News from the Nest — June 2, 2023

Posted June 2, 2023

Vol. 7, No. 37

Summer Resources for Families + August School Events

Please check out our list of resources available to families this summer!

• City of Denver’s youth program locator
• City of Denver’s MY Denver card program for kids ages 5-18
• Free DPS summer meal sites for 2023
• Denver Public Schools Summer of Sora reading contest
• Denver Public Library (DPL) Summer of Adventure program
• Free health care for ALL DPS students & siblings under the age of 18 at Denver Health’s School-Based Health Centers (SBHC). Check out this flyer for the SBHC summer locations.

Please mark your calendars for our August 2023 school events, and click here to see our 2023-2024 McKinley-Thatcher school year calendar. Please note that our McKinley calendar has added dates and information specific to our school!

• McKinley Main Office closed: Tuesday June 6 – Monday, July 31
• McKinley Main Office reopens: Tuesday, August 1
• McKinley’s Online School Registration: Monday, August 7 – Sunday, August 13 
• Open House / Meet Your Teacher Event: Thursday, August 17, 4:00pm – 5:30pm
• K-5th Grade First Day of School & Welcome Celebration: Monday, August 21, 7:15am
• ECE First Day of School: Tuesday, August 22, 7:30am

NEW for Next Year: Special First Week Schedule! 

New for the 2023-2024 school year, McKinley-Thatcher’s first three days of school are HALF DAYS for assessment purposes! This means that all students in kindergarten through 5th grade will have an individual assessment meeting with their teacher on the afternoon of August 21, 22, or 23. We’ll send out a sign-up form in August 2023 for assessment appointments. 

ECE students will also follow a half day schedule, but will not have assessment appointments. 

First Week of School Special Schedule

• Mon., 8/21, Tues., 8/22, & Weds., 8/23: K-5th Grade HALF DAYS, 7:30am-11:30am
  • Students will eat lunch before dismissal at 11:30am.
• Tues., 8/22 & Weds., 8/23: ECE HALF DAYS,  7:30am-11:30 am
  (no assessment sign up for ECE) 
• Thurs., 8/24: FULL DAY classes begin for ECE-5th Grade, 7:30am-2:30pm

In Case You Missed It: June 2023 Principal’s Update

Check out our June 2023 Principal’s Update from Ms. Geerdes for her end-of-year reflections, updates on our staff’s work towards diversity, equity, and inclusion, staff transitions for the 2023-2024 school year, and our upcoming McKinley book club for grown-ups!

Share Your School Photos for Our Yearbook!

Do you have photos from school events that we can include in the yearbook? We’d love to include your submissions so we can have the best chance at representing the whole school community.

All parents, guardians, caregivers, students, and staff are invited to please submit photos to our Lifetouch yearbook upload here. Pictures must be submitted by Friday, June 16!

We’re looking for photos of…

Specials, library, staff appreciation, snow days, movie night, glow dance, field trips, field day, discovery link, enrichments, and more!

The 2022-2023 yearbook will be distributed to all students at the 2023 Open House on Thursday, August 17!

Some tips:

• If you already have a Shutterfly account, you might have to log in with that account, or try using a different email address altogether!
• If you get prompted for a passcode for our school, it’s EAGLES-23.
• The Lifetouch link is the preferred way to submit, but if that doesn’t work, feel free to upload your photos via Dropbox here.

Have Questions Or Need Help?

The submission tool is easy to use, but for any questions, reach out to Matt, our yearbook committee volunteer, at matthew.l.safran@gmail.com.

In Other News!

• We have the following community resources to share with our families!
  • Camp Galileo, one of our school’s community sponsors, is offering McKinley-Thatcher families a special coupon code to get 25% off of registration at the Camp Galileo program located at the Denver Waldorf School this summer! New families can register until Monday, June 12 using the code DenverCG2023 to receive the 25% discount!
    
    Please note that this code has no cash value and is not applicable for families already enrolled, nor can it be retroactively applied. 

Upcoming School Events

Click here to view the McKinley-Thatcher school calendar.

• Mon., 6/5 – McKinley Main Office closes for summer break @ 3:00pm 
• Fri., 6/16 – DEADLINE to submit photos for our yearbook!
• Tues., 8/1 – McKinley Main Office opens for 2023-24 school year @ 8:00am

Upcoming DPS & Community Events

• None at this time!