Sand Creek Elementary

September 15, 2023

Dear SCE Families,

Whew, we are glad we pushed the FUN RUN to Monday! It would have been a chilly, wet, and muddy day for our kiddos! We look forward to holding this special event on Monday, September 18th following this FUN RUN Schedule! Keep working on those donations…we are 42% of the way to our donation GOAL! 

Next week, we will have our first SAC (School Accountability Committee) Meeting scheduled for Tuesday, September 19th from 4:15-5:15 PM. Mrs. Jo Tiwari and Mr. Robert Drost will be continuing in their role on our SAC this year. I would like to introduce our new SAC member, Mr. AJ Smith. Mr. Smith shared the following information to help parents get to know him better and understand his reasons for wanting to be on our SAC this year: 

“Proudly, my wife, Maryrose, and I are the parents of 1st grader Emilina Smith. Sand Creek is our neighborhood school. I want to ensure our kids continue to have an exceptional education down the street from home. While my experience as a business owner at Riomar Shoes or continuing my education with a master’s degree in 2009 could be valuable to the committee, my desire to see every student and educator flourish in and for our community will be my cornerstone with the SAC.” - Mr. A.J. Smith

Thank you to our SAC parent volunteers for their commitment to helping provide feedback to our administration through this special advisory committee. We are still seeking at least one additional parent volunteer to participate on our SAC committee and one community representative or business owner living within our feeder boundaries. Our SAC meets 4-5 times over the school year for approximately one hour each meeting, so the time commitment is minimal. 

The purpose of the SAC is to provide accountability in an advisory capacity.  The SAC makes recommendations concerning the school’s budget, performance/improvement plan, and other progress pertinent to the school’s accreditation. It is important for us to have good representation from our school community on this Board, so if you are interested in participating please reach out to Mrs. Pekarek as soon as possible! If you would like to check out a meeting first before making a commitment, you can attend our meeting on Tuesday, September 19th to learn more and express your interest for a seat on this committee. 

Have a beautiful weekend!

Proud to be an Eagle!

Pamela Pekarek

Principal, Sand Creek Elementary

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September 8, 2023

Dear SCE Families,

We are off to an excellent start with raising funds for our annual FUN RUN event that will be held on September 15th!! We love having families come visit during the FUN RUN! HERE is the schedule for the day. 

Thank you to our PTO, parents, and community members for all your support and for jumping right in to help your student get those donations submitted! We have already raised close to $6,000 toward our $40,000 goal! If you are just getting started, no worries! Click on 2023 Fun Run Donation Platform to help get your kiddo set up to start collecting donations over this weekend! 

It is hard to believe we are already finishing up our 5th week of school! One of our goals this year is to ensure our students receive high quality instruction and enrichment each and every day from their teachers and with their peers. In order to do this, we hope to partner with our families to encourage the habit of good attendance in school. Over the past two years, our school wide attendance rate was right around 93%. We hope to increase our student attendance rate to over 95% for the 23-24 school year. Attending school regularly helps children feel better about school—and themselves. 

Did you know?

• Starting in preschool and kindergarten, too many absences can cause children to fall behind in school.

• Missing 10%, or about 2 days each month over the course of a school year, can make it harder to learn to read.

• Students can still fall behind if they miss just 1 or 2 days every few weeks.

• Being late to school may lead to poor attendance.

• Absences and tardiness can affect the whole classroom if the teacher has to slow down learning to help children catch up.

Click HERE to find out tips you can follow to help your child maintain good attendance in school this year.

Have a beautiful weekend!

Proud to be an Eagle!

Pamela Pekarek

Principal, Sand Creek Elementary

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September 1, 2023

Dear SCE Families,

We have some EXCITING news to share with you! Our 2023 CMAS (Colorado Measures of Academic Success) preliminary results are now accessible on the CDE website. I am incredibly pleased to announce that Sand Creek has increased significantly in both academic achievement and growth! To see our scores over time, you can access the Colorado Department of Education (CDE) Data Dashboard for Sand Creek:  Sand Creek Data Dashboard. Below is a comparison of SCE overall scores compared to DCSD elementary schools over the past two years.

As principal at Sand Creek, I am so proud of the hard work our students put forth in their learning throughout the year! I am also incredibly proud of our staff for putting their full hearts into creating a high achieving and nurturing learning environment for our students to thrive! Over the next few weeks our staff will take a deep dive into our Spring CMAS/iReady data and will compare it to our Fall iReady data to identify key areas for continued growth and achievement to best support our students. As always, we focus our energy around reaching our school vision: We EDUCATE, ENCOURAGE, and INSPIRE our community of learners to achieve their greatest potential. 

If you have any questions or would like to learn more about our educational programs, how we support our students academically and emotionally, enrichment opportunities, or any other topic, I encourage you to call, email, or schedule an appointment to visit with me to learn more! 

Proud to be an Eagle!

Pamela Pekarek

Principal, Sand Creek Elementary