January 20, 2026

Dear Legacy Academy Community,

I hope your 2026 has started off great. The students seem to be doing well, and I was pleased to see the high number of middle school students on the Honor Roll.

With our new mission and vision statements also came our new 3-word ethos: Character, Community, Excellence. One of the ways we continue to strive for excellence is by getting community survey feedback on a variety of things. I understand it takes a little time, and almost all of us are very busy. We hope you will be able to respond to the surveys that you receive in the coming months, as this helps us get a broader understanding of opinions and ideas. Every person’s thoughts are important, and a high rate of response helps us get an accurate picture of parent, teacher, and/or student views.

Thanks in advance for taking time to respond. We truly value your thoughts as we pursue excellence for this fantastic community.

Sincerely,

Merlin Holmes

Education is for improving the lives of others and for leaving your community and world better than you found it. - Marian Wright Edelman

Attached you will find a hyperlinked flyer for our Class & Sports Picture Day. Click anywhere on the picture and it will take you directly to our online ordering page. You can also access the online ordering portal by going to www.mymjthomas.com and entering our event code (Event Code C968). You can also print this order form and attach a check or cash and bring it in on picture day!

Athletes should bring their athletic gear to school for team and individual pictures.

We could use some donations and volunteers for our R.O.A.R. Store happening now!

R.O.A.R. Store Sign Up

Now that we are back into the swing of things, we wanted to remind our bus rider families of a few things:

• If your student rides the bus in the afternoon, please make sure to email any changes to the front office (Office@legacyk8.org) and your student's teacher no later than 2:30pm. For example - if you are changing your student's NORMAL routine for the afternoon and need them to go to carpool or after care, please inform us as soon as possible.
• We also need to be sure the bus leaves Legacy on time to make its connections to the neighborhood buses. A lot of last-minute shuffling creates confusion and can create a bit of chaos. Please take a moment every morning to remind your student about their after school activities - sports, clubs, after care or how they are getting home (carpool or bus).
• We are unable to accommodate other students going home with bus riders at this time.
• Student safety is our priority and we want to make sure they are where they need to be, when they need to be there. We have a lot of students to keep track of at the end of the day and we want to ensure that they all get home safely and in a timely manner.

There are still openings for the Minecraft session that starts the week of January 26th.

Monday Minecraft Form

Wednesday Minecraft Form

Grab your sneakers and join us for an evening of friendly completion and quality time with your mom (or special adult) on January 24th from 3-5pm. If you would like to be a judge for this event and help setup please email vickey.harjo@legacyk8.org

Thank you to Reilly Fredell, Amanda Stephenson and Laura Ensign for volunteering with various events and Jessica Kost for your donation to Legacy. We couldn't do it without your help.

On Wednesday, January 14, 2026, ESD held the district spelling bee at Elizabeth Middle School. This year's bee consisted of ten superb spellers who started off learning a list of 160 new words in the fall where they had to place in the top three in their school's spelling bee to advance to the district bee. These students received a list of another 160 new words in mid-December and had a month to study on their own to prepare themselves for the district bee. After 49 rounds of spelling and almost exhausting the complete list of words, the top winner in this year's district bee is Kolten McCaslin from Legacy Academy. Kolten will now represent ESD in the first round of the state spelling bee being held on February 19th. It consists of an online spelling/vocabulary portion. There are over 250 students from across the state competing in the state spelling bee and only 15 to 20 students will advance to the oral portion of the state spelling bee taking place on March 7, 2026, at the University of Denver. Good luck, Kolten!

Our district participants this year were:

Elizabeth Middle School

Analise (AJ) Jones, 8th grade

Sadie Erbert, 7th Grade

Tobi Trewin, 6th grade

Adelaide (Ada) Heirendt, homeschooled, 3rd place

Legacy Academy

Kallie McCaslin, 4th grade

Kolten McCaslin, 6th grade - 1st place

Emma Cerasoli, 5th grade

Running Creek Elementary

Kreiionn Ferrolino, 4th grade, 2nd place

Jaycee Best, 3rd grade

Ethan Briggs, 4th grade

Written by Jeff Maher, ESD Communications

Student Council will partner with the Elizabeth High School Make-A-Wish program again this year. We will offer a Dress of Choice on Monday, January 26th for $2. All proceeds will go to Make-A-Wish. Also, the Student Council will be raffling two stuffed animals. Students may purchase raffle tickets the week of January 26th during morning carpool. Tickets are $1 each. The winners will be announced during morning announcements on Jan 30th. Every child deserves moments of joy, hope, and imagination- especially during life’s toughest challenges. You may make a donation of any size to this cause.

