Posted October 3, 2025
Cory Caregivers,
All DPS families received a message on October 3 with information about their students’ attendance percentage. This comes from the DPS Communications Department and not from Cory. We are committed to keeping accurate track of when your child is here with us in school and when they are not. Thank you for calling the attendance line to let us know when your child will be absent. There is a newly updated DPS Attendance Webpage with more information, including ‘How sick is too sick’ information. This includes information around what we can all do to support strong student attendance.
Thank you to the Cory community for providing us with extra professional development days to work and learn together as a staff.
Congratulations to the Cory Student Council members of 2025:
Sadie H, Adelaide K, Des G, Caroline G, Jacob S, and Madison C
A big round of applause for these students and all the other fifth graders who took the risk to run for the Council this year. We hope you continue to share your voice and be role models for everyone at Cory, as well as in the future!
CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR STUDENTS OF THE WEEK for the week of September 29th! Thank you for showing our Cory Kindness Value of RESPONSIBILITY. Go CORY COUGARS!
Mental Health Corner:
What is TSEAL? Transformative Social Emotional Academic Learning
“Transformative SEAL” is a process whereby young people and adults build strong, respectful, and lasting, relationships that facilitate co-learning to critically examine root causes of inequity, and to develop collaborative solutions that lead to personal, community, and societal well-being.
This form of TSEAL is aimed at redistributing power to promote social justice through increased engagement in school and civic life. It emphasizes the development of identity, agency, belonging, curiosity, and collaborative problem solving
It’s critically important that school wide TSEAL implementation intentionally nurtures an environment in which educators gain social and emotional competence by learning, collaborating, and modeling their social and emotional skills. Along with these social and emotional skills, schools must also fold in conversations about race, ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, language and ability so that the conversation about TSEAL takes into account the student’s fullest identities. It is recommended that schools do a deep dive into understanding how educators, students, and community can navigate conversations about race, sex, gender, ableism and other social identities in order to establish systems and supports that strengthen both adult and student Social Emotional Academic Learning.
Come along on our Cory TSEAL journey!
GT Corner –
Advanced Learning Goals 25/26
At this point, all ALP’s have been drafted in conjunction with both the student and their teacher. ALL ALPS HAVE BEEN SENT. If you have not received it, please reach out immediately to me at summer_de-herrera1@dpsk12.net to have it resent!
Please note, these goals are all made in conjunction both with your student,myself, and their classroom teachers. We hope that you will provide feedback on these goals so that all of us can partner together to make these goals as successful as possible for your student. I will ask that all feedback on goals are submitted no later than October 6th for grades 4-5 so that I can finalize all goals in our system. Grades 1-3 were due on the first. If there is any last minute feedback, please also reach out immediately. I am beginning to finalize our 1st-3rd students ALPs and you will receive a formalized ALP in the upcoming weeks!
Events for Families of Gifted Students:
October 7th – Understanding the GT Identification Process & Equity in Identification:
Understanding GT identification pathways for the sake of equity for all DPS communities and your child’s potential. Register Here: tinyurl.com/GTFamilySeries2025 Join Here: https://tinyurl.com/GiftedFamilySeries2
CORY GARDEN NEWSLETTER
September 2025
News From the Garden
It has been a very “fruitful” month in the Cory Garden since students returned to school! We have already hosted four Farmers Markets, with two more still to come. So far, our students have harvested nearly 500 pounds of produce—including lettuce, kale, chard, carrots, tomatoes, peppers, squash, eggplant, cabbage, herbs, beans, peas, raspberries, lavender, zucchini, and potatoes—all of which are sold at the Farmers Market.
Over the summer, our partner Grow Local Colorado cared for the crops, harvesting produce and donating it to the Jewish Child and Family Services Food Pantry.
During September, 299 Cory students each spent 30 minutes working in the garden. They harvested crops they had planted as seeds last April, prepared produce for the Farmers Market, cared for the soil, and even learned about decomposition.
This week, students were invited into the garden to create their own personal flower bouquets before the upcoming winter freeze (see photo above). They enjoyed the fresh air, sunshine, freedom to express their creativity—and a little lemonade to celebrate their colorful creations.
As fall continues, our students are helping to gently put the garden to rest: digging up the last carrots and potatoes, harvesting the remaining chard and kale, and picking the final tomatoes to sell.
Cory Chickens ��
Our unique flock is settling in nicely! Most hens have matured and are now laying eggs daily, which are also sold at the Farmers Market.
The chickens especially love visits from students, who bring scraps from the cafeteria and garden to enrich their diet. This flock is the most social and talkative group we’ve ever had—they love us, and we love them right back.
A little chicken trivia:
Q: What unusual way do chickens take a bath?
A: They roll in the dirt!