Cory Caregivers,
We had a great week at Cory! Our students and staff continue to bring wonderful energy, learning, and joy to our school community.
We are especially excited for Field Day next Friday! We are looking forward to great weather and an amazing day planned by Mr. C for our students. Here is the schedule:
Field Day Session I – Grades 1–3: 8:45–10:45 a.m.
Field Day Session II – Grades 4–5: 1:00–3:00 p.m.
A reminder that there is no school on Monday as our staff will be participating in a professional development day. We will be excited to welcome everyone back on Tuesday!
Exciting news, Cory families! Selected from more than 700 applicants, Cory has been awarded the opportunity to bring Disney’s Finding Nemo to life with our 4th and 5th graders! Our staff team - Rachael Elias, Matt Davis, Michelle Shamis, and Maddie Sherrill - can’t wait to help students explore their creativity, build confidence, and shine together. We’ll share more information with families in December. Student activities begin in January, with performances planned for May. We’re excited to begin this adventure with you!
Warmly,
Joan and Anna
IMPORTANT DATES:.
September 24 - October 8 - October Count
September 28 - No School for Students - Teacher Work day
October 1 - Field Trip 4th & 5th Grade Ballet
October 2 - Field Day
October 2 - PTA Meeting @ 8:30
October 5 - BESS Fall window Opens
October 7 - Bike & Walk to School Day
October 12 - No School for students Fall Conferences for Parents
October 15 - CSC meeting at 4:00 Library
October 18 - PTA Fall Carnival
Attendance Awareness Month: Every Day Matters!
At DPS, it is our collective responsibility as leaders, educators, families and community members that our students not only succeed, but thrive. One critical component of ensuring our students’ success is identifying and removing barriers that keep our students from coming to school each day. When students are not at school, they not only miss out on valuable learning opportunities for the time they were absent but they can experience long-term impacts that hinder their development in reading by the third grade, achieving in middle school and graduating from high school.
Chronic absence is missing 10% or more of the time enrolled in school due to absence from any reason, including arriving late, leaving early, excused and unexcused absences, and suspensions. Missing 10% of school is approximately the equivalent of missing two days per month.
We care about our students and want to see them each day! If your child is experiencing obstacles that keep them from attending school, please let your school know. Schools may reach out to a family to learn about why a student was absent. This is to ensure that they identify relevant and specific resources to connect families to.
Attendance Resources
How Sick is Too Sick?
At the start of the school year and when returning from breaks, it’s common for students to get sick. The Attendance webpage provides guidance on when to keep children home if they aren’t feeling their best and when to send them to school
If your child is too sick to come to school, please either call the school’s front office or submit an online absence by following the steps in this guide (PDF).
Planning Ahead with Calendars
Access the Cory Calendar to plan appointments and vacations around important days to ensure you child does not miss valuable learning opportunities.
Did you know you can save time by letting us know that your student will be arriving late, leaving early, or absent? You can use your DPS Parent Portal account to use this new feature. Visit myportal.dpsk12.org to sign up, or to check that your account is active and ready.
Access the 2026-27 school year calendar to plan appointments and vacations, ensuring your child does not miss valuable learning time.
The return to school also means the return of germs. Visit the Attendance website and one-pagers in multiple languages for guidance on when to keep your child home and when to send them to school.
CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR STUDENTS OF THE WEEK for the week of September 22nd!
Thank you for showing our Cory Kindness Values. Go CORY COUGARS!
Values: Caring - Responsibility - Inclusiveness - Respect - Integrity - Courage
1st Grade | 2nd Grade | 3rd Grade | 4th Grade | 5th Grade |
Ahmed R. Gigi W. | Tatum B. Sullivan D. Rory K. | Rassya M. Abdul I. Blaike P. | Zion C. Marshaun B. Mila H. | Zuzu L. Nomi B. Fiona A. |
Transportation -Share My Ride k-12 Video
DPS Transportation is committed to providing essential technology for parents. The My Ride K-12 app is exactly that. With this app, parents can see when their students scan on and off the bus, view route details and receive late bus notifications. To better serve our community and help parents set up the app, please see this instructional video for the My Ride K-12 app
Safety and Security For Parent Volunteers - Raptor Sign in
ID Requirement: When visiting the school, it is required that all families bring a government-issued ID. This is to help us verify identity and maintain a secure environment for our students. You will be required to enter your information into the DPS system in the main office when you are visiting the building. This process takes a few minutes so give yourself plenty of time.
The Raptor system has an App and Passport that you can download to make the process more streamlined once your ID is verified. Here are the instructions on how to set up the Raptor application and the passport: .
PTA NEWS
As a reminder, if you haven't already, please join the PTA! Membership is only $15 for an individual and $30 for a couple, and helps support our students, staff, and families. No volunteering is required, and joining the PTA is a great way to stay informed about what's happening around the school. Sign up here.
If you are unable to join at this time, but would still like to receive our newsletter, please subscribe here.
VOLUNTEERING
Thank you for your interest in volunteering with Denver Public Schools! Background-checks are required to volunteer. Please log into the link and fill out the form for the Background check to Volunteer at Cory. Background Check
Social-Emotional Success at Cory:
The Behavioral and Emotional Screening System (BESS) Social Emotional FALL 2026 screener is now OPEN! Parents and guardians, please complete this for your student, we conduct this screener 3x per school year and these results inform decisions regarding behavioral and social emotional supports for students at school. *** 1st-2nd grader parents are REQUIRED to complete the BESS parent screener for their child. 3rd-5th grade parents are highly encouraged but not required to complete the BESS parent screener.
Questions about the BESS? Click here: https://ess.dpsk12.org/o/studentequity/page/dpsscreening
Link here to complete your child's screener: https://review360connect.com/Prod/DenverPublicSchools/Parent/
Thank you for your participation in supporting our students’ social and emotional well-being!
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!
Unit 2: Self-Awareness - Value of the month is Caring
Student Equity Experience
We are looking for parent volunteers to come and read diverse and inclusive books to represent a variety of cultures and backgrounds as a part of our Student Equity Experience! If you are interested in being a volunteer reader for your child’s class or another class, please Dojo or email Ms. Wilberg at rachel_wilberg@dpsk12.net. Thank you!
Student Equity Experience
We are looking for parent volunteers to come and read diverse and inclusive books to represent a variety of cultures and backgrounds as a part of our Student Equity Experience! If you are interested in being a volunteer reader for your child’s class or another class, please Dojo or email Ms. Wilberg at rachel_wilberg@dpsk12.net. Thank you!
Suicide Prevention - Passive Consent
4th-5th Grade DPS Safety & Suicide Prevention Programming: The following programs are district-wide and implemented to support student's mental health and overall well-being. The programs are implemented by school psychologists and social workers.
4th-5th grade students will receive the 10-15 minute presentation on Safe2Tell, a CO-state anonymous safety reporting system. To learn more about Safe2Tell, please visit https://safe2tell.org/
5th grade students will receive three lessons in the month of October using a curriculum called Erika's Lighthouse. Erika's Lighthouse is a developmentally appropriate program that covers the difference between everyday feelings vs. overwhelming feelings and promotes good mental health and help-seeking. Erika's Lighthouse takes a preventative approach. To review the lesson, please visit https://erikaslighthouse.org/familyengagement/.
Parents/ Guardians, please review the parent facing suicide prevention training, and take the survey. Please note, this content is very different from what our students will be discussing at school.Training: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1McXPiMInCo1tdCj79fJCfzd5xw3Nexe7dwPHHgQbyQc/edit?usp=sharing. Post-survey: https://forms.gle/5hYQTTjPQMvPPAA3A
If you have any Cory-specific implementation questions or concerns, please reach out to Rachel Wilberg, our school psychologist, at rachel_wilberg@dpsk12.net. You also have the option to EXEMPT your child from participating in any of the above programs. If you DO NOT want your child to participate in the suicide prevention programming, please indicate so by signing and returning this form below. If we do not receive an OPT-OUT form or email from you by Friday, October 2nd we will assume you are choosing to have your child participate in the programming with his/her/ their classmates. Link to opt out: https://forms.gle/cegiSey6furwJQEx8