Posted April 16, 2024
Dear Swigert Families
Spring is in full swing here at Swigert. Our students planted the lettuce and radish seeds in our community garden – hoping they will be ready for harvest by May 2nd for International Night. Our ECE students started their plant unit – drawing from flower inspiration, studying roots through science experiments with flowers and celery, and centers based on plants.
Our Kindergarten students launched their insect unit with fieldwork to the Butterfly Pavilion. This week marked the arrival of mealworms. Students will study the mealworm life cycle as they become beetles.
Our fifth grade students started a new program called Elevate Program. Robin Bresnahan, our GT Coordinator, and Coach Dion Futch, are taking students through a four week course that will help them “elevate’ their game by exploring self love, confidence, goal setting, nutrition, healthy social media and screen usage and manifesting a life they love. We are excited to see our students learn and grow from this experience.
I want to remind everyone that Swigert does have school on Friday April 19th for Kindergarten through 5th grades. ECE does NOT have school. The majority of Denver Public Schools has a professional learning day; however, we switched ours this month to April 3rd. We made this change because parents expressed they would rather have a day off attached to a break rather then a random day in the month and it better supported teacher planning. Please reach out with any questions or clarifications.
We look forward to seeing families at our second annual PTA Sponsored Community Bingo Night on Thursday. Bring the kids and enjoy time together at this free event. You can bring a dessert or snack to share. Senor Amador and Mr. Shutts will be our callers. For more information click on this link- PTA hosted Community Bingo Night
Sincerely,
Shelby Dennis
We just want to remind everyone that Swigert DOES have school this Friday. DPS has a teacher work day, but Swigert will be in session for students in Kinder – 5th Grades.
Original Works orders are due today!
April 9th: CMAS Starts for Grades 3-5: Schedule
April 18th: Bingo Night
Join us for our second Community Bingo Night. It’s a family event to come together and have some fun. Mr. Shutts and Senor Amador will be our Bingo caller and there will be some fun prizes to win. Thank you PTA for hosting this community event.
May 2nd: International Night, 6-8 pm
A celebration of our school diversity. A way to honor, celebrate, and learn about the diverse cultures represented at our school as well as share the harvest from our school garden. We will have different multicultural activities and performances as well as have family picnics on the field. There will be lettuce from our garden to share.
May 3rd : Green Day – no school for students.
May 4th: Swigert Auction
This is a wonderful way to meet families, talk to our staff, enjoy delicious food and have fun together as a community. It is also one of our largest fundraisers and helps to support our school wide IB program, para professionals and spanish. For more information check out this link: Swigert Auction- Spring Fling
May 10th: Service Day
This will be our 6th annual service day. We start the day with a whole school assembly and invite speakers to share about the importance of giving back. After the assembly each grade level partners with a different non-profit to do a community service project including Project Angel Heart, Balfor, There with Care, Bin Blessed. We also do some grounds projects around our school. Parents are welcome to come lend a helping hand (details to come).
May 16th – Kindergarten Round-Up
An opportunity for our new to Swigert kindergarten families to get information about kindergarten and let our kinder teachers meet the new faces.
May 17th: Swigert Field Day
Mr. Shutts organizes a day where all students participate in a variety of activities; including but not limited to relay races, hurdles, shoe toss, tug a war and water games. We split the day into two and ECE-2 goes in the morning and 3-5 in the afternoon. Parents are welcome to come watch. May 17th: 5th Grade Dance, details TBD
May 22nd:New Family Information Night for 1st-5th grade new families
An opportunity for any new families to learn about the year ahead. We will meet together in the library at 6pm. We will do Q&A at the end.
May 23rd: ECE4 New Family Info Night
An opportunity for ECE families to learn about the year ahead. You can sign up for a one hour time spot. We will meet together in The Nest for an admin presentation and then you will spend 30 minutes in the class with your child!
May 27th: No School, Memorial Day
May 31st 2:50-Second Annual Swigert Alumni Walk Through:
Celebrate our High School Graduates- Swigert alums from different schools across the metro area will walk through the school with their caps/gowns and celebrated with a clap through. Families welcome.
June 4th: 5th Grade Exhibition and Continuation
Swigert Fifth grade students will share their culminating IB exhibition projects to the community and then we will have a continuation ceremony to honor fifth grade students.
June 5th: 5th Grade Clap Out
All ECE-4th grade students and 5th grade parents will join us to clap the 5th graders out of Swigert and on to middle school- It’s a pretty emotional event. The clap out will begin around 11:50 am.
June 5th: ½ Day Last Day of School
The last day of school is a noon dismissal. No lunch is served.
Please see the attached GT Newsletter.
Swigert has Kiss ‘n Go lanes on both the east and west side of the school. These areas, indicated with a yellow curb, are designed for parents who want to quickly pull into the parking lot, let their kids out, and then continue on to work. We are also struggling with the lack of parking due to the construction at our neighbor, United Airlines. Please do not double park in the parking lot. We can also utilize the bus lane (on the Syracuse side) for drop off in the morning because our morning buses have already dropped off by 7:50. There is often parking in the Sam’s Club parking lot if you need to park and pick up. If you would like to have a longer stop, please go ahead and pull into a parking space and do not park behind a car in a designated space. Thank you for understanding.
One way to become involved at Swigert is to join the SAC committee. The monthly meetings are OPEN to everyone to attend and provide information or input on important issues at school. For more information about SAC, check out the link on our website here- SAC
While the meetings are open, there are some designated elected positions. The SAC (School Accountability Committee) is holding elections for two parent representative openings for 2024-2025 school year. If you are interested, please submit a short blurb (one paragraph) about yourself, including why you think you would be a great addition to our SAC committee to Shelby at Shelby_Dennis@dpsk12.net by April 26th. If you have questions about SAC please reach out to our current SAC President, Amy Hladik at aallenba@yahoo.com. Voting will be held via an online ballot by the Swigert community and will end on May 3, 2024.
*Original Works order forms are here! To read the entire newsletter, please click here.
Please join us for our next Diversity and Inclusivity Working Group meeting: Monday, April 29 from 6:00-7:00 p.m. in the Swigert Library. If you are interested in meeting families of all backgrounds committed to celebrating diversity, building International Mindedness and making Swigert even more inclusive, please join us! Please RSVP to shelby_dennis@dpsk12.net.
As part of their Girl Scout troop, Swigert students donated cases of cookies to the Swigert Food Bank.
Who: All Swigert students and families
What: A celebration of our school diversity. A way to honor, celebrate, and learn about the diverse cultures represented at our school as well as share the harvest from our school garden
What to bring: A picnic for your family including water/drinks, plates, utensils, and A DISH TO SHARE
During the school day:
During the evening we will provide:
We’re starting to work on the video that will be played at the ceremony. We would love to get from every family a baby/toddler/younger picture of your child and then a more current 5th grade one to be used in the video.
You can upload them to this google drive: 5th Grade Continuation Photos
– Click on the drive clink.
– Click on your teacher’s name
– Click +New
– Then click File Upload
You can also feel free to email them to me if that’s easier at emily_pool@dpsk12.net.
We will also need help on the day of Tuesday, June 4th to help with decorating the gym, setting up a photo area, picking up cupcakes, and a few other things. If you could offer an hour or two of help, please consider signing up here and I’ll be in touch as the day gets closer: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C0E4CA4A92DA3FAC25-49011106-5thgrade
We have lots of events this spring to help welcome all our new families for the fall. See below for links to all the details!
1st-5th Grade New Families Information
If you will be needing Discovery Link for before or after school care for the ’24-’25 school year, registration for that opens on May 17th at 6am. You can get more details about that HERE
Swigert International friends, families, and community are invited to Swigert Fundraising Night, where you will receive special discounted ticket pricing for the Rapids home match on Saturday, May 25th and June 15th. Use our link to purchase tickets. Select section 112 or 113.
https://rapids.spinzo.com/?group=swigert-international-school-rb3b
Meet McAuliffe International’s new principal, Brian Duwe, in Central Park Education News – cpednews.org!
And read how CP elementary schools are delivering mental health support to younger students.
Don’t forget to sign up for our free, weekly news roundup at the nonprofit www.CPEdNews.org!
CPEdNews.org is a project of the nonprofit Foundation for Sustainable Urban Communities.
We’d love to connect with you as much as possible. You will be automatically added to our weekly Swigert Eagle newsletter that comes out every Tuesday during the school year. Please also visit our website at www.swigert.dpsk12.org to learn more about Swigert and events that are coming up. You can also join our “Friends of Swigert International School” private Facebook page – www.facebook.com/groups/friendsofswigert. When requesting to join, please include a note to say you are a new family. We post pictures of events at school, interact as a school family, and you can see friendly reminders of upcoming events. Who to contact if you have questions about:
| ROLE | NAME | |
| Instruction, Programing, etc | Shelby Dennis Amber Holthus-Pera | Shelby_Dennis@dpsk12.net Amber_Holthus-Pera@dpsk12.net |
| Daily School Life | Emily Pool | Emily_Pool@dpsk12.net |
| Registration | Daphne Jolley | Djolley@dpsk12.net |
| Technology and events | Richard Fisher | Richard_Fisher@dpsk12.net |
| Health | Nurse Hoang Tran | Hoang_Tran@dpsk12.net |
| IB Program, Service Learning | Caroline Dane | Caroline_Dane@dpsk12.net |
| Swigert PTA | Cortney Dickey | president@swigertpta.com |
Key Dates
April 18th – Family Bingo Night
April 19th – ECE not in session, K-5th there IS school
April 29th – Diversity & Inclusion Meeting
May 2nd – International Night
May 3rd – No School
May 4th – Auction!
May 10th – Service Day
May 16th – Kindergarten Round-Up
May 17th – Field Day
May 17th – 5th Grade Dance
May 20, 21, 22 – Scholastic BOGO Book Fair
May 22nd – New Family Info Night (1st-5th Grade)
May 23rd – ECE Round-Up
May 27th – No School, Memorial Day
June 4th – 5th Grade Exhibition and Continuation
June 5th – 5th Grade Clap Out, Early Dismissal for all 12pm, LAST DAY!