Dunstan Newsletter

April 18, 2025

Dear Parents and Guardians of Dunstan Middle School Students,

Happy snowy Friday! We have had a good week here although we are still trying to get back into a groove after CMAS testing. We will find our groove next week for sure!

This week included our Social Emotional Learning Fair which highlights many of the mental health supports that are available in the Green Mountain Area. This event specifically targets our incoming 5th grade students and their parents. We had about 200 people attend! This event also includes every SEL from the area schools and our Area SEL Coach, Sarah Sterling. I want to thank Sarah Sterling, our SEL Leslie Pruitt, and Wendy Heywood from PTA who helped coordinate this event!

Today and tomorrow is our musical at Green Mountain High School. The Theater and Vocal Music Department collaborate to create an incredible performance for our area. Please feel free to attend one of the performances of “Once Upon A Mattress” tonight or tomorrow for the matinee or evening performance. To provide more context, our musicals are entirely student-driven. Students operate the sound, lighting, staging, costumes, makeup, acting, and directing! In my experience, their performances are superior to those I have seen in other middle schools and school districts!

We also have several student’s artwork which are showing at the Middle School Art Show at the Lakewood Cultural Center. The opening reception was last night at 5:00. I’d like to thank Ms. Miller, our Art Teacher, for helping hang and display the works of art that are a part of this! Please feel free to go see our student’s work hanging at the Lakewood Cultural Center.

This week we also took our 8th grade class photo! We are so proud of our 8th graders who are getting ready to transition to high school! Based on my interactions with them this week, it seems like the reality of this upcoming transition has become more real for them! If you are the parent of an 8th grade student, please continue to read the newsletter for the upcoming events that will conclude their 8th grade year at Dunstan.

Next Wednesday 4/23 at 6:30 PM we will have our last Accountability Meeting for this year. Please attend if you would like. We will be sharing our student SEL data, providing staffing and budgeting updates, and some plans for next school year.

As always, please feel free to reach out with any questions or concerns and/or feedback.

Respectfully,

Jen Pennell

April

• 18, 19: Once Upon A Mattress Musical @ GMHS (Tickets at the door)
• 21: On-Track Letters
• 25: Professional Development Day for staff (NO SCHOOL FOR STUDENTS)

May:

• 5: On-Track Letters

• 7: PTA Meeting 6-7 PM @ DMS

• 9: 8th Grade Dance 6:30-8:00 PM

• 12: Elementary/DMS Orchestra Concert, GMHS auditorium, 6:00 PM

• 12: On-Track Letters

• 13: 5th Grade Band Concert, DMS gym, 6:00 PM

• 14: On-Track Appeals

• 14: Dunstan Band and Jazz Band Concert, DMS gym, 6:00 PM

• 15: Dunstan Choir Concert, DMS cafeteria, 6:00 PM

• 16: GMHS Graduation

• 21: On-Track Celebration

• 22: 8th grade last day of school

• 22: 8th Grade Continuation @ DMS from 6:00-7:30 PM

• 23: Last day of school for 6th and 7th, Early Release

Tickets for Dunstan's musical, Once Upon a Mattress, are sold out online. However, tickets will still be available at the door! We hope to see you there.

The sixth-grade Outdoor Lab teachers need your help to win $1,000 for our school from the Outdoor Lab Foundation. If our middle school and elementary feeder schools can add 19 number of people to the Lab Card Program, our school will be entered to win one of five $1,000 prizes.

The Lab Card Program supports tuition assistance to ensure every sixth-grade student, regardless of financial capacity, can attend Outdoor Lab. To join the program, you simply need to link your King Sooper’s shopper’s card to the Outdoor Lab Foundation through the King Soopers Community Rewards Program. Visit the Foundation's website to find instructions. It takes about 3 minutes.

Once enrolled, any purchase moving forward with your Shopper’s Card will allocate a portion of King Soopers’s annual donation to the Outdoor Lab Foundation. The more people participating on behalf of the Outdoor Lab Foundation, the more money they can provide in tuition assistance to our students.

This is not only important for our families so that they can offset or eliminate a financial burden, but it is also important to your colleagues. This prize money can be used for various purposes such as booking engaging evening presenters for the students, paying for a sub day for lead teacher Outdoor Lab planning, buying supplies, etc.

Please take a few minutes to enroll yourself in the Lab Card Program and spread the word to your networks.

Dear families:

The 7th grade Healthy Decision Making unit will be taught beginning Monday, May 5, 2025 and ending about Wednesday, May 21, 2025. This unit is a continuation of the 5th grade Growing & Changing unit but with a greater emphasis on how to make responsible and healthy decisions. Students will learn a decision making process that can apply to situations related to alcohol, tobacco, other substances, and sexual health.

This unit will consist of the following topics:

• The Teenage Brain & The Impact on decision making

• Puberty

• Gender & Sexual Identity

• Healthy & Unhealthy Relationships

• Internal & External Influences that can impact decision making

• Consent & Communication

• Understanding sexually transmitted infections and transmission

• Pregnancy and Prevention (Birth Control Methods)

• Substance Misuse

In order to uphold our Jeffco values and to be in compliance with Colorado state law, the unit will emphasize:

• Inclusivity of all students

• Positive youth development

• Medical & scientific accuracy of information

Because we value the family and school partnership, we encourage you to have conversations with your student about your own family values and beliefs around these sensitive topics. Also, all values-based questions that are asked by students will not be answered but we will encourage students to ask their families about the questions not answered during class.

All assignments will be due no later than Wednesday, May 21, 2025.

If for any reason you are uncomfortable with your student participating in this unit or you have additional questions, please email your student’s science teacher BEFORE Thursday, May 1, 2025. After that date, all students will have access to the unit via Google Classroom.

Thank you for your support.

Sincerely,

Carey Fisher-Marmot Team

carey.fisher@jeffco.k12.co.us

Jessica Bennett-Pika Team

jessica.bennett@jeffcoschools.us

CLICK the Picture for the Honors newsletter.

Learn about what's going on at the high school.

If you have any questions, comments, concerns, things you would like to add to the newsletter or if you notice any errors, please reach out directly to Leslie Pruitt at leslie.pruitt@jeffco.k12.co.us or Michael Kitch at michael.kitch@jeffco.k12.co.us. Thank you!

We are looking for volunteers to fill important roles on the Dunstan PTA next school year:

• President
• Vice President
  
  

Learn how these PTA roles support our community at https://sites.google.com/view/dunstanpta/about-us

You can support the Dunstan PTA even through the summer by linking your King Soopers card to the PTA. It's an easy way to support our school - at no cost to you!

Simply log in to Community Rewards and search for us: https://bit.ly/2R6y1mk.