Deer Canyon Echoes

Good evening, Deer Canyon Families:

Wow! That’s a wrap for (school days in) September and our first week of full-day kindergarten! Great job, kinder team! It was wonderful to have our kindergarten students on campus for the entire day.

This week, PUSD Technology and Innovation coaches joined us on campus to take a peek into our work around digital citizenship. Our students and teachers blew our visitors away — no surprise there!

Additionally, our Impact teacher — generously funded by the DCPSO — initiated her work providing reading intervention to students recommended by their teacher. I look forward to monitoring and celebrating our students’ progress! Yesterday, Associate Superintendent of Learning and Support Services Shelley Peterson was on campus. It was a wonderful visit; she loved seeing the smiles of our students!

Last night, members of the Deer Canyon Safety Committee attended PUSD’s first quarterly Community Safety Summit. Associate Superintendent of Student Support Services Greg Mizel moderated a panel of county and regional experts and first responders, who discussed aspects of school and student safety. If you’re interested, here is a link to the recording of the summit.

Walk & Roll to School Day is this Wednesday, 10/4! I look forward to seeing our students walking, riding, or rolling to and from school! CLICK HERE for helpful information and resources to guide a conversation with your student around why we participate in this national event. This is a great opportunity to discuss your family’s safety plan and expectations for walking to school, adhering to bike laws and rules of the road, not speaking or listening to strangers, and more. We will also be welcoming our Westview Ambassadors back to campus on Wednesday, Oct 4.

Please join us for Funky Friday this week on 10/6 from 9:00-9:10am. Families may enter through the ESS gate at 8:55am. Our 5th graders will be performing; the character trait we are recognizing is trustworthiness.

Attendance reminder: Because we value every minute available to students for learning, we at Deer Canyon believe it is very important that students arrive at school on time and attend school every day. As a reminder, please ensure that students are being dropped off at school with ample time to get to class each morning.

School breakfast is only served until the clean-up bell at 8:48 am. Please ensure your student arrives at school between 8:30-8:48am if they plan to access school breakfast. Students should be in class, ready to learn, by 8:55am. Please help remind your student to eat breakfast before playing, to ensure they are on time to class.

Smart Watches on Campus: We are seeing an uptick in smartwatches on campus. Please support our conversations about appropriate technology use at school; smartwatches should not be used while in the classroom. Parents/guardians, please be mindful to not text your student during instructional time as it disrupts your student’s learning. I am working with school staff to develop clear expectations for smartwatch use and will share these in next week’s Echoes.

Parent Learning Opportunities: For all families of students receiving special education services, please plan to join us on Thursday, October 5, from 6-7:30 pm for our first parent education class. The class will be led by Moira and Joe from Exceptional Family Resource Center and held at the District Office in the Community Room.

October 2023 Parent Education Courses (ENROLL HERE):

• Early Childhood Development: Shaping the Mindset –TK-3rd grade

• Help Your Children Manage Stress and Anxiety – TK-5th grade

• Empowering Parents with Consequences that Work – TK-5th grade

Food and Nutrition Updates and Reminders:

• School breakfast and school lunch are FREE for all enrolled students, every school day. Meals must still be entered into the cafeteria computer by individual student account.

• Even though meals are free, families are still highly encouraged to complete the application for free and reduced-price meal eligibility. School site funding depends in part on the number of students eligible for free/reduced-price meals. Families that qualify for free/reduced-price meals may qualify for other benefits, as well. The meal application is available online at MySchoolApps.com.

• Printer-friendly PDF menus are available on the PUSD Food and Nutrition webpage. At the top of the page, click or hover over School Menus + and then Printable PDF Menus.

• Interactive, web-based menus containing nutrient and allergen details are available at MySchoolMenus.com, as well as via links from the F&N webpage.

Wishing you a wonderful weekend!

Katie Bendix
Principal