Cougar Community Connection

Dear CRUNFamily,

It was so great to have you all in our building for Parent/Teacher Conferences this past week. The partnership that we have with our families is at the root of why we have the success that we have with our babies. Thank you for taking the time to come in and discuss your child's beginning of the year assessment data as well as their overall well being in their classroom. We want to thank our PTA for putting together a fabulous sign up to bring in snacks for our teachers to nosh on while staying late for conferences. Thank you also to our fantastic CRUNFamily Community for donating the items to keep our bellies happy while conferencing with all of you.

Our Fun Run fundraiser is in full effect. Thank you for your help raising money to help our sweet school with the extra things that allow us to have the "extras" that our budgets won't allow for. One of the things that our stakeholders continue to prioritize when it comes to school budgets is people. We primarily use our school budget to hire our staff ensuring that we are focusing on trained and experienced educators to work directly with our kids. PTA funds so much of our curricular resources that allows us to focus on humans in our school budget. We appreciate your help so that we can offer the absolute best for our kids.

Have a great weekend!

Dear Cougar Run Family,Hello #CRUNfamily!

Thank you to all who donated snacks and drinks to our amazing teachers for conference week this week. We all appreciate your contribution!

We wanted to give you an update on our ONE BIG fundraiser, the 2024 Funrun! We are a little over a quarter of a way to our goal, with a little under 2 1/2 weeks ago!

As a reminder, our benchmark is $175 worth of donations per student, so please reach out to your friends, family, post on social media, send text and whatever else you can do to help support our school! And of course, we want to get your kids their well deserved prizes!

Another way you can help boost your kiddos donation contribution is by seeing if the company you work for does a donation match, you’d be surprised how common it is!

To make it easy for you, feel free to copy and paste the below wording on your social media or send it as a text to anyone you feel may be able to contribute:

Hello friends and family! My kiddos amazing school is doing their one big fundraiser of the year! This money goes towards essential (and fun) programs that students, including my own, are you able to take advantage of year-round. If you would be so kind to follow this link, find my kiddos name and make a donation on their behalf by October 4th, we would be so thankful! Plus they can get a fun prize

https://www.givebacks.com/causes/crunpta/campaigns/c863e86efacebd

Thank you all for your continual support and we look forward to giving you a donation update next week!

- Your CRUN PTA

This MASSIVE group of incredible educators are committed to achieving academic success with all of our students. The amount of interventionists that we have in our building is a testament to our philosophy that it takes a village to ensure our kids meet and exceed their academic potential. Our RtI specialists, (Response to Intervention), are assigned to each grade level and function as a part of the teaching team, swooping in to support students when they show a need. We believe to the core that our students thrive because there are so many grown ups supporting them during their tenure at Cougar Run. Our RtI team is an integral part of our academic programming and support here at Cougar Run and we are so grateful to them for their expertise, their love and their dedication to their grade level of students.

Kindy-Ms. Murk, Mrs. Scheussler, Mrs. Diaz; 1st Grade-Norma Harper; 2nd Grade- Ashley Kozal; 3rd Grade-Cortney Chambers; 4th Grade- Amber Steinagel,; 5th Grade-Anne Buderus; 6th Grade-Mary Sileo; Literacy Specialist K-6 Kelly Addy.

Calling all dads, grandpas and/or male role models.....we are having a "Watch Dog Dad's" informational meeting on Tuesday, September 24th at 5:00 in our Learning Commons. If you are interested in being a part of the extra safety layer at our school as a positive male role model, then this opportunity is for you. Come join us to hear from Mr. Matt Schueneman, our lead Watch Dog Dad, Shannon McPherson, our principal and our SRO, school resource officer, Deputy Noah, and hear about how safety is focused on in our building and how you can be an additional layer of safety and security in our school. Please use the QR code below to let us know you are planning to attend. We look forward to seeing you Tuesday night!

Our year is off to a great start! Thanks for continuing to send in Longmont Dairy Milk caps. Our bin is full and over flowing! Keep sending in your bagged milk caps to not only do our part in recycling the caps but also helping Cougar Run out. We are in need of a family that would be willing to place the large bagged collection of milk caps on their front porch for pick up when they get a milk delivery. If you can assist with this, please let Lorie Aksamit know at laksamit@dcsdk12.org

Fall is upon us. Do you have clothes your family has out grown? Gently used shoes? How about gently used textiles (towels, sheets etc) drop them off to Cougar Run’s USAgain green bins at the end of the parking lot. For each full bin collected, a tree is planted! Not only do we help the Earth, but we provide others with needed items. Please be sure to bag your items.

Parents,

We are excited to create a memorable keepsake for students this year, but we cannot be everywhere to photograph every event nor every classroom. We have to depend on YOU to submit photos in order to create this keepsake. Please submit your information and photos to this form. You can fill out the form as many times as you would like! Thank you for being the eyes and the photographers to make this successful!

HERE is the Yearbook Submission Form.

DR-Photo will be in our building the morning of October 11 to retake photos for any parents who were not pleased with their child’s school portrait. They will also photograph any students, staff and volunteers who have not yet been photographed.

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

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!!!!!!

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