PTA

Apple Campaign

We’re $10,000 away from unlocking the Apple Campaign Match! Have you donated yet? 

We’re so close! If we can raise $10,000 from the UPARK community, we’ll be able to unlock the $20,000 match opportunity* and reach our overall fundraising goal. 

If we can get 50 new families to each donate $200 next week, we’ll hit our goal on the nose. 

To put that into context, we’ve collected 125 donations to date, which represents a modest percentage of the 394 students who attend University Park. Asking for an additional 50 families to step forward is doable and would make a tremendous impact. 

Here are some tips to help us raise more: 

• Ask your employer about matching: We’ve seen several employers match parent donations this year. Just email uparkpta@gmail.com for assistance with any corporate matching forms.
• Ask grandparents and/or close family members: There are many grandparents and family members who have donated on behalf of students already. Don’t be afraid to ask and let them know how this money benefits your child’s education (smaller class sizes, reading intervention, full-time specials (art, music/drama, PE), and paraprofessionals in younger classrooms).

Ways to donate: 

Every donation size counts and there are many ways to donate:

1. Go to http://bit.ly/apple-upark to donate via CheddarUp 
2. Send a Venmo @uparkpta
3. Mail or drop off a check at the front office Attn: PTA Apple Campaign
4. Make a stock transfer (just email uparkpta@gmail.com to find out how)

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to email uparkpta@gmail.com. 

*A very special thank you to the Nielsen ($5k), Stallworthy ($5k), Trujillo ($5k), and Winn ($5k) families for supporting this matching effort!

One of the scariest things about Halloween is ALL THE PLASTIC! 

Each year, more than 600 million pounds of candy are purchased for Halloween in the United States alone and most of it is wrapped in tiny plastic wrappers. The UPark Green Team is excited to announce that we will be doing a candy wrapper recycling program with Rubicon again this year to help address this plastic problem. Please bring your CLEAN AND EMPTY candy wrappers to be recycled at school in our Rubicon Trash or Treasure Wrapper Recycling Box. 

With Rubicon’s Trash or Treasure recycling program, the plastic is melted off the wrappers and made into pellets to be made into new things. Watch how here!   

Please bring your clean and empty wrappers to school for recycling between Wednesday, November 1st and Friday, November 10th.

Complete the DPS “Your Voice/Tu Voz” Family Survey!



The DPS “Your Voice/Tu Voz” Family Survey opens next week on Wednesday, Nov. 1 and will close Wednesday, Nov. 15. Families who complete the survey between Nov. 1-15 will be entered to win one of 10 $20 King Soopers gift cards! Responses to the survey inform decisions on how we can better serve our DPS community, so we want to hear from all our families. Unlike previous years, DPS will administer the survey to families once in the fall and will administer to students once in the spring. Click here to see last year’s survey results.

Fall Book Fair- November 6th-10th

The Book Fair is next week 11/6-11/10! The Library will be open for shopping before school from 8:00-8:50am and after school from 3:50-5:30pm daily with extended hours (3:50-6:30pm) on Thursday for Multicultural night. 

There are still several opportunities available to volunteer here! 

Please contact your student's teacher if you would like them to shop during school hours. Students can shop with cash, credit card, check, or e-wallets. 

More information and e-wallet links can be found here.

Student Council Toiletry Drive

UPark Student Council is hosting a toiletry drive from Monday, November 13th- Friday, November 17th. Bring in items like toothpaste, toothbrushes, shampoo, bar soap, deodorant, laundry detergent, and diapers.

Drop off items in the boxes near the office or the library. 

All items will go to The Action Center, a nonprofit organization that provides low/no cost household items and goods to those in need.

Thank you!

Fall Grounds Beautification Day!

With the leaves changing color and starting to fall, it is time to turn to raking. Please join us Saturday, November 11th from 9:00am to 12:00pm (drop in or stay as long as you want) to clean up the UPARK grounds! We will rake leaves, pick up trash, weed, and do general cleanup. Students are encouraged to come along and lend any assistance that they are willing to provide. We are also looking for anyone with a pickup or trailer to volunteer to haul leaves to the compost site.

