HELIX FEED

Today is Black History

Today is Black History… and every day and every month prior to this one. It has been said that Black History IS American History, yet American still excludes this history and that of others from the architecture of this great nation. That is because greatness like history is told only from the perspective of the victor…not the victim. As Chimamanda Adichie says about the Single Story, “the way to possess a people is to begin their story with secondly”. Begin with the colonialism of Africa and not with the great dynasties, Kings and Queens that ruled. Begin with Alexander the Great defeating Hannibal of Cartridge and not with Hannibal crossing the Alps on Elephants and being too far from home before meeting Alexander. Black History does not begin with slavery in America nor with the enslavement of Africans. It is up to everyone to truly celebrate Black History by learning the truth about Black history as told by Black people in Black books.

Favorite Books of 2020

Thank you to everyone who shared your book recommendations over the past few weeks! Without further ado, we'd excited to present your top titles of 2020!  

You'll see that we have linked to their dedicated page on the Denver Public Library catalog (with a couple exceptions) so you can learn more and place an easy (and free!) hold on these must reads. 

Happy First Week Back at School!

Across the network, students excitedly returned to our buildings this week. Despite the understandable nerves and anxieties, there were so many joyful moments captured at all of our schools. Not to mention living out the values of Respect and Integrity when following our very important safety guidelines! Please enjoy a few snapshots from our first week back! 

Celebrating Center Program Staff: GVR MS

As we all head back into buildings for our first week of in-person hybrid learning, we continue to recognize the Center Program staff who have been in our buildings serving students for some time already! Join us this week as we step into the Raptor Den at GVR MS.  

Tired of being muted, Colorado kids are starting their own conversations on mental health and racial justice

Colorado Sun: 

Important Vaccine Updates

You likely saw last Friday that Governor Polis shared his decision to move educators to the top of the vaccine prioritization list beginning February 8th.  Over the weekend, we learned from Denver Public Schools that they have secured more than 20,000 doses through a partnership with Children’s Hospital.  This will ensure that all DPS educators, including those in charter schools, will have access to the vaccine in the next 3 weeks.  Vaccinations will begin on February 8th.  We are thrilled!

A Day in the Life of Hybrid In-Person Learning

We are previewing with families some of the guidelines students who are attending in-person can expect on a typical school day, and we wanted to share these with staff as well. While you can find all of this information in the Safe Schools Field Guide, this post pulls out high level items including what a day will look like on our campuses including social distancing, sanitizing, transitions and meal times. 

DSST: Elevate Northeast Drive Through Parade

Denver7: DSST: Elevate Northeast is welcoming the founding class with sweatshirts and yard signs at a drive through parade on January 27!   

Quarantine Protocols & Communicating COVID Incidents

We’ll be sharing with families this week some important safety procedures we have in place to ensure that our community stays safe, healthy, and informed. This includes our quarantine guidelines and communications to expect if there’s a COVID incident at your school, and this important information also applies to staff. While many of these details can also be found in the Safe Schools Family Field Guide and on our 20-21 School Year Updates page, we would like to bring your attention to these key items, as they are essential to ensure a safe return to school.

Returning to School & DEI

As we prepare for our Return to School, it is not lost on anyone in the DSST network what staff, students and families have had to endure and grapple with since schools closed in March. Every known and ignored inequity surfaced all at once: health, economic, social justice, racial, gender, sexuality, technology, and food to name quite a few. In addition, mental health, wellness, and trauma  (specifically racial trauma) further illuminated and exasperated how far our nation has come and how far we still have to go to achieve a society where "all are created equal...with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness". As COVID-19, the Black Lives Matter Protests, the Presidential election, and the attack on our nation's capitol has shown us, we are a nation divided across every aforementioned inequity and more. This "new  Civil Rights" movement as it was called during the summer and the "Third Reconstruction" as it is called now, informs us that we are living in a time that most assumed and/or hoped we would never have to experience.