(Click the Translate button above to have this document translated)

Dear Sunset Families,

As we come to Winter Break, I want to extend my deepest thanks to all of you for such an incredible first semester. The welcome and support I have felt as your new principal quickly made me feel like a part of this wonderful community. I love coming to work every day and am proud and honored to serve our school. There is so much that makes Sunset a special and amazing place.

In just the past four months I have had the privilege of seeing:

• Athletes give it their all, cheer on their teammates, and show exceptional sportsmanship,

• The immense fun of Fall Crawl,

• Parents helping at countless functions and supporting students, staff, and programs,

• Daily announcements spoken in English and Spanish,

• Students helping one another in class and in the hall,

• Creative outfits for Spirit Week and Halloween,

• Assemblies where we celebrate, cheer, learn, and laugh,

• Spectacular Music Performance,

• The Kindness Campaign kick-off,

• Vex Robotics competitors making immediate adjustments,

• And so much more…

Thank you for your partnership in making Sunset a safe, kind, engaging, and enriching place for all our Spartans.

I wish you all a wonderful break and look forward to all of our upcoming second semester adventures.

Sincerely,

Alicia Bono; Principal

We'd like to give a special thanks to our Hospitality Coordinator, Paula, our Translator, Janeth and our Technology Administrator, Sam. Thank you for everything this school year!

Have a fantastic New Year!

Your PAC Board, Jennifer, Kady & Nikki

Click to read this week’s full update: https://www.sunsetpac.org/communications/weekly-newsletter

https://www.sunsetpac.org/

The Yearbook Crew for 2025 has been hard at work, making the yearbook vision become a reality. They have submitted their first spreads for the deadline and are quickly organizing for the next deadline, which is approaching. Yearbook also received a Commendation Yearbook award for the 23 - 24 yearbook from the State of Colorado Student Media Association. The crew did receive a rating of All Colorado for their photography skills! Congrats to Yearbook on their continued commitment of excellence!

Our STEM Accelerator program is going strong as we come to the end of Quarter 2. Students continue to build their math skills and engage in STEM challenges which focused this quarter on scale models, building design, lighting, and coding. We loved our visit from guest speaker Officer Mansanares who showed students the many ways that STEM is used in law enforcement. Finally, after participating weekly in CU-Boulder’s STEM Explorer program, we were able to go on an amazing field trip to wrap up a semester’s worth of learning about Astronomy. STEM Accelerator will resume on January 14th. We will continue to meet on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays from 2:30 to 4:10 PM with snack and bus transportation provided at no cost. Please contact Sally Gillett (gillett_sarah@svvsd.org) with questions or if you would like to enroll a new student for next quarter.

Spartanbots took the field on December 14 at SMS against 35 other teams. After months of preparation, every team went through a judge interview, competed in skills, had their engineer notebook evaluated, and worked with other alliances in teamwork matches. This year, the object of the games is to make a robot that can successfully pass a ball back and forth and turn it into a set of four goals. The Cookers placed 9th in skills with an impressive 82 points, which was undoubtedly the highest of any Sunset teams. Glitter, Sparkle, 4,5,6 placed 9th in teamwork competition. The Broken had their highest match with 57 points. Flying Cheese was consistent all day, averaging 18 points for their skills and competitive matches. They will take part in the next tournament on January 25.

Our girls basketball team is currently undefeated with 3 wins under their belt. We are so proud of your hard work, talent and dedication to the team! Keep up the good work. Go Sunset!

These students have reached fluent English proficiency (FEP) according to the St. Vrain Valley School District! The State of Colorado sets a high bar for students to demonstrate English proficiency, which is an incredible accomplishment. This award will help students in high school earn their Seal of Biliteracy and provide them with amazing opportunities in post-secondary education and their careers. Congratulations to all!

• NJHS has been hosting guest speakers to widen their perspectives and learn about all different kinds of experiences and opportunities within our community. This semester, we will have hosted: Richard Peebles, director of SVVSD Safety and Security; Eric Hozempa, CEO of the Longmont Community Foundation; Dave Elchoness and Eve Bonn, creators of The Peter Fund; State Representative Dr. Karen McCormick; Elaine Klotz, development director at The OUR Center; and Harley Whitley and Shawn Stone from the Longmont CORE Team.
• NJHS is running their second-annual Kindness Counts campaign!! For this campaign, we are partnering with The Peter Fund, a non-profit which supports efforts to increase compassion, generosity, kindness, and sportsmanship, especially among young people. This organization is near and dear to Sunset as it was started by Eve Bonn and Dave Elchoness in memory of their late son and former Spartan, Peter. We were lucky enough to have Dave and Eve come speak to our student body about Peter, the organization, and the importance of being kind. During this campaign, NJHS is encouraging students to write our small acts of kindness they see on the Kindness Counts Padlet which will be live on the TVs around the school.

The Dear Edwina play was a total success! Thank you to everyone who came to support our young actors.

In Spanish class the students celebrated 'la once' after listening to a podcast about the daily tea time tradition in Chile.

Please visit the SMS 6th Grade Website for information about 6th grade core classes, including current unit of study, daily agendas, and help with parent access for other online materials. We hope this website gives you an easy way to learn more about what your student is working on in their core classes.

A big thank you to the Humane Society for hosting our 7th grade Reading Champions from Mrs. Chesler's class.

Showing up for school has a huge impact on a student's academic success starting in kindergarten and continuing through high school. Even as a children grow older and more independent, families play a key role in making sure students get to school safely every day and understand why attendance is so important for success in life.

We realize some absences are unavoidable due to health problems or other circumstances. But, we also know that when students miss too much school, regardless of the reason, it can cause them to fall behind academically. Your child is less likely to succeed if he or she is chronically absent. Research shows:

• By 6th grade, chronic absence is a proven early warning sign for students at risk for dropping out of school.
• By 9th grade, good attendance can predict graduation rates even better than 8th grade test scores.

The Student Fee has been added to student accounts in Infinite Campus. To pay the fee online click here for a direct link to Infinite Campus. You may also pay with a check or exact cash in our main office.

If you have any questions pleas call (303) 776 3963.

• Winter break: Dec 23, 2004-Jan 3, 2025
• No Late-Start in January
• Non-Student contact day: Jan 6, 2025
• Martin Luther King Jr Day: Jan 20, 2024