Don't Forget - Multicultural Night is TODAY!

Multicultural Night is TODAY, November 9th from 6-8pm at UPark! Bring an appetizer, entree, side dish or dessert that represents your family heritage for our International Potluck! Celebrate the diversity of the UPark Community and enjoy international food, fun and entertainment! Questions? email uparkpta@gmail.com

• 6:00- 7:00 Dinner
• 6:30 - 7:00 International Games for kids
• 6:40 - Mrs. Ritz "Elementary Learning in other Countries vs American Schools"
• 7:15 - 7:45 Persian Dancing Performance & Learn to Dance Persian!

We need volunteers to make the evening a success! Please volunteer here!

PTA

Book Fair

There is still time to shop at the Book Fair! The Fair will be open with extended hours from 3:50-6:30pm tonight! You can also shop tomorrow before school (8:00-8:50) or after school 3:50-4:30 for all families (enter through main doors) and 4:30-5:30 for Discovery Link families (enter through Discover Link doors). 

Join the Auction Committee

The UPark Auction Committee is seeking new members! The auction committee plans and implements the annual University Park fundraising auction, including procuring items, organizing the auction website, marketing the event, and planning the parents night out and live auction. Participation on the auction committee is a great way to build community here at UPark, and have fun in the process! If you are interested in participating, reach out to Auction Chair Courtney Bishnoi at courtney.bishnoi@gmail.com. 

Thanksgiving Food Baskets

Please complete this form if you'd like to receive a food basket from the Monaco South Optimist Club. The food baskets will be delivered Saturday, 11/18 between 8:30am and 11am. Please complete 1 form per family. Form must be completed no later than Friday 11/10 to be included.

UPark Art Update

Ms. Cassie from the main office will be filling in as art teacher until she goes on maternity leave! Cassie is a licensed sub with the district and is excited to use her art background to support students in the classroom. Cassie has experience teaching in ECE and Special Education and we are so happy that she is able to support our owls in this capacity!

For any attendance notifications or other office questions, please begin sending them to alexis_matter @dpsk12.org and kathleen_riddle@dpsk12.org.

UPark Spirit Store Now Open!



We are excited to offer the UPark community an opportunity to purchase branded gear! We have revamped the store with new items and designs. Click here to access the store.

The store is open for orders now through Sunday, November 26. A few things of note:

• In order to receive your items in time for the holidays, you must have orders in no later than November 26. We anticipate receiving orders the week of December 11.
• All sales are final and orders will be delivered to UPark. Pick-up logistic details will be provided in early December.
• A minimum number of each item is required in order for the company to fulfill that particular item. In the case a minimum is not met, the item will have to be canceled, and you will be notified.

We will begin taking orders again in the Spring and hope to have new items available for purchase.

Please reach out to sales@wearepromosapien.com with any issues or questions related to the store website. Katie Hartung (malone.hartung@gmail.com, 303.829.5425) or Kelli Kelsall (kelli.e.kelsall@gmail.com, 303.775.7921) are available to answer other questions, take suggestions of items you’d like to see in the future or receive feedback on current items. Go Owls!

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.

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.

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!

Kindergarten and 1st Grade Performances

All Kindergarten and 1st Grade Students and Families, please join us on Thursday, December 7th in the auditorium for our dance performances and The Share Bears musical! The performance schedule will be as follows:

5:00-5:30 p.m. Ms. Morof’s Class

5:45-6:15 p.m. Ms. Gilmore’s and Ms. Hale’s Classes

6:30-7:00 p.m. Mr. Davis’s and Ms. Gutierrez’s Classes

7:15-7:45 p.m. Ms. Laurent’s and Ms. Eno’s Classes

Please arrive 15 minutes prior to your student's performance time and enter through the main doors on South Saint Paul Street. After dropping students off in their classrooms with their homeroom teachers, families may find a seat in the auditorium. Please reserve the chairs for adults and have children sit on the floor in front of the stage. Students will meet their families outside the rear auditorium doors immediately following the conclusion of the performance. Please proceed to view the visual arts show outside the gym. We ask that everyone exit through the doors to the staff parking lot on East Iliff Avenue to help us with the flow of traffic in the building. 

Each student has been assigned dialogue to be memorized at home. Copies of the scripts were sent home in students' Thursday folders on November 9th. 

Students may dress up for their performances (think Picture Day.) They will be given bear hats to wear on stage as well as kazoos that they can keep afterwards. We can't wait to see you all on December 7th and we appreciate your support of arts education at U-Park!

Prospective Family School Tours

Our amazing PTA will begin giving prospective families tours of UPark starting 11/15. If you have friends or neighbors that are looking for an outstanding school for their kiddos let them know about our school tours. See the dates below and visit the UPark Tour webpage for more details.

• Wednesday, November 15th at 9:30am
• Friday, December 8th at 9:30am
• Wednesday, December 13th at 2pm
• Tuesday, January 16th at 9:30am
• Wednesday, January 17th at 2pm
• Friday, January 19th at 9:30am
• Tuesday, January 23rd at 9:30am
• Wednesday, January 24th at 2pm
• Friday, January 26th at 9:30am
• OPEN HOUSE Saturday, January 27th 10am-noon
• Monday, February 12th at 9:30am

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.

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 Closes Today!

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.