The St. Vrain Valley Schools Education Foundation will host the 38th annual Sunrise Stampede 5K event in August.
The event will include a 5K run-walk event and a 1-mile fun run on Aug. 12 as well as a virtual race from Aug. 10-13. This year, there will be a new student class added to the 5K wheelchair division, and adults will be eligible to register and run in the one-mile fun run.
School counselors play a vital role in helping students navigate the complex world of academics, but their role extends far beyond the classroom. They are often the first point of contact for students who may need additional personal and emotional support. Parents also rely on counselors to connect them to external resources that can aid in their children’s overall well-being and success.
The St. Vrain Valley School District Counseling Department recently held a resource fair for counselors at the Innovation Center where a wide range of community partners presented information on topics such as college planning, physical and mental health support, summer jobs, and more. The event was designed to foster relationships between school counselors and community organizations, creating a strong network of support for students in the district. It also provided an opportunity for counselors to equip themselves with a variety of resources to draw from when working with students who may be facing challenges.
“Community resources can change a lot, and there is always so much that counselors and interventionists need to have in their heads as options to help support students/families,” said Maura Brady-McMullen, Counselor at Mead High School. “Plus having updated information is important, especially since the district encompasses both Boulder and Weld counties. We’re all navigating where students live versus where they attend school and what is actually accessible to them.”
The district’s counselors and interventionists strive to keep abreast of the programs and resources at their disposal so they can effectively support not only students, but their families as well. “Our goal is to help them flourish and become successful,” said Brady-McMullen. “Knowing which community partners are best equipped to serve these various needs is a really important aspect of our jobs.”
St. Vrain Valley Schools is committed to providing comprehensive support to its students, and the resource fair is one example of the district’s efforts to connect students and their families to the resources they need to succeed.
Join the Department of Early Childhood for this experiential art and reading event with local author, Lulu Buck. Our youngest learners are invited to paint during the hands-on art experience, “Design Your Own Sky.” Children will walk away with a small painting to remind them of their uniqueness and the importance of accepting people around them. While students are painting, parents will receive an overview of five lessons to help support their child with safe spaces, bias, anti-bullying, acceptance, identity, community, and teamwork.
For questions regarding this event, please contact Early Childhood Community Liaison, Bertha Olivares, at [email protected] or call 303-702-8370.
Students in the St. Vrain Valley School District were recently named champions in a Colorado debate tournament, and two students have qualified for a national tournament.
The Colorado High School Activities Association hosted its first Speech and Debate Tournament in late February, and students from Longmont, Silver Creek and Mead high schools were named champions.
Automotive technology students in the St. Vrain Valley School District are using their skills to fix and restore cars for women in need.
The district’s Career Elevation and Technology Center has partnered with the local nonprofit A Women’s Work for its Driving for Success program.
In February, St. Vrain Valley’s Special Education Department joined forces with the Innovation Center to host the district’s first Unified Robotics event paving the way for special education students to learn more about robotics.
Students and parents were introduced to four hands-on stations using VEX materials. Each station had different levels so students could go to the station where they felt most comfortable. One station had a VEX 123 robot where students pushed the buttons to make the robot go. There was also a VEX Go station where students had the opportunity to build a small robot and use an iPad to code the robot so it would move. The favorite station at the event was the VEX IQ driving station where students learned to drive a robot with a controller.
High School robotics students volunteered to help with each station. Additionally, they built a more complicated robot, so students and families could see what it’s like.
Alexandra Downing, competitive robotics manager, said the goal of the event was to help students see what robotics is about and find out if they want to do more with it. Downing hopes to hold future Unified robotics events where they can continue to share and expand opportunities for special education students.
The district has been providing VEX robotics experiences for students since 2014. In addition to STEM learning, students learn science and engineering principles, as well as how to work collaboratively to engage and problem solve issues. Read more about the district’s robotics program here.
This year’s unified basketball season ended on a high note at the Unified Basketball Day of Champions, which took place at Skyline High School on February 25, 2023.
Unified basketball players from Mead HS, Skyline HS, Main Street School, Frederick HS, Longmont HS, Silver Creek HS, Niwot HS and Erie HS gathered for a fun morning of basketball.
It was a packed house with spectators cheering on players. Each school played two games that consisted of two 20 minute halves each game. Halfway through the tournament all players came together for a group photo.
Unified sports is a collaborative approach to creating opportunities for students with and without disabilities to participate in after school sports activities such as basketball, soccer, and bowling.
In January, Chad Lemons, music teacher at Mead Elementary, presented at the Colorado Music Educators Association (CMEA) Conference about the importance of Unified Percussion programming.
The CMEA Conference is held at the end of January every year, drawing music educators, musicians, clinicians, vendors, and more to the beautiful Broadmoor in Colorado Springs.
This year, Lemon was one of four St. Vrain Valley School educators who submitted a proposal and was accepted to present a session at the 2023 conference.
While Lemon is currently the music teacher at Mead Elementary, he was instrumental in creating Mead High School’s Unified Percussion program.
Lemon is inspiring others to expand their music programs with his vision of inclusivity. He stated, “Through the development of the Mead HS Unified Percussion Ensemble, and my opportunities to advocate for more inclusive music education programs, we’ve seen similar programs being built in SVVSD (Skyline, Longmont, Frederick, Silver Creek), and individuals reaching out from around the state about steps to create something similar in other districts.”
Chalkbeat Colorado recently interviewed Lemon about music inclusion. The article can be read here.
Trail Ridge Middle School (TRMS) is one of the 37 schools nationwide to be selected for the prestigious 2022 ESPN Honor Roll School Award.
The banner is an award that’s a combination between Special Olympics and ESPN. TRMS is recognized as a Special Olympics National Unified Champion School. With that banner recognition, they were nominated by Special Olympics Senior Director of Unified Champion Schools, Rick Brady, for the ESPN Honor Roll School Award. They received this award for having inclusivity and offering Unified Sports, as well as having a whole school attitude of acceptance. Staff were presented with the award on March 1, which was their school’s Inclusion Day Celebration.
In order to earn the national banner school designation, the school must demonstrate a commitment to inclusion by achieving 10 standards of excellence. This is accomplished by offering Special Olympics Unified Sports, unified clubs/groups, as well as getting the whole school engaged in promoting inclusion. To maintain their banner status, they’ll have to reapply every four years.
The middle school’s Unified Program has come a long way in five years. After watching a Unified Basketball game at Mead High School, Eddie Cloke, principal at TRMS, became inspired to start an inclusive program at the middle school level. Former Assistant Principal Lynsey Robinson and Becci Warren, special education teacher at TRMS, were instrumental in starting and growing the program with him.
Cloke understands the importance of having an inclusive program at the middle school level. “Middle school is fertile ground for programs like this. It teaches students to think outside themselves, which middle school students need,” Cloke said.
In addition to a strong Significant Support Needs (SSN) program, TRMS offers a variety of Special Olympic Unified Sports, such as basketball, bowling and soccer. Cloke is excited with how much the program has grown over the years. The program started with two students and has grown to over two dozen students. Originally, students would compete with school’s outside the district, but last year the program expanded throughout the district and now students compete with other schools within the district.
Beyond athletics, friendship and partnership are being created through Trail Ridge Middle School’s Inclusion Club, which provides an opportunity for typical students and students with disabilities to interact in meaningful ways through their Coffee Cart and Lunch Bunch program. Warren sees firsthand what a positive impact the Unified Program has on all students. She said, “The Unified Program teaches students empathy and open acceptance and students learn how to work together.”
For the last two and half decades, Top of the Rockies Corvette Association, or TORCA, has hosted a car show at the Boulder County Fairgrounds. This year the organization sought out the help of some St. Vrain Valley students to create a new category entry.
TORCA hosts the Show Us Your Chevy car show each summer at the fairgrounds. Since entries are free the show draws around 200 entries.
