T H E
E A R L Y
C O L L E G E
O F
A R V A D A ' S
THE GRIFFIN W E
C A N .
A N D
W E
W I L L .
IMPORTANT DATES
SEPTEMBER 7TH LABOR DAY, NO SCHOOL FOR STAFF AND STUDENTS
SEPTEMBER 8TH PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT DAY NO SCHOOL FOR STUDENTS
SEPTEMBER 28TH SCHOOL PHOTO RETAKES
REMINDER PLEASE REMEMBER THAT VISITORS ARE NOT ALLOWED IN THE BUILDING. PLEASE RING THE BUZZER ON THE OUTSIDE OF THE DOOR AND BE PREPARED TO PRESENT YOUR IDENTIFICATION.
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September Events SEPT 3
SEPT 4
AUG 31
SEPT 1
SEPT 2
SEPT 7
SEPT 8
SEPT 9
SEPT 10
SEPT 11
SEPT 16
SEPT 17
SEPT 18
Prattle & Pralines @ La Dolce Vita
SEPT 14
SEPT 15
Movie night @ Hackberry park
SEPT 21
SEPT 22
SEPT 28 School photo retakes
SEPT 29
SEPT 23
SEPT 30
SEPT 24
OCT 1
SEPT 25
OCT 2
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EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
NEW THINGS AT ECA TODD CORDREY 720-473-4403 TCORDREY@ECARVADA.ORG
Hello ECA Parents, I hope the start of the school year was successful for you and your children. ECA is in full operation with new norms and new routines especially for online learning, school health protocols, and communication. While teaching and learning in a pandemic is challenging, it has provided an urgency to many important school upgrades. The old saying is true; NECESSITY IS THE MOTHER OF INVENTION. Here is a partial list of ECA improvements for the 2020-21 school year. ECA is one to one with Chromebooks for the first time in our 13-year history. This will be our operating model going forward. GOGuardian is a software used to track and manage student movement online. Student online safety is very important. Edmentum is our school-wide curriculum with build-in supports that align to NWEA for online, remote, and in-person instruction. This is an incredibly robust curriculum for grades 6-12. Western Colorado University, WCU, is a new post-secondary partner. WCU is providing in-person and online college courses at ECA. AIMS Community College is a second new post-secondary partner this year. Having four post-secondary options (UCD, FRCC, WCU, and AIMES) for college classes while in high school is unique to ECA.
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EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
NWEA is our internal assessment online and in-person used three times a year in the fall, winter, and spring. The fall assessment will be coming up shortly. It will be used with Edmentum to create a student content gap analysis and curriculum intervention plan for individual students. Infinite Campus is the most robust student management system. It was brought online over the summer to replace PowerSchool. We added staff to our staffing levels to meet the needs of students in these tough times Mr. A. Reynoso – At-risk student services Mr. Talbot – Additional counseling and at-risk support Mr. C. Reynoso – Additional custodial and maintenance support Mr. Krom – Additional science support Ms. Hardiman – Additional language arts support
If you have any questions, please reach out to me personally. Stay healthy and happy.
PRINCIPAL
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OFF TO A STRONG START JANICE ANDERSON JANDERSON@ECARVADA.ORG
Even with all the unknowns, we are off to a very strong start. Our staff have been hard at work preparing lessons, and our students have been putting great efforts into their learning. There is still so much we must be prepared for, as the Fall continues. All students are now secured with their schedules, so there will not be any more schedule changes for this term. If your student is struggling with any of their academics, please encourage them to speak directly with that specific teacher. They are generally the person that can help most quickly. when concerns are referred to the front desk or the office, it goes back to the teacher for clarification, so it may take longer to get a response. Our teachers can not be reached at all hours of the day, as they are often teaching, but they will get back to you within 24 hours. There are so many unknowns we still have about this virus and the potential second wave. For this reason it is critically important that you check your emails and/or the website on a daily basis. These are going to be our primary means of communication. It is also how we will communicate any information about upcoming Parent Teacher Conferences in October. Stay tuned as we will be communicating how we will provide those during COVID restrictions. We appreciate how all of our families have helped to keep our staff and students safe and healthy during these times.
