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Liberty Common Elementary School
Phone:(970)482-9800
Fax: (970)482-8007
OfficeHours:7:50-4:00
Attendance Line:
(970)482-9800,option2
Common Knowledge,
Common Virtues, Common Sense
A National Charter School of the Year,
A Nationally Recognized Blue Ribbon School,
A Certified Official Core Knowledge Site School,
A John Irwin School of Excellence, and A Gilder Lehrman Affiliate School
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September 24-October 8|
*October Student Count-state funding is based on attendance during these two weeks
October 7|
Fall Festival, 5:30 p.m., Liberty Common Elem. School.
October 7|Chess Club
October 10|5th-6th Grade Alcohol Education Night, 6:30 p.m.
October 10|November Lunch Calendars Due. No late calendars accepted.
October 14|Chess Club
October 14|Liberty Common Talent Show, 6:30 p.m.
October 20|BOD Mtg., 6:00 p.m.
October 21|Chess Club
October 21|Liberty T-Shirt Day
October 21|End of 1st. Quarter
October 24|Public Information Night, 6:30 p.m.
October 28|No School, Parent Teacher Conferences.
October 31|Character Assembly- Responsibility.
October 31-Nov. 4th|Liberty's Annual Canned Food Drive
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October Count
All public schools in Colorado receive funding from the state based on the number of students attending their school. It is critical your student be present during the October-count period. The count occurs Sept. 24th-Oct. 8th. If your child will be absent for more than two days in a row during this time period for reasons other than an illness, please contact the office for an official document to sign.
It is crucial your student attends school on October 5, Official Count Day so we may continue delivering quality education and extracurricular programming. The importance of attendance on October 5 cannot be overstated.
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Public Information Nights
Do you know anybody interested in sending their kids to Liberty (either campus); or just learning more about the school's history and philosophy? Please urge them to attend our Public-Information Night, October 24, 2016. from 6:30-8:30PM in the LCS Gym. This is an informative presentation for all parents wanting to know more about why we teach what we teach, and why we do what we do. For hopeful families waiting on the Liberty lottery list for any grades K - 11, attending one of these presentations puts you into the "upper tier" of those waiting for the next open-enrollment spot.
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Job Opening
Elementary Homework Booster Paraprofessional.
Click Here for job description and needed qualifications.
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Registered To Vote. Students, parents, graduates, and friends of Liberty can stop in to register or update voter-registration information, at LCHS. The high school address is 2745 Minnesota Dr. and all are welcome.
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Happy 20th Birthday to Liberty Common School.
It has been 20 years since Liberty Common School was taken from a dream to a reality by our amazing Founders. To celebrate, we would like a new header for our school-wide Monday Notes, (the publication that you are currently reading) and we would like for one of talented Liberty students to design it.
The contest is open to all K-6 students. Artists are encouraged to use any medium(s) in their design. Please submit artwork to Jill Ronen at
[email protected]
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Attention Parents,
We have made a date change to the 5th and 6th grade Dessert Theater. The original date was May 5th and 6th and we have changed it to
April 28th and 29th.
CLICK HERE for updated calendars
Major Dates
2016-17 Calendar
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- Parent/Teacher Conferences-Oct. 28
- Thanksgiving-Nov. 23-25
- Winter Break-Dec. 26-Jan. 6
- Martin Luther King Day-Jan. 16
- Professional Development Day-Feb. 17
- Presidents'Day-Feb. 20
- Spring Break-March 13-17
- Good Friday-April 14
- Last Day of Classes-1/2/Day May 26
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Mark Your Calendars and Show Your Liberty Pride on T-Shirt Days:
- Oct. 21st.
- Nov. 18th.
- Dec. 22nd.
- Jan. 27th.
- Feb. 24th.
- March 31st.
- April 28th.
- May 19th.
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Board of Directors
You may contact all members of our Board of Directors at [email protected]
or by telephone:
- Patrick Albright: 232-8257
- Joel Goeltl: 593-8556
- Paulette Hansen: 282-8455
- Denise Benz: 420-4184
- Aislinn Kottwitz: 217-5925
- Kelly Notarfrancesco:
- Jeff Webb: 545-9636
Next Board of Directors Mtg.,
October 20, 2016,
Liberty Common Elementary
6:00 p.m.
 In an effort to keep students safe during drop-off and pick-up times, please refrain from using cell phones. The front, middle and back drop-off and pick-up areas are designated NO CELL PHONE AREAS.
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Family Directories Now Available in Front Office
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Exciting Changes to
The Clothes Closet
- Please bring in GENTLY worn uniform approved items.