Wish Week Events (Jan 23rd-31st)

Theme: Cruisin’ with Lex

Friday (1/23)

• Hunter’s Legacy & Brave the Shave (EHS)

• Player Check-in @ 5PM

• Starts @ 5:30PM

• McDonald's Dinner Night

Saturday (1/24)

• Canes (Castle Rock) Dinner Night (4-9pm)**MENTION ELIZABETH HIGH SCHOOL**

• Dutch Bros (Castle Rock)

Sunday (1/25)

• Jac's Dinner Night

Monday (1/26)

• Spirit Day: $2 Dress of Choice

• Panda Express Dinner Night

Tuesday (1/27)

• Chick-fil-A Dinner Night

Wednesday (1/28)

• DQ Dinner Night 5-8pm

Thursday (1/29)

• Fox’s Pizza Dinner Night

Friday (1/30)

• 9am Closing Assembly

• TCA 6 Pack @ EHS

• McDonald's Dinner Night

Saturday (1/31)

• Texas Roadhouse fundraiser 11am - 5pm

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Follow https://www.instagram.com/elizabethwishweek2026/ for updates on EHS Wish Week including which restaurant locations are participating.

Ready to make a difference Legacy Academy Charter School Families?

When you sign up for Kids Heart Challenge, you’re helping students build healthy habits, learn lifesaving skills, and create stronger, safer communities.

PLUS: the cutest way to remember healthy behaviors starts here, collect them all! → Sign Up HERE

Kick off assembly will be January 26th!

Is your child a master builder in the making? We are thrilled to announce the launch of our new after-school LEGO Club, a space for students to imagine, engineer, and create!

This session is designed to foster creativity, problem-solving, and teamwork through a mix of structured building challenges and creative free play. See the flyer for more details.

Lego Club Flyer & Permission Slip

The LAST Nerf Night of the school year will be February 7th from 5:30- 8:00pm. The cost is $15.00 per person.

Nerf Night is for Legacy families only. Participants must be 7 and up (6-year-olds may play if a parent is in the gym with them). This is an excellent time for families to play together. Parents are invited to play as well. Bring your own blasters to the event (we do not provide blasters). Students may not bring their blasters to school during school hours. Do not bring darts or discs. Protective eye wear and darts are provided. Parents will be required to sign a waiver prior to this event; no exceptions will be made. Come enjoy a fun night with your Legacy friends and family.

Attached please find the Nerf SignUpGenius for parents to sign up to volunteer or donate concession items. We will need help setting up, tearing down, and judges. Any parents that donate food or time may apply it to your volunteer hours. Double your volunteer hours. ($10 in donations = 1 hour of your time. Double it for your donations.

Doors will open at 5:30. Players/parents will not be permitted in the building until 5:30 unless you are helping set up. Parents must come inside and sign the 25-26 waiver.

To host Legacy family events, we rely on parent volunteers, please sign up to help set up, tear down and monitor our students to assure a safe and fun Nerf Night. It is easy and fun to volunteer. Thank you to the many volunteers, we cannot do it without you.

SIGN UP LINK

Calling all photos for our yearbook collection!! We need your photos! Please make sure you select the correct event when submitting your great event photos.

Yearbook Photo Upload Link

Use the code to buy tickets and support the Elizabeth Education Foundation!

Jan 13: LABOD Meeting 6pm

Jan 15: Middle School T.W.I.X. Assembly 8:15am

Jan 16: 5th Grade Field Trip to Ameritowne, 6th & 7th Grade Field Trip to International Towne, 8th Grade Field Trip to Cave of the Winds, Kinder Shape Pizza Day, $2 Dress of Choice

Jan 19: No School - MLK Day

Jan 22: Assembly: K-5th R.O.A.R. Assembly 8:15am, Winter Sports Parent & Student Meeting 5:30pm

Jan 23: Class Pictures/Winter Sports Pictures, All School Make-A-Wish Assembly 2:30pm, No Dress of Choice

Jan 24: PTCO Mother & Son Dodgeball Event 3pm

Jan 26: Kids Heart Challenge Kick Off Assembly 2:15pm, $2 Dress of Choice for Make-A-Wish

Jan 27: 7th & 8th Grade Band at the Capitol, LABOD Meeting 6pm

Jan 29: All School Dress of Choice

Jan 30: No School - Teacher In-Service

Feb 3: Kindergarten & First Grade 100th Day of School, PTCO Meeting 5:30pm

Feb 6: Middle School Winter Dance 5:30pm

Feb 7: PTCO Nerf Night 5:30pm

Feb 10: LABOD Meeting 6pm

Feb 11: All School Dress of Choice, 8th Grade Parent Night at EHS 6:30pm

Feb 12-13: No School- Spring Conferences

Feb 16: No School - Presidents' Day

Feb 20: Middle School Dress of Choice

Feb 24: LABOD Board Meeting 6pm

Feb 27: All School Dress of Choice

Feb 28: PTