Hello, Willow Creek Community!

Welcome back to a great 22–23 school year! I feel fortunate to be part of the Willow Creek community, where students’ lives are positively impacted each day. I am grateful for each of your children and for your support. I am humbled to continue to serve here at WIllow Creek.  I hope you are in the middle of a wonderful summer where you each receive what you need, whether it is a restful break with your children or one filled with adventure.  I am looking forward to another great year with your amazing children and this staff.  You as a community make us stronger with your support.

We continue to hold dear the five core values of the district: Relationships, Whole Well-Being, Equity, Growth Mindset, and Engagement. We value each of these and know our work is never done in each of these areas. We continue to grow! Our theme this year is connection. Now more than ever, I feel the need for us to connect: teacher to student, parent to teacher, student to student, teacher to teacher. It is essential that we make room for each and every person to feel seen, heard, and valued.

As we begin another year together, I want to emphasize all the ways we stay connected:

• Our website:  https://www.cherrycreekschools.org/WillowCreek
• Teachers have valuable information on their websites.
• Weekly Sunday emails
• Accountability, P.A.S.S. and PTO
• Teacher Newsletters
• Family Connection Meetings

This year, in an effort to build even stronger relationships with our families, we will host Family Connection Meetings.  Your child’s teacher will be reaching out to you the week of August 8 to set up a time to meet with you about your child.  Most meetings will take place later in the work week of August 8-12, but we know some of you will be on last-minute vacations, and for you, we will accommodate by meeting before or after school the first few weeks of school. The meeting is not a conference in the traditional sense, as we are not sharing data.  The meeting is truly a time to connect and learn about your child from you, your child’s expert!  This meeting is in lieu of a traditional Back to School Night and will give your child’s teacher more time with you.

Staggered Start to the School Year:

• August 15, 2022, Grades 1 and 2 Only
• August 16, 2022, Grades 3, 4, and 5 Only
• August 17, 2022, Kindergarten through Grade 5 

New Families to Willow Creek Welcome: August 11, 5:00-6:00 pm

• We welcome our new families to Willow Creek!  New families are welcome to meet us on the playground to get acquainted with our school, connect with one another, and take a tour of Willow Creek.  This event is sponsored by PTO to help you become familiar with Willow Creek.  We are so excited to meet you and your children. We will see you on August 11th from 5:00-6:00 pm. 

I’m looking forward to another great year with your students.  Enjoy the fleeting moments of summer and every last minute with your children; that time is precious.

Warmly,

Mary Whitney
Willow Creek Principal

Together we create a lifelong foundation for all students to thrive in a global society. As a diverse learning community, we challenge our students to grow academically, socially, emotionally and physically.

Dear Willow Creek Community,

Welcome back to Willow Creek for the 2021-22 school year! We have proven that we are a very resilient community; a community that sticks together and uses POWER (Persistence, Optimism, We are Flexible, have Empathy, and have Resilience). These soft skills have provided the foundational social-emotional skills to make us stronger, and they will continue to be an important part of our curriculum.  

Our theme this year is BELIEVE. I believe this will be a year of reconnection for us all. I believe it will be a year to get back to our new normal. I believe it will be a year of healing from the pandemic and a year of continuing to do what we do best here at Willow Creek, which is challenging our students to grow academically, socially, and emotionally. I am beyond thrilled to lead Willow Creek and continue its legacy of greatness and look forward to connecting with every one of you. Thanks for humoring me as I continue to ask your names and learn about your families. We look different without our masks!

I am posting our superintendent’s letter along with mine so you will hear straight from him the decisions made surrounding safety protocols. As we continue to receive information, I will update you promptly.

As our district continues with its legacy of excellence and its mission “to inspire every student to think, to learn, to achieve, to care,” our district initiatives remain a focus here at Willow Creek. Inclusive Excellence is a goal, and we work to grow our cultural literacy and eliminate achievement gaps by race. The Professional Learning Communities (PLC) structure is built into our days; it is a culture that is alive and strong where teachers work collectively to discuss data and use that data to drive instruction and next steps to help those below, at, and above proficiency levels. We are also introducing a WINN (What I Need Now) time at each grade level. It is a half-hour instructional block at each grade level to provide extra help or enrichment opportunities for our students.

This year, we will now have the time to help us collaborate with each other in order to grow in each of those focus areas. Cherry Creek Schools and Cherry Creek Education Association agreed to dismiss elementary schools one hour early every Wednesday during the school year to create collaboration time. We will release every Wednesday at 1:45. WCCK is available to help minimize the effect on your schedules at no additional cost for that hour.