- Items can be dropped off ONLY on Thursdays or Fridays.
- Sizes 4t- 14 accepted.
- Stain free, no holes, rips, or tears.
- Freshly laundered
- Thank you for your generous donations!
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Family Fun Fall Festival Friday
Meal and Ticket Form Deadline Extended to Tuesday, Oct. 4th. at 3:00 p.m.
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Liberty families, our annual Fall Festival is this Friday night,
from 5:30pm - 8pm. J
oin us for pumpkin decorating, hayrides, games, crafts, bounce houses and more! Skip the cooking and order ahead for dinner to be waiting! Liberty's own family, the Becks, own and operate Fort Collin's
Panino's restaurant, will again be offering wholesome and delicious meals for all to purchase.
CLICK HERE for a
meal and ticket order form. Meals must be pre-purchased by
Oct. 4th, at 3:00. This event always requires the commitment and support of numerous volunteers.
CLICK HERE
to volunteer for Fall Festival Activities.
We hope to see you there.
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On Saying No 
By: Bob Schaffer, LCHS Principal
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Parents probably have no idea how many requests we get from researchers to study our students at Liberty Common School. We nearly always say no.
We certainly do not wish to be uncooperative when it  comes to legitimate research about public-education methods and outcomes. On the contrary, there are profound lessons to be divined through analysis of our students, their families, our instructors, our pedagogy, curriculum, instructional habits, and organizational leadership.
Enticed by consistently high achievement throughout all grades, many researchers, graduate students, dissertation writers, and government officials want to track our students, staff, and management practices. It's wholly understandable.
There are, no doubt, scalable practices that could arm lots of other American students with the same academic advantages our students acquire by attending Liberty Common School. But saying "yes" almost always consumes too much time.
In an ambitious school setting like ours, time is a rarefied commodity. We pack every available minute with either classroom instruction, or preparation for classroom instruction such as lunchtime, recess, study halls, etc., depending on the student's age.
In his book "How to Fly a Horse: The Secret History of Creation, Invention, and Discovery," author Kevin Ashton tells the story of a Hungarian psychologist who asked famous innovators to be interviewed for a book he was writing about successful people. Fully a third of them said no.
One notable written rejection came from management guru Peter Drucker who wrote, "One of the secrets of  productivity (in which I believe whereas I do not believe in creativity) is to have a VERY BIG waste paper basket to take care of ALL invitations such as yours - productivity in my experience consists of NOT doing anything that helps the work of other people but to spend all one's time on the work the Good Lord has fitted one to do, and to do well."
Well, Liberty tends not to reply to research requests in the terse terms of Drucker, but we are just about as resolute in waiving them off. In addition to time consumed by such projects, we are duly concerned about the privacy of student data.
We're wary of outside requests that could expose personally identifiable data. We're even cagey about the growing demands from the local, state, and federal government agencies for personally identifiable student data, which, when requested, is always framed as being needed for wholesome research and data analysis.
Nonetheless, we're pedants chiefly for maximizing student time on task. In fact, we work to preserve it with unabashed jealousy.
According to Ashton, "Time is the raw material of creation. Wipe away the magic and myth of creating and all that remains is work: the work of becoming expert through study and practice, the work of finding solutions to problems and problems with those solutions, the work of trial and error, the work of thinking and perfecting, the work of creating. Creating consumes. It is all day, every day. It knows neither weekends nor vacations. It is not when we feel like it. It is habit, compulsion, obsession, vocation. The common thread that links creators is how they spend their time."
As leaders and parents of one of the Colorado's, if not the nation's, most successful primary and secondary schools, we know this. We are confronted with all manner of distractions from both within the school and from countless outside interests.
We know how to say no, and we are rather accustomed to the stinging reactions we sometimes get when telling well-credentialed researchers to go away, despite our typical efforts to be kind and explanatory in the rejection.
Ashton makes his point perhaps best with a particular  Charles Dickens quote in which Dickens rejected a friend's invitation. It's too good to not use here.
"'It is only half an hour' - 'It is only an afternoon' - 'It is only an evening,' people say to me over and over again; but they don't know that it is impossible to command one's self sometimes to any stipulated and set disposal of five minutes - or that the mere consciousness of an engagement will sometimes worry a whole day... Who ever is devoted to an art must be content to deliver himself wholly up to it, and to find his recompense in it. I am grieved if you suspect me of not wanting to see you, but I can't help it: I must go in my way whether or no."
Saying "no" sometimes makes us seem insulated, unpleasant, indifferent, possibly arrogant. But it is usually a proper response that ultimately empowers our students to say "yes" to a far brighter future of academic success, intellectual prosperity, and personal liberty.
