CCIC Update

Dear CCIC students and families,

As you can see from the articles in this newsletter, we have had a remarkable fall here at the CCIC!

First, and more importantly, we welcomed a record number of students onto campus, with over 1,800 students this year across all of our pathways! The building is now at capacity and humming with the incredible work of our students and staff.

Second, we welcomed Criminal Justice as a new pathway this fall, centralizing courses for students from multiple home high schools and bringing Scott Wright as our lead teacher for the program. Welcome, Scott!

Third, we know that we have excellent teachers across all of our pathways and the external validation of their work this fall has been robust. You’ll see details in the newsletter about awards for Brian Manley (Auto), Mike Degitis (Infrastructure Engineering), Manufacturing overall, and the whole school as one of the top 250 innovative educational institutions in the world!

Beyond all of this, we are continuing and expanding our evening programming to include Aviation, Nursing, IT, Manufacturing, and Woodworking courses this year! Since its inception, the vision of the CCIC was a building that served students during the day and adults/students in the evening. We are thrilled to be enacting this vision more and more each year!

Finally, our plans for the possible expansion of the CCIC with the potential passage of the bond this November, would allow us to serve over 1,400 additional students starting the summer of 2026. As you may know, those additional pathways would include:

Advanced Electronics

• Aerospace Technician
• Auto Expansion
• Baking/Pastry
• EMT
• Film
• HVAC
• Motion Design
• Veterinary Technician
• Welding

These new pathways would be structured similarly to our current pathways with college credit options, industry certifications, and authentic experience!

Thank you, as always, for your continued support of the CCIC!

Sincerely,

Steve Day, Principal

The CCIC is excited to host its 5th annual Veterans Day breakfast celebration for veterans and active-duty military connected to CCIC students and staff. Coffee and pastries prepared by students at the CCICafé will be served. CCIC students will also take groups of our honored guests on tours of the campus.

Event: Monday, November 11th, 8-8:45 AM. RSVP: by November 5th RSVP Here

Thanksgiving Break: Wednesday, November 27 - Friday, November 29

Last Day of CCIC Semester 1 Classes: A Day - Friday, December 13 & B Day - Monday, December 16

Winter Break: Monday, December 23 - Monday, January 6

View CCIC 2024-2025 Calendar

Cherry Creek Schools is looking to make investments in safety and security, teachers, innovation, technology, and major construction and maintenance projects at schools all across the district. The 2024 mill and bond proposal is on the November 5, 2024 ballot for CCSD residents. The total package includes a phased-in mill levy increase and a $950 million bond. Together, this means that CCSD residents would face a tax increase of less than $3 a month for each $100,000 of property value.

In addition to other capital construction projects, the bond would help the expansion of CCIC to accommodate 70% more students and develop/expand 10 career pathways.

CCIC has been shortlisted as one of HundrED's 250 educational institutions around the world leading in innovative education. HundrED’s flagship project, the Global Collection, is a highly selective search for the 100 most impactful and scalable education innovations globally. Final selections will be announced at the HundrED Summit in November.

We could not do the work worthy of this recognition without the support of our community, industry and higher education partners, so thank you!

CCIC will be offering a woodworking night programming mini course. Participants will experience working with hand tools and machines to build a wooden clip board and a charcuterie board. This is a great opportunity to create homemade holiday gifts for family and friends while learning new tools and techniques. This mini course will run from 5PM to 7PM on the following dates December 3, 5, 10, 12, 17, 19. The cost is $230.00 for all tools, materials and supplies. Space is limited to 12 participants, sign up today, open to high school students and adults. Please fill out and return this form to us by November 20, 2024. We will be in touch with you after you fill out this form. If you have questions, please let us know

CCIC offers Certified Nurse Aide in the evenings for students (17 years and older) and adults. The class meets for seven weeks, Mon-Th, 4-7:30 pm at CCIC. The class prepares students for the Colorado State Nurse Aide Certification Exam. Email Darren Knowles (dknowles2@cherrycreekschools.org) or Suzanne Styduhar (sstyduhar@cherrycreekschools.org) to be added to the info list for our 2025 Spring Session.

October is Careers in Construction Month!

Siona Iwajomo is a second-year Infrastructure Engineering student at CCIC and a Junior at Smoky Hill High School. Siona attended Transportation and Construction GIRL Day with her CCIC class last year and then applied for Transportation and Construction GIRL's immersive Career Week. Over one week, girls ranging from 13 to 20 years old, made five stops to engage with women, ask questions and tour work sites. Siona also wrote a winning essay about her experience. Siona plans on going to school to be an electrician and do full-time international volunteer work to help those whose homes have been destroyed in natural disasters.

Campus Creations launched this September to excited students and staff! A donation from the Tuchman Family Foundation funded the conversion of a school bus into a state-of-the-art kitchen. Advanced ProStart students prep, cook and serve from the food bus. This new classroom has given students the opportunity to learn what it takes to start and manage a food truck.

For now Campus Creations will serve the CCIC community on site, but soon students will take it on the road to school events and venues.

Click below to watch stories from local media.

Students from the Cherry Creek Innovation Campus' Infrastructure and Engineering Pathway teamed up with elementary kids from Challenge School for a fun day of building birdhouses. The students learned the design process and how to follow blueprints in order to build their homes, then spent time with high school students learning how to use a hammer and drill.

Warren Cribbs is a third year CCIC Aerospace Manufacturing student and a Grandview High School senior. Cribbs will graduate from high school in December, a semester early, and then begin working on a degree in mechanical engineering at Metropolitan State University. He’ll receive tuition assistance from Lockheed Martin, where he has been an apprentice machinist for more than a year.

“I love the creativity of it,” Cribbs explained. “I love to take things apart and put them back together and play with things. Making things is super exciting to me.”

His love for machining led him to apply for a competitive apprenticeship with Lockheed Martin when he was just 16 years old. He was one of only two students from across the region chosen to be apprentice machinists in the company’s Space division.

More than 100 students are currently participating in the district’s Apprenticeship program, which is open to any CCSD student who is 16 or older and takes a Career and Technical Education (CTE) course at their home high school or CCIC. The program provides students with valuable workforce readiness training, such as resume writing, interview skills, and portfolio development, as well as on-the-job experience with companies in a variety of fields.

Email: sday3@cherrycreekschools.org
Location: 8000 S. Chambers Road
Phone: 720.554.2600