We will be borrowing some supplies from the School District, but supplies are limited this time of year, so some things that you may want to bring if you have available:

• work gloves
• rakes or leaf blowers (note electric ones can be difficult accessing power near where the leaves are)
• leaf bags - you can obtain a pack of these free from ACE with a coupon. Get Your Coupon Here!
• Trucks or trailers to haul leaves to the Veteran's Park leaf drop (only 1.5 miles away)

Please reach out to the PTA Grounds Chair Andy Yara-Zelenski at yaraski@gmail.com with any questions. 

November 15th - Restaurant Day at Park Burger - Pearl 

From 11am-9pm, Park Burger on Pearl will be donating 15% of UPark sales back to our school. For all orders (dine-in/phone orders/online), please mention or use promo code UNIVERSITY23.

Lunch, dinner, and maybe a late night snack to end the day? They have fantastic burgers, salads, fries, and shakes! We're partial to the "Getting Figgy Wit It", but am tempted to try the "Birria Burger" this time.

2023-24 African American Young Ladies Summit (AAYLS)

The 2023-24 African American Young Ladies Summit (AAYLS) Program invites African American ladies in third-grade through college to a full day of empowering and exciting activities on Thursday, Dec. 7 from 9:30 a.m.-1:30 p.m. at the Colorado Community Church (14000 E Jewell Ave., Aurora, CO 80012). 

The agenda includes career exploration, overcoming racial barriers in society, Afro-beauty, community engagement and financial stability, health, leadership, worth of love and confidence. See the event flier here. If you have questions, please email Dr. Plashan McCune at higherlearningu@gmail.com.

UPark Garden Updates

Hello UPark community. We need your help to keep the garden growing!!! Over the last 3 years, we had tons of fun with scaling up the garden to create a space for experiential learning, collaboration, and connecting to nature. We have been growing food and beautiful plants that are shared with the students and our broader community. We have created a few programs to engage the kids hands on in the classrooms by planting seeds, pulling weeds, and harvesting/tasting the produce directly from the garden. We are looking for your support to transition the leadership of the UPark garden to the next generation of parent leaders so we can continue to increase the garden impact in our school. The following 3 opportunities will allow us to have both leadership transition and a robust support mechanism. To apply for a role in the garden, click here. 

If you have questions or would like to learn more, please contact, Ralitza.Arafin@gmail.com  

Garden Leader - the head of the garden

• represents Garden at PTA meetings
• owns the Garden strategic vision, budget, and calendar
• benchmarks with other elementary school gardens on most effectives ways to engages kids in the garden
• coordinates farmers markets setup
• sends out social media and email updates to school distribution list
• contacts/arranges for volunteers to work in the garden during open garden hours in the summer

Gardening Guru - the expert with horticultural knowledge who determines what crops to plant and when to harvest.

• Supports Garden Leader
• Sets and executes the planting and harvest schedule... determines what crops to plant and when to harvest advises on soil quality and enriches the soil as needed
• coordinates/schedules garden engagements with teachers and sends out lesson reminder emails to staff

Garden General Volunteer – core team member who pitches in when opportunities arise

• on the garden mailing list
• signs up to volunteer in the garden, for Farmers markets, or in the classroom when needs arise

Enrichment Registration Is Open!

Registration for enrichment classes opened THURSDAY, OCTOBER 26th at 6am and ends THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 9th at 10pm. Click here for course offerings and registration instructions.

Fall Enrichment Classes end the week of November 6th.

Winter Session runs from Monday, DECEMBER 4th- Friday, FEBRUARY 23rd

SCHOLARSHIPS ARE AVAILABLE. Please contact the main office at 720-424-3410 or email alexis_matter@dpsk12.org to request.

UPark Owl Ticket Students

Congratulations to this week's Owl Ticket students! They were recognized by their teachers for above and beyond positive behavior.