Cougar Community Connection
Principal, Shannon McPherson
9/14/24
Dear CRUNFmaily,
We are wrapping up a very busy week at CRUN. Our teachers are hard at work preparing for parent/teacher conferences next week so make sure you have signed up on their links that have been shared through their weekly newsletters to families. We are also deep in the throws of our one big fundraiser to help support our school with AMAZING programming that would not be possible with school budget funding alone. We appreciate your participating in our Annual Fun Run Fundraiser to benefit our school.
We completed our beginning of the year Standard Response Protocol drills including the 'Secure the Perimeter' posture that occurred naturally due to our raccoon friend who decided to get annoyed and aggressive with us on the playground this week. Our Lockdown and Fire/ evacuation drill have also been completed, and ongoing our Fire/ Evacuation drill will occur monthly. The importance of safety and practicing our drills is essential to ensuring that our staff and students are able to respond in an emergency and know exactly what to do. Our partners at the Douglas County Sheriff's Office, South Metro Fire and our DCSD Safety and Security teams participate in our trainings giving us ongoing feedback and support to ensure that our protocols are near perfect and that we are well trained for any situation. We always appreciate you as parents going over the importance of practicing these drills with your children and taking our safety drills seriously, knowing that the more we practice, and practice with high levels of student engagement, the safer we will be. Thank you for your help with these conversations at home to support what we do here at school.
We are excited to announce that we were successful with being able to add a 4th section to our Kindergarten team. Our kindy classes became way larger than we are comfortable with knowing how important the first year of elementary school is to our kids' future educational journeys. We are so happy to announce that one of our own staff members will be joining the Kindy team as our 4th kindergarten teacher. Ivy Onouye has been a part of our staff for quite some time now. She began her time at Cougar Run a part of our kindergarten team, left to pursue her career as a preschool teacher and is now back as a kindergarten teacher here at Cougar Run. We are working through the process of getting that new classroom built with students and will start Ivy's new class on Monday, September 30th. We are so happy for all of our kindergarteners that we will now have much more manageable class sizes for those babies to thrive and grow during their first year as elementary school kids.
A Note From PTA
Dear Cougar Run Family,
We hope you all are starting your donations for our ONE big fundraiser, our 2nd Annual (In-House) Fun Run. Rather than working with companies that take 40% of your donations, we will handle everything in-house! We could use your help with marking race bibs and prepping the otter pops. Sign-up to volunteer HERE.
The Fun Run will be on Friday, October 4th, we are excited to see you all! Little Cougars through 2nd grade will be running from 9-10am and 3rd grade through 6th grade will be running from 10-11am. The running time will only be 15-20 minutes, but there will be a warm-up and popsicles after the run.
In other news, thank you to everyone that came out to Cranelli's on Tuesday. Our school made $500! Woohoo!
Conference Week is next week! The PTA is coordinating a community potluck to feed our teachers during these 3 conference evenings. The teachers have requested heavy snacks, rather than a full meal. Please check out the sign-up to see if there is something you can bring. Potluck Sign-Up Here
The PTA is here to help the whole CRUN community. We are always available at crunpta@gmail.com.
Sincerely, CRUN PTA
Spotlight On~ Our CRUN Office Team
Upon entry to our building, customer service is what we want you to feel. From staff, to students to parents, we want our people to feel loved, supported and assisted with whatever their needs are. That is what this fabulous office team is all about. These ladies aim to please and are willing to bend over backwards to ensure that everyone is taken care of when they are inside our doors. Andrea McNamara is our school secretary and bookkeeper, Char Lube is our registrar, Sarah Bull and Norma Harper are our attendance clerks, Amy Gallegos is our health clerk, Katie Busch is our volunteer coordinator and Brooke Flexter is our school nurse. This group of incredible humans serve the needs of all of our stakeholders every single day here at CRUN. Stop in and say hi and we know you will feel the love!
Volunteer Coordinator~Katie Busch
Parent-Teacher Conferences: Let’s Feed Our Teachers
The PTA is organizing a SignUp to treat teachers to Heavy Snacks during Conferences - September, 17th, 18th, and 19th. Please sign up HERE.
Volunteer Badges
If you took a picture at Volunteer Orientation, we have your badge. Please stop by the front office to pick it up, along with a lanyard. If you took your picture at supply drop off, please let me know and I can request your badge. If you didn’t take your picture, please email a picture to me at kbusch1@dcsdk12.org.How the Bond Will Help Cougar Run
Dear Cougar Run Elementary Community,
On August 27, the Douglas County School District Board of Education unanimously voted 7-0 to place a $490 million Bond on the November 2024 ballot.
If passed by voters, this new funding would be used at our school to:
Enhance safety and security
Refresh student and staff technology
Replace main electrical service equipment
Replace flooring
Install new intercom system
Replace sink countertops
Replace theater and stage equipment
Upgrade sound system
If passed by voters, a $490 million Bond would be used to upgrade aging schools and facilities; build additional career and technical education pathways; upgrade school safety and security; and construct and expand neighborhood schools. The Bond would provide for two new elementary schools in growing areas of our county, as well as the expansion of one existing middle school.
A $490 million Bond WOULD NOT increase current property taxes.
You can read more about DCSD’s funding challenges on our website. Thank you for being an engaged and informed member of our school community!
Sincerely,
Shannon McPherson
Principal
Cougar Run Elementary School
Bond Measure on the November Ballot
Please take a few minutes to familiarize yourself on the upcoming Bond measure that will be on the November election. This will positively impact our school with much needed repairs and replacements of things like our windows that are leaking, carpet that needs replacement desperately and many other behind the scenes operational items that are barely hanging on. THE KEY PIECE TO THIS MEASURE IS THERE IS NO, I REPEAT, NO TAX INCREASE TO YOU AT ALL!!!!!!
Upcoming Dates to Remember
September 16-19- Parent Teacher Conference Week (Teacher Sign Ups Will Come Soon)
September 16- International Dot Day-Wear Polka Dots
September 20th- No School For Students, Teacher Professional Development Day
September 23rd- Highlands Ranch High School Homecoming Spririt Day, WEAR BLUE AND BLACK
September 24th-5:00 Watch Dog Dads Information Night in the Learning Commons
September 25-27- 6th Grade Outdoor Ed Trip
October 4th- Annual Cougar Run Fun Run
October 8- Cougar Run Restaurant Night
October 11- 8:45am PTA Meeting
October 14-18-NO SCHOOL-Fall Break
October 21-25- NO CRUN BUS THIS WEEK
October 25-Donuts with Grownups
November 8th- PTA Meeting 8:45 in the Learning Commons
November 12- CRUN Restaurant Night
November 18-22- CRUN Book Fair
November 25-29- NO SCHOOL THANKSGIVING BREAK
December 2-6- NO CRUN BUS THIS WEEK
December 9-13- CRUN Holiday Shoppe (Hosted by PTA)
December 12- ROCKS Assemblies 9:00 PK-2nd Grade, 2:15-3rd-6th
December 20-January 6- NO SCHOOL WINTER BREAK-School Resumes January 7th