We are thrilled to announce two more new staff members here at WCE: please welcome Nicole Abdulgasem to our third-grade team and Alex Rodasti as our Social Worker. They are both coming to us with the highest of recommendations and a wealth of experience from other schools in Cherry Creek.

Communication is key between parents and our staff to stay connected at Willow Creek.  Please read all communications for optimum clarity.

• Our website http://willowcreek.cherrycreekschools.org
• Teachers have individual sites with valuable information
• Weekly Sunday emails (“This Week at Willow Creek” from PTO)
• Accountability, PTO, PASS meetings to stay connected.  Stay tuned for dates/times.

Upcoming Dates:

August 11: Email will go out in the afternoon about your child’s teacher @ 2:00 pm

August 12:  Back to School Night/Meet your Teacher Open House  5:30-6:30. Very informal, just stop by and meet your teacher and see some friends.

August 12: New families including kindergarten families are welcome to come 4:30-5:30 to get acquainted with other families before meeting their teacher at the 5:30-6:30 open house. This is a great opportunity to meet each other informally on our playground!  PTO will make it festive!

August 16:  School for Grades 3-5 Only  

August 17:  School for Grades 1-2 Only

August 18:  School for Kindergarten and ALL Grades  

                   Early Dismissal every Wednesday at 1:45

Please be on the lookout for online registration coming out in early August.  Also, keep your ears open for anybody interested in Crosswalk duty; greeting our students each morning and hearing about their days in the afternoon makes for a fulfilling job!  Please let me know if you are interested in our crosswalk position.

I look forward to a great year serving the community of Willow Creek and am truly humbled to be here. I value a community partnership.

Warmly,

Mary Whitney
Willow Creek Principal

Letter from Superintendent Chris Smith

SUBJECT: Important Update about the Start of School

Dear CCSD families,

I hope you are having a fun and relaxing summer with family and friends. I am extremely excited and proud to take on the role of superintendent this year. Planning is underway for a successful start to the school year in August.

We are just five weeks away from the start of school and I want to share some important updates.

MASKS AND PUBLIC HEALTH PROTOCOLS

Last week, the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment allowed the statewide mandate requiring face masks to expire for most settings, including schools. For this reason, we are lifting mask requirements for all summer programs, except for the Extended School Year (ESY) program, which will still require masks to be worn indoors. While masks will be optional for students and staff in summer programs (except ESY), anyone who is not fully vaccinated is strongly encouraged to wear a mask indoors.

We are also hopeful that masks will be optional for all students and staff when school resumes in August. We are planning for that likelihood but will continue monitoring state and local guidance before making a definitive decision. Even if masks are optional when we return, anyone who is not fully vaccinated will be strongly encouraged to wear a mask while indoors. Our partners at Tri-County Health Department will continue contact tracing positive cases next year and will guide the school district when quarantining is necessary. The school district will no longer have a separate in-house contact tracing team starting next year.

COVID-19 VACCINE

As a reminder, all people who are 12-years-old or older can now receive the free COVID-19 vaccine. If you would like to get the vaccine for yourself or your child, please take advantage of the many vaccination resources listed on our website. The COVID-19 vaccine is the best way to protect yourself, your family, our students and our community from the COVID-19 virus, including more contagious and potentially dangerous variants that are on the rise in Colorado. It is also one of the best ways to keep our schools open. 

If you have questions about the COVID-19 vaccine, please call the Colorado COVID-19 Vaccine Hotline at 1-877-CO VAX CO (1-877-268-2926).

PHASE-IN START

Many of our students experienced trauma during the past year due to the isolation and stress of the pandemic. My goal for next year is to ensure all students have the social-emotional and mental health support they need to transition out of the pandemic and into a successful school year.

To aid in that goal, we will have a Phase-In start to the school year during the first three days of school in August. That means some grades will come to school on Monday, August 16, and some grades will come on Tuesday, August 17. All grade levels will be back in the classroom starting Wednesday, August 18. Please see the following table for details about elementary and middle school dates. All kindergarten students will receive specific information from their schools. High school students will hear directly from their school about the Phase-In schedule.

The goal of the Phase-In is to allow students to have time with their teachers in smaller settings and a more supportive start to the year. Families will receive details about the first week of school from their student’s school by early August.

I will send updates about the upcoming school year throughout the summer. In the meantime, I hope you are having a safe and joyful summer.

Be well,

Christopher Smith
Superintendent