Counselor Corner Career & College readiness Freshman and Sophomore Parents,Career and College readiness starts now! Encourage your child to become active and get involved within the community (even if that means virtually during these times). When considering prospective students, Colleges rather see passion over participation. For example, working at a soup kitchen for four years or tutoring 3rd grade math online consistently is more impactful than volunteering at random. Playing a sport, a musical instrument, or having a passion for art are also great ways to build that college resume. Extracurriculars are a crucial part of the college application process during your child's senior year. A well-rounded student makes for a stronger college applicant! Page 7
BRIDGETTE FOSTER BFOSTER@ECARVADA.ORG
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OPERATIONS MANAGER
SCHOOL YEAR REMINDERS JULIE RAMSEY 720-473-4409
Please remember to do your wellness checks before you come to school. If your student is absent, please call our attendance line to report the absence and include your telephone number and any symptoms your student may have. We are tracking the reasons for our students', and staff's, absences in order to maintain the health and safety of all who enter our building. Masks are required within our building at this time. Please be sure your student brings his/her clean mask daily. Great care is being given to making sure our facility stays clean and as germ-free as possible including nightly sanitizing after our custodians are done with their cleaning. State immunization compliance checks are coming soon. Please be sure you have submitted your student's updated immunization record especially 6th and 10th graders. Our hearing and vision screenings are scheduled for the end of September. We are currently working through the logistics of the process. Once we have formulated a plan that meets all COVID regulations we will begin notifications regarding the event and process. Thank you for your patience and understanding while we all make our way through this unprecedented time.
Rick Heroff Middle School Dean of Students/C.E & Career Coordinator (720) 473-4400 EXT 320
Fall college classes: This fall ECA is offering a variety of options to take college classes. Here are our options so far. ECA Campus classes:Registration is complete for the year! Our classes currently running at the ECA campus include Intro to Literature, and Composition II through Front Range Community College, U.S. History, Environmental Biology, and Spanish 1&2 through Western Colorado University, and American Government through UCD. We will decide and finalize spring classes in October. Front Range campus classes: All students taking traditional classes from the FRCC campus are being done remotely. This means that if you sign up for a class are mostly run by logging into a live stream of your class via remote learning instead of going to the campus. Each department has slightly different guidelines, and they will be coming out with more details in the coming weeks before school starts. Click HERE to see the latest details on how they are delivering classes. Early College of Arvada | 10
DECANO DE ESTUDIANTES DE SECUNDARIA/ C.E & COORDINADOR DE CARRERA
AIMS classes: One of our new partners this year has a vast online and remote learning offering for the 20’-21’ school year. We are utilizing AIMS for its remote offerings since their closest campus is a good distance from our community. Students taking courses here currently range from LIT 115, to HIST 121 among others. College prep: This is a crazy time to be a senior! Students first priorities will be preparing for the SAT which will happen for our seniors in September. If you haven’t already narrowed down your college preferences it’s go time! It's generally recommended that you apply to about a half dozen colleges, but you should have a good idea of your top 3-5 preferences. When school starts Ms. Foster and myself are in the process of conducting one on one meetings to help guide you in the process. Students can sign up for a meeting time through the sign up genius sent out by Ms. Foster. Do some research on your favorite colleges looking at their programs, tuition, and housing options. The time has also come to star work on college essays! Here are a couple resources to help you out… https://www.princetonreview.com/college-advice/collegeessayhttps://www.collegeessayguy.com/blog/how-to-write-a-college-essay College Visits: JUNIORS and undecided SENIORS! Go to this website where you can take a virtual tour of most of the colleges in our state and the nation. Just type in the name of the school and check it out! https://www.youvisit.com/collegesearch/ Also www.niche.com is a great resource to compare colleges.
Early College of Arvada | 11
DECANO DE ESTUDIANTES DE SECUNDARIA/ C.E & COORDINADOR DE CARRERA
Middle School:Students have done a great job of keeping their masks on. Please continue to encourage them to wear fresh ones every day. Here at school we are doing our best to keep student cohorts as separate. Easy room is cleaned daily, and bathrooms are cleaned regularly throughout the day. Academically we are getting into the meat of instruction for the fall. Next week we will to our fall assessments. Students are continuing to show flexibility and resilience as they do a lot of hybrid styles of learning in the building everyday. As we settle into our routines please talk with your students about the changes this year and remind them of the reasons for all the rules and structure we have setup. Its not easy to be a middle school student during COVID, but please be assured that teachers are doing everything they can to keep their day engaging, and rigorous to prepare them for college courses in High School.
Early College of Arvada | 12
WE CAN
AND WE
WILL Guadalupe Marquez
Highschool Dean of Students 720-473-4408 I am so very happy to see all the students back in school. It is a very different year and we are doing very well with all the social distance/COVID rules. We have amazing students. Please make sure you and your student can log in to Infinite Campus to check attendance and grades and Edmentum if you are doing remote learning. If you have any issues with it please let me know. We will start our first round of NWEA testing from September 9th to the 18th so make sure you get plenty of sleep. I am always here for you, so please reach out to me if you need anything.
Early College of Arvada | 13
WE ARE EARSS BECAUSE WE LISTEN
The EARSS grant is a Colorado state grant that will support students across the state. The purpose and goals of the EARSS program to increase attendance, improve grades, and reduce negative behaviors. All of these areas may not be areas that your child could use
Alejandro Reynoso EARSS Advisor areynoso@ecarvada.org
support in, but each child will gain the tools needed to be successful in all three areas. Your child will be taught social emotional learning which should boost self-confidence, and self-esteem, develop leadership skills, and enhance the skills they already have to become effective workers, college students, and
Hello ECA students and Families,
adults. Another one of the program’s goals is
My name is Alejandro Reynoso and I am the
to make education more relevant for students
EARSS Advisor at the Early College of Arvada. I
and their future employers.
am a double major in Sociology and Spanish from the University of Denver. Colorado is my home
EARSS Advisor plans to provide the
and I am a Colorado Native. Some of my hobbies
necessary support services to help them
include being in the outdoors and playing music
avoid expulsion, and work with parents or
on my bass guitar. I consider myself an advocate
guardians to provide the services.
and my passion is working with students and
This program will help your student be
seeing them be successful. My goal is for students
successful by achieving academic and
to take pride in their work and help them
personal goals. (Higher grades, better
accomplish their goals.
attendance and outstanding GPA). The achievement of career development goals. (Resume, cover letter, job
What's the EARSS program? The program is called EARSS Advocacy. We like to say, “We are EARSS, because we listen”. Your child has been selected for this program and we intend to listen to what they have to say.
application). Provide resources to students that are interested in colleges/universities and trade schools. Students will learn life skills that will help them beyond their academic career. Thank you for your time, I am looking forward to finishing out this school year strong with your child.
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Extra Curricular Highlights
TIMBERGRIFFIN Kelly Graham Kgraham@ecarvada.org
Hello Arts at ECA families! Even despite the pandemic we are doing some awesome things! First off, we are having a great time with our new Film and Digital Music class (space is still available for online only students! Let us know asap if you want to enroll!) Second, this November we are going to host a Virtual Cabaret night as an Arts at ECA fundraiser. Students are encouraged to prepare a song from their favorite musical to be recorded and then live streamed as part of the event. Two person scenes and monologues are also welcome! More information will be coming soon, anyone is welcome to submit a performance! Thirdly, we are in the midst of planning our school musical, Prodigy, to be a film! We are working out the schedule and safety logistics, but there will be in person roles as well as virtual roles both on screen and off. So if you're interested in joining the fun stay tuned to our Timbergriffen Theater Co Facebook page and Ilove_APiano Instagram! And lastly we have some exciting news from Ms. Graham, she is expecting a little baby Graham this March! But don't fret, we are working out plans to have Sam, our co-director from Noises Off step in to help fill the gap while she's on maternity leave. This will likely include our spring play, which is yet to be determined, but will be a radio play and done fully remotely next spring! If you want to be involved be sure to follow us on social media, but you can also email Ms. Graham at Kgraham@ecarvada.org
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Extra Curricular Highlights
INTERNATIONAL TRAVEL Dennis Olson
The Early College of Arvada has a robust International Travel Program and throughout the years Mr. Olson has taken students from ECA to 13 different countries on 3 different continents. This school year we will travel to Panamรก during Spring Break and to Italy, France and Spain during the Summer of 2021. There are still a few seats left on both tours, but you must book soon to secure one of these final spots.
But the good news is that we have another trip in the initial planning phases. During the Summer of 2022 we will be going back to Asia, visiting Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand. Details will be coming soon!
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EARLY COLLEGE OF ARVADA
PTCO NEWS
MEETING SCHEDULE Meetings will be postponed until the
Lots of exciting activities here at ECA and we could use your help to make them a success! Hope to see you in the spring at the ECA PTO at 4PM! ptco@ecarvada.org
spring sememster
Muchas actividades emocionantes aquí en ECA Y podríamos usar su ayuda para hacerlos un ¡éxito!
Espero verte aquí la próxima primavera ptco@ecarvada.org
Early College of Arvada | 17
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n o s a ke
et r t e g r fo th t 8 ' 2 n r Do e b m e t p Se
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OPERATIONS MANAGER
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OPERATIONS MANAGER