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Be A Part of Gala Fundraiser
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Pink Bags are back! This is an easy way to help the school on your own schedule! The Gala is Liberty's annual fundraising social event. The event has grown into a fun evening that hosts about 500 guests and we've started to prepare for the big night. Many hands make light work, so if you have the opportunity to complete a simple project at home, come get a pink bag in the front office today. We've filled the bags with all the materials you'll need to complete the project, an instruction sheet, and an example of a finished piece. The projects are simple and can be done in a few minutes on your own schedule. When you've finished the project, just put it back in the pink bag and bring it back to the school.
Thank you, in advance, for your help!
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News from Our Music Departments
ATTENTION LIBERTY COMMON ELEMENTARY STUDENTS:
Do you have a special talent you'd like to let shine? Can you sing, juggle, dance, tell jokes, play an instrument, bend yourself into a pretzel... or ANYTHING else you can imagine? Then come and show off your stuff at this year's LIBERTY'S GOT TALENT! Sign-up spots for auditions are in the hallway across from front office.
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LIBERTY HIGH SCHOOL FALL MUSICAL 2016. Join us on November 11 and 12 for the classic show Guys And Dolls. Tickets will be available for purchase soon, check the Monday Notes each week for more information.
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 Sports News by Dan Knab, Liberty Common Athletic Director
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This Week in Jr.-High Sports:
The regular season is coming to an end for our jr.-high athletics. The cross country team has had an impressive year running against Poudre School District Middle School cross country teams. The district championship meet is this Saturday at Fossil Creek Park starting at 9:30am. The 7th and 8th grade volleyball 'B' team tournament is also this Saturday at Estes Park Middle School. The tournament schedule will hopefully be emailed out to volleyball families tomorrow. The 'A' team playoffs start next week. The jr.-high soccer playoffs also start next week.
This Week In Jr.-High Sports:
Boy's jr.-high soccer
Monday, 10/3, 4PM, vs Weld Central
Tuesday, 10/4, 4pm, @ Weld Central (Keenesburg)
Wednesday, 10/5, 4PM, @ Frontier Academy (Greeley)
7th-grade girl's volleyball
Monday, 10/3, 4PM, @ Platte Valley (Kersey)
Wednesday, 10/5, vs Eaton
8th-grade girl's volleyball
Monday, 10/3, 4pm, vs Platte Valley
Wednesday, 10/5, 4PM, @ Eaton (Eaton)
Cross Country
Wednesday,10/5, 4pm, @ Fossil Creek Park (**New Time)
Saturday, 10/8, 9am, @ Fossil Creek Park (District Championship)
This Week In High-School Sports:
Men's Soccer
Tuesday, 10/4, 4PM, vs Estes Park HS
Thursday, 10/6, 4pm, vs Frontier Academy
Women's Volleyball
Tuesday, 10/4, 4:30PM, @ Strasburg HS (Strasburg)
Thursday, 10/6, 4:30PM, vs Sterling HS
Cross Country
Saturday, 10/8, 10AM, @ Brush HS (Patriot League Meet)
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Liberty Common Athletic Boosters
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Liberty-2-Liberty 5K Costumes
Mrs. Natalie Scarlett, Amber Kranz, Sydney Reinke, Taylor Reinke, Ryan Green, and Mrs. Jeanie Bradley.
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The Liberty-2-Liberty 5K ran this past weekend, and participants had a blast. Special thanks to all of our sponsors: Neenan Archistruction, Reichert Real Estate, Team Green, Domino's Pizza, The Women's Clinic of Northern Colorado, Duo Designs, and Liberty Common Schools Athletic Booster Club.
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Easy Ways To Show Your Support
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Happy
Monday
Liberty Common families. The back to school rhythm of packing lunches, snacks, driving carpool, homework and after school activities sure makes for a full schedule. This mama of four busy kid's sure understands. That is why I like Box Tops so much. It is an easy way to help our school. Just Buy, Clip, Send, Earn. Last school year we earned $1304.80! Way to go! The little things can sure add up to a lot. A few details for you new families and a refresher on how this works for you veterans. Step 1-buy participating products. Step 2-cut out those cute little squares. Please remember to check those expiration dates! Step 3- send them to school.
Ziploc bags work great!
There is drawer in the front office. Look for the sign. Smile as you drop them off, you helped our school. My team will take care of the rest. One more detail, all Box Tops that are turned in by
Oct. 26th
will be counted for the first check written to Liberty. Happy clipping.
Every little bit helps,
Jeanne-Marie Siegfried,
Liberty Common Box Top Coordinator and parent volunteer
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