News

Join the Five Star Foundation for a night celebrating a 21st Century Renaissance at the annual formal gala and enjoy drinks, dinner, auctions and more on Saturday, Feb. 25, from 6 to 10 p.m. at Stonebrook Manor, 650 East 124th Ave., Thornton. Karl Fisch, noted author and blogger, will be the guest speaker for the evening.

To register for the gala through Blacktie.com, or for more information, visit www.5starfoundation.org and click on the “Register Now” link. Tickets are $100 per person. For sponsorships, call 720-972-4342.

Adams 12 Five Star Schools anticipates needing to cut between $14 million and $18 million for the 2012-2013 school year. Several factors influence what the final cut will be, including the latest revenue forecasts from the State, the Governor’s budget proposal, action taken by the Legislature, our student enrollment numbers and cost increases for items such as PERA (the retirement system for public employees) and health care.

To learn more about the factors impacting the district's budget, click here.

Public engagement process includes survey and dialogue sessions about the budget

As was the case for setting the 2011-2012 and 2010-2011 budgets, the Five Star District will use a multi-step public process for gathering input on the community's values and priorities as they relate to budget cuts for 2012-2013.

More than 4,000 members of the Five Star community provided input through an online survey open from Feb. 9 through Feb. 15.

The district will then host two dialogue sessions concerning the budget on Feb. 22 and Feb. 23. The dialogue sessions will begin with an overview of the factors that impact the district's budget. Then, participants will work in small groups (8 to 12 people) in which specific budget-related issues will be discussed in greater detail.

To RSVP for the public dialogue sessions, click here. To learn more about the budget process, click here.

The superintendent and district leadership will use input from the public engagement process to help inform its decision-making as it relates to the budget for 2012-2013.

Help a high school student enjoy prom and receive a tax deduction when you donate prom apparel to the Prom Dress Exchange.

Please clean, press and hang any gently worn ladies dresses or men's apparel items and drop them off at the Adams 12 Five Star Schools Educational Support Center, 1500 E. 128th Ave. in Thornton. Donations will be accepted Tuesday, Feb. 21 through Friday, March 2 from 7:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.

The Prom Dress Exchange is open to all high school students with a current school ID on Saturday, March 3, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park, Suite Level, 6000 Victory Way in Commerce City. Selections are provided to students free of charge, but a $10 per outfit donation is appreciated.

Enrico (Rico) Figueroa has been appointed to the Adams 12 Five Star Schools Board of Education. Figueroa is a program manager for The Center for Relationship Education/The Colorado Healthy Marriage Project. He has worked and volunteered with students in various programs that provide tutoring and character development.  

He fills the Director District No. 4 seat which became open when Heidi Williams' resignation was accepted by the board on Nov. 16, 2011. Williams resigned after being elected Mayor of Thornton. The deadline for the board to appoint for the vacancy expired on Jan. 17. Since the board did not reach a majority consensus on filling the vacancy, state statute calls for the board president to appoint a person to fill the vacancy.

Figueroa will begin serving as the board member for Director District No. 4 at the board's regular meeting on Jan. 18.

Students and parents are invited to attend a tuition fair and scholarship panel to learn about ways to pay for college and help finance higher education. Rep. Ed Perlmutter and Rep. Jared Polis will host the open forum fair, in conjunction with College In Colorado, on Saturday, Feb. 18, from 10 a.m. to noon at Pomona High School, 8101 West Pomona Drive, Arvada 80005.  For more information, call 303-274-7944.

An important part of Adams 12 Five Star Schools' ability to address budget shortfalls at the state level has been employees taking a reduction in compensation (salary and benefits).

Certified staff (teachers, deans, Teachers on Special Assignment) in Adams 12 Five Star Schools will take a single "furlough" day for the 2011-2012 school year on Friday, Feb. 3. A furlough day is a temporary layoff from work in which the employee is not paid for that day (reduction in contract year).

Feb. 3 was originally scheduled as a district-wide in-service day in which students are not in class. In-service days are used for supporting the professional development of staff. The furlough day will not impact athletics.

Classified (support staff) and administrative employees will have a normal work day on Feb. 3 and not participate in the furlough day. These two employee groups will begin an additional contribution to PERA (retirement system for public employees) on July 1, 2012 rather than taking a furlough day.

At its Jan. 28 special board meeting/retreat, the Adams 12 Five Star Schools Board of Education adopted three resolutions related to the budget for 2011-2012. You can view those resolutions here.

Adams 12 Five Star Schools Department of Student Services is in the process of destroying all special education records of former students whose birthdays fall between Jan. 1, 1985, and Dec. 31, 1988.  These are not academic records. The records may contain any of the following: IEP’s, psychological reports, achievement test scores, social work summaries and health history.

To obtain a copy of the records on file, please present a written request within 30 days to the Department of Student Services, located at 1500 E. 128th Ave. in Thornton, Monday through Friday from 7:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.  Please include the student's name, date of birth and a current phone number with your request. You will be required to show proper identification before obtaining the file. Any unclaimed records will be destroyed.

Years of substantial budget cuts to K-12 education have Colorado school districts, including Adams 12 Five Star Schools, looking for innovative ways to help drive new revenue. Through the district’s public engagement process for making budget cuts, community members indicated their support for the district pursuing new revenue opportunities, including bus advertising.

Soon the Five Star community will begin seeing district buses with local business partners promoting their products and services while supporting our schools. The program is designed to generate income for schools from exterior Busboards™. The district will approve the ads, making sure they’re appropriate for children and families.

The Five Star District is partnering with Spot On Solutions of Centennial, Colo. and its school bus advertising program. Spot On Solutions anticipates the district could raise up to $10,000 in the first year of the program. The district benefits from revenue generated by the advertisements. The program requires no financial investment or risk as it is a revenue share program.

If you know of a local business that may be interested in supporting its schools and promoting its products and services, you can contact Spot On Solutions at 877-SOS 4 EDU or www.spotonsolutionsinc.com.

Adams 12 Five Star Schools recognizes that some children may benefit academically, socially and/or emotionally from Early Entrance into Kindergarten.  For those students that do not meet the age requirement, the District will take applications beginning December 1st through March 1, 2012 for placement in the fall.

For more information on the application process, please see the Early Entrance Brochure and visit the kindergarten webpage.