Posted July 20, 2025
Dear Swigert Community,
We hope you are all having a wonderful summer. We are gearing up for the upcoming school year and look forward to seeing everyone soon. We just wanted to share a short update as we’re about 28 days out from school starting.
If you have any specific questions please reach out, we are here and ready to support.
Shelby Dennis, Principal – Shelby_Dennis@dpsk12.net
Amber Holthus-Pera, Assistant Principal – Amber_Holthus-Pera@dpsk12.net
Emily Pool, Community Liaison – Emily_Pool@dpsk12.net
Krystie Warlum, Office Manager – kwarlum@dpsk12.net
The office staff will be back on Monday, July 28th from 8:30-4:00, ready to assist!
Below you will find some important summer and back to school dates!
This is your August at a Glance calendar. A full resolution printable of this and instructions on how to link our google calendar to yours can be found here: https://swigert.dpsk12.org/about/calendar/
Registration is the process by which you confirm the information we have on file for your household. This is a DPS requirement that needs to be done every school year. It will reopen again July 28th and you have until the end of August to complete it. For the full details on how to complete registration, please see HERE.
Click HERE for school supply details. You are no longer able to buy through our vendor EPI, but use the lists to buy from any of your favorite local or online retailers. Please bring your supplies on Meet the Teacher Night.
We understand that everyone in the parent portal under transportation is showing “No DPS Transport,” even if your students rode the bus last year. We have reached out to DPS Transportation to get clarification on your next steps to ensure your student can ride the bus if you are more than a walkable mile from school. As of July 31st, Transportation has said to sit tight and wait, no need to fill out the exemption form yet. They have shared there will be no opt-in feature and that kids will be assigned a route but as of today, no one has been assigned a route. We’ll keep you posted!
**Update from DPS – routes should be showing by end of day Friday, 8/1 or Monday at the latest**
Fall Enrichment sign up will happen on August 6th starting at 6am. Take a look at the options below. Enrichment activities run one hour after school. Students can participate in both Enrichment and Discovery Link on the same day by registering for both programs! You have to sign up for an Arux account to be able to register, so do that now. 
https://dps.arux.app/courses/category/11/school-year-enrichments%E2%80%942/swigert%E2%80%942
Sign up for account – https://dps.arux.app/
Thursday, August 7th, 5:30 PM and Sunday, August 10th, 9 AM
We have two New Family Playdates scheduled in August to give parents and kids a chance to meet classmates and other families and to feel more comfortable on the first day of school. Just come to the playground for hanging out and popsicles. Current Swigert families are encouraged to come!
Thursday, August 14th, 5-6 PM
Join us at Swigert to find out who your teacher and classmates will be for the year! You’ll have an opportunity to say hello to your new teacher, sign up for an assessment time (during the first two days of school in the afternoons), let teachers know your child’s plan for getting to and from school, and pick up any other pertinent information about the start of the year. The PTA will sell Spirit Wear and administrators will be making their way around to say hello. You can also bring your school supplies to drop off in the classroom. This is an open-house style event; you and your family can come by anytime during the window. The Kona Ice truck will be on the playground as well for purchase. More details coming soon.
The first two days – August 18th and 19th – are half days. This allows students to ease into their new schedule and provide time for individual assessments in the afternoon. Your classroom teacher will reach out to you to set up individual time slots for these afternoon assessments. The arrival time is the same, with students arriving between 7:55 am and 8:05, with classes starting at 8:10. The dismissal time is noon, no lunch will be provided. Be sure to pack a water bottle and snack.
We will have our annual park to school walk on the first day. We have a new location to begin our walk this year. We wanted to eliminate the challenging crossing on Central Park Blvd.
We will gather at 7:45am at FlyteCo Tower in the parking lot (MAP). They will allow you to park there. Grab coffee from Panda Coffee House there anytime from 7-9:30am and they’ll be giving Swigert 20% of proceeds.
We will begin our walk to school at 7:45am. Parents and siblings are welcome to join us for this walk. Staff will be out on the playground beginning at 7:55 am if you are unable to join the walk. Buses will be running their regular routes for both arrival and dismissal.
Saturday August 23rd 8:30-10:30 am
Thursday, August 28th from 5:30-7:00 pm.
This event is for parents to learn about the year ahead from their classroom teacher and school wide programming from the leadership team. We will send out details as it gets closer.
We strive to have great communication around all thing Swigert. 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. 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, Programming, etc | Shelby Dennis Amber Holthus-Pera | Shelby_Dennis@dpsk12.net Amber_Holthus-Pera@dpsk12.net |
| Daily School Life, Eagle Post | Emily Pool | Emily_Pool@dpsk12.net |
| Registration & Office Support | Krystie Warlum TBD | kwarlum@dpsk12.net |
| Technology and Building Use | 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 | Allison Owen | president@swigertpta.com |
Key Dates
August 6th – Fall Enrichment Sign Up, 6am
August 7th – New Family playdate
August 10th – New Family playdate
August 14th – Meet the Teacher Night
August 18th – First day of school, noon dismissal
August 19th – Noon dismissal
August 23rd – Welcome Breakfast
August 28th – Back to School Night
September 1st – No school, Labor Day
