Posted August 29, 2025
Cory Caregivers,
We hope you’re having a wonderful week! Just a reminder that there will be no school on Monday.
We are so pleased with the strong start to the year—our second week has been filled with consistent rituals and routines that help create a safe and caring environment. This supportive space allows our students to engage authentically with both their hearts and minds.
We look forward to continuing to build strong partnerships with all of you to ensure that every child at Cory can grow, thrive, and succeed.
Thank you for your ongoing support!
CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR STUDENTS OF THE WEEK for the week of August 25th! Thank you for showing our Cory Kindness Values. Go CORY COUGARS!
Safety and Security For Parent Volunteers – The Raptor Sign in
ID Requirement: When visiting the school, we kindly ask 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 entering your information into the DPS system in the school when you are working or in the building from now on. This process takes a few minutes so give yourself plenty of time.
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!
What is the BESS? The Behavioral and Emotional Screening System (BESS)
The BESS Social Emotional FALL 2025 screener is OPEN! Parents and guardians, please complete this for your student, we conduct this screener 3x per school year. NEW! 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. Thank you for your participation in supporting our students’ social and emotional well-being!
Link here: https://review360connect.com/Prod/DenverPublicSchools/Parent/
Do you hear that? Band is BACK at Cory! Stop quietly listening to music and start MAKING YOUR OWN! In our twice weekly Band class, you will learn everything you need to start making your own music. After Band you’ll… know how to read the secret language of music; you’ll learn to play flute, clarinet, saxophone, trumpet or trombone; you’ll have performed on stage with your best friends; you’ll
have the skill to make music yours.
Band is open for all 4th and 5th graders; if you’re back for your second year of band, sign up for
Intermediate Band. Band Class is before school in the Cory Auditorium, from 7:15-8:10am. Band starts 9/8 for Beginners and 9/16 for Intermediates. Email or message Jason at jasonolneymusic@gmail.com // 208-339-4090
GT Corner
Hello Cory Cougars!
I wanted to take a quick moment to briefly introduce myself to the parents and guardians of our prodigious Cougar family. My name is Summer De Herrera, Ms. Summer to your students, and I am the new Gifted Teacher here at Cory and your contact for all things GT!
A super quick background, introduction to me. I have had the luxury of working in the gifted role both in a cluster classroom as a fourth grade teacher, as well as a center based Discovery ⅚ teacher for 5th and 6th graders whom were HGT. I currently serve locally on the SoMe CAGT (Southern Metro Colorado Association of Gifted and Talented) board, working to provide access to community resources throughout Littleton, Sheridan, and Englewood communities.
What does GT support look like this year?
This year, you can look forward to a variety of support throughout the year for both you and your GT/HGT student(s). Some of the biggest supports include;
As we begin this year, I am so very excited to begin this partnership with all of you. If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to me at any time! summer_de-herrera1@dpsk12.net
