Announcements

School Closures, Late Starts, and morning Kindergarten

How do you know if Challenge to Excellence is closed or has a delayed start?

Challenge to Excellence lies within the Ponderosa, Chaparral and Legend Feeder areas. When any one or all of these feeder areas is listed as delayed start, Challenge to Excellence will be operating on a 1.5 hour delayed schedule.  If any one or all of these feeder areas is listed as closed, Challenge to Excellence will be closed.  If all of Douglas County School District is closed or delayed, then Challenge to Excellence is as well.

To see if weather is affecting our school, please access any of the following.  We do not update our website as we follow whatever Douglas County posts.
Weather Hotline: 303 – 387 – SNOW (7669)
District Internet Address: www.dcsdk12.org
Announcements will also be made as early as possible on local television and radio stations:
Channel 2 (evenings only), Channel 4, Channel 7, and Channel 9. Radio stations: KOA 850 AM,
KYGO 98.5 FM, KOSI 101.1 FM, KEZW 1430 AM, KHOW 95.7 FM, KRXY/MIX 107.5 FM, KCFR
90.1 FM, KXKL (Kool) 105.1 FM, KKHK 99.5 FM, and KGME 1390 AM (Spanish).

If it is announced that we have a delayed start then our doors will open at 9:10 and attendance will be taken at 9:30.  This gives you an extra 1.5 hours to get your student to school.  Please allow plenty of extra time to get to school on days with inclement weather.   Today we had 15% of our students arrive late, with the extra time the district has given students to get to school, everyone should be on time!

If the District announces that Morning Kindergarten is closed, then morning Kindergarten at C2E is closed as well.  If you have a full day kindergartener or an afternoon kindergartener, they will attend school on these days.  We apologize for the confusion about this today.

Safety of our Students

C2E Families,

Our crosswalk has become more and more dangerous and we are very concerned about the safety of our students as they cross the road.  We need your help!  We will continue to staff the crosswalk, but believe an additional adult will help.  Please click here to sign up.  Another way you can be of help is to remember the carpool rule of ALWAYS TURN RIGHT when entering and leaving the property.  We appreciate each of you looking at your schedules and signing up to help keep our children safe.

A Great Day at C2E

What a great day at C2E!  Rocky visited each classroom and fun was had by all!  Thanks to everyone who voted and helped us win his visit.

C2E recognized by the DCSD Board of Education

I was honored to accept, as the Challenge to Excellence representative, the 2018 John Irwin Schools of Excellence Award, at the Douglas County School District Board meeting last night.  The John Irwin Award is given to schools that demonstrate excellent academic achievement. The three-year school performance framework is used by the state to evaluate schools, and award the schools that “exceed” expectations on academic achievement.  This is our 3rd year in a row to receive this award.

Congratulations to our students who worked so hard to show all that they have learned, to our teachers for diligently ensuring that all of our students are learning, and to our parents for the daily commitment they make to help our students succeed in school!

Click here for more information on this award and/or to see the schools that received the 2018 John Irwin Award.

School Accountability Committee Opening

Attention parents! Our School Accountability Committee (SAC) has an opening for a Chairperson. This is a well established, parent-lead committee that will help train the new Chair as we go along. If you have an interest in our school’s academic performance, please come to our September meeting on Thursday, September 20th at 8:00 a.m. in the conference room.

Carpool Safety

We had a great first week of school.  It was so wonderful to see all of your children again and to feel their excitement for another school year.  For a first week, things went fairly smoothly with just a few carpool issues and of course, a Friday afternoon when we had to dismiss following our Lightning Dismissal procedures.  

If you had a chance to attend Parent University you heard me say, “Carpool is the hardest part of being a charter school parent”.  We do not have the advantage of buses pulling in and taking most of our children to their neighborhoods.

Here are a few helpful reminders from our Parent/Student Handbook to make carpool run smoothly and efficiently:

• Always make right turns.  When everyone is turning into the school from the same direction (turning right into the school drive from Carlson) things run quicker and students that are walking across the street are safer.
• If you want to drop your student off on Carlson, you must stop before the no parking sign.  That allows those that are lining up to drive through carpool the no parking lane for that line.  
• Please have your carpool sign displayed until you leave the school drive with your students.  If we can help the students see their cars, they load much faster.
• Lightning dismissals are always challenging dismissals.  However, we are not able to release your student out into the open when there is lightning within 10 miles of the school.  If you wish to pick up your student when there is lightning in the area you are required to come to the door to retrieve them.  Please, if you feel that being outside is dangerous, stay in your car and wait for the lightning to pass. We are committed to keeping your students safe until you feel safe being outside to pick them up.  YOU MAY NOT EXIT YOUR CAR on the school drive, as this obstructs the car line. These dismissals do take more time, but are required to ensure that your student(s) is safe.

The most helpful tip I can share is that if you text the words “follow @c2eschool” (please be sure to use the @, this was previously not required) to 40404 you will get real time information should we need to communicate with you what is happening during carpool or any other emergency situation.