Spring is one of my favorite times of the school year because there are so many opportunities to celebrate our students and staff and recognize their accomplishments!
We are starting off this month with the F.I.R.S.T. Lego League Explore Festival from 9 to noon and 1 to 4 tomorrow at Mesa View Elementary School. Elementary school students from 10 D51 schools have been designing, coding, and building Lego-based robots for the past few months and will showcase their work at the festival. The national F.I.R.S.T. program has engineering leagues for all age levels, including a robotics competition for high school students. I am thrilled to share that our local team, The Hi Fives, won the Denver Regional last week and will be headed to the International F.I.R.S.T. Robotics Championship later this month!
At board meetings this month, I’m also looking forward to honoring our All State Band qualifier, Averee Toft, from Palisade High School; our All State Middle School Choir participants, Madison Cox and Taylor Dean from East Middle School and Izzy Stevens from Fruita 8/9; SWL Girls Basketball player and coach of the year Kylie Wells and Michael Wells from Fruita Monument; WSL Boys Basketball player and co-coach of the year Donovan Maestas and Cory Hitchcock from Palisade; the GJHS state 4A Knowledge Bowl championship team; and our Speech and Debate qualifiers for nationals: Erin Casey and Jenna Sackter from Central High School and Palisade’s Lynessa Asplund, Kennedy Stephen, and Annika Walla.
Finally, I want to note that April is also a time for making sure students are on pace with their learning. Standardized assessments help teachers, students, and their families know if a student is on track with their learning and find areas where they excel and areas where they may need extra help. The CMAS English Language Arts, math, and science testing window is open for most of this month, PSAT testing for ninth- and tenth-graders and SAT testing for juniors is the week of April 11. These tests help tailor a student’s education throughout the year, and PSAT and SAT testing in particular can open several scholarship and college entry opportunities. While parents have the option to opt out of testing, I hope you will see the value in participating in these assessments.