nearly two years of research, debate and deliberation, the Board has adopted enhancements to the Latin program which will increase the common knowledge and college-readiness of all Liberty students. If you have followed the discussion, you know that an earlier Latin proposal was rejected by the BOD last year. After considering Board concerns, Liberty's Academic Advisory Committee submitted a revised proposal which was approved by the Board in December. Key components of the plan are: - Latin II will be required for graduation from LCHS beginning with the class of 2021 (current 7th grade students).
- The Foreign Language requirement will be changed from 30 hours to 20 hours (two consecutive language classes completed in grades 9-12) beginning with the class of 2021.
- All 8th graders will take Latin II, following 7th grade Latin 1
- This will fulfill the Latin 2 graduation requirement.
- 8th graders will receive HS elective credit for Latin 2 & may elect for Latin 2 grade to appear on HS transcript
- Latin 2 taken in 8th grade will not be calculated in the student's high-school GPA.
- 8th graders choosing to take Spanish or French in addition to Latin 2 may opt out of the Composition I requirement with approval of the Administration.
Over the next few weeks, we will work through the implementation plan, so stay tuned for further details.
The Liberty Common School Financial affairs office has been incredibly busy lately and the team shared two key updates at the last Board of Directors meeting. The first update centered on the final steps that were completed for the bond financing to support the facility expansion plans (including gym expansion) that have been shared. This was an incredibly important milestone that was hit and is another step in the growth to support our children's education. The Finance team was able to secure very favorable financial rates, terms & conditions. This took an incredible amount of time, diligence and attention to detail to get the financing across the finish line. As a Charter School, Liberty Common does not share in the Poudre School District bond revenues for facilities so we must provide for this on our own. This is an incredibly challenging task and this is a key area where we rely on donations from the generosity of the parent community. Please strongly consider donating to the Capital Campaign to help Liberty Common School close the gap on the funding required for such an expansion. Every dollar is essential in ensuring we meet our financial obligations for the Capital needs of our incredible school.
The second key point of business shared was the revision to the current school year budget. The administration has shared the importance of the October student headcount. This headcount data is tied to the funding received as part of the Per Pupil Revenue (PPR) allocated by the Colorado legislature to each school in the state. In accordance with Liberty's contract with the Poudre School District (PSD), PSD forwards this per pupil revenue to Liberty for each student enrolled at Liberty on October 1st. The October student count this year was above the preliminary budgeted number, plus the actual PPR rate was above the assumed preliminary rate as well. This helped with the top line budget needs and will be off-set by key facilities needs such as roof repairs at the elementary school.
In closing, every dollar counts as we support our education goals. As Liberty Common School does not receive funding for facilities through the PSD bond revenues as noted above, we must tightly manage our expenses to prioritize capital outlays. This is a very important time with our facility expansion and I encourage you to consider donating to the capital campaign as you will see the results with the new gym and improvements to the facilities for your kids in a matter of months!
Paulette Hansen, Chairman Joel Goeltl Treasurer
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Liberty's Annual Spring Gala-Donation Deadline Fast Approaching
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Liberty's Annual Spring Gala-Donation Deadline Approaching!
The Gala Team is currently collecting donations of items for both our Silent and Live Auctions. Do you have something you could donate to benefit our school? We appreciate all donations and remember, Gala donations are generally tax-deductible! The donation deadline is February 1st.
Do you have an Etsy Business? DONATE
Do you have Broncos tickets? DONATE
Do you have Travel Points? DONATE
Do you have Gift Cards you don't need? DONATE
Do you have a Home Improvement business (house painting, furnace repair, etc.)? DONATE
Can you donate any of these items?
- A basket just perfect for a cruiser bike
- Individual Sports Training
- Photography classes
- Any brand-new electronics (Kindle, iPad, etc.)
To benefit Liberty with your donation, please contact Kelly Notarfrancesco: kelly.notarfrancesco@gmail.com or Click Here for Gala Donation Form! Simply print out the form and bring it along with your donation to the front office of either school. Or email Kelly to arrange for a donation pick up!
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Liberty Common Academic
Summer Camps
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Dear Parent/s,
Summer will be here before you know it! Liberty Common Elementary School is offering a SUMMER CAMP for reading and literacy, math, and academic individualized tutoring, for students entering 1st.-6th. grades. Spots are filling up, so register early.
CLICK HERE for information about and to register for Reading and Literacy Camp.
CLICK HERE for information about and to register for Math Camp.
CLICK HERE for information about and to register for Individualized Tutoring.
We are excited to offer our summer camp and hope your child can join us!
Sincerely,
Keith Churchill
Principal, Liberty Common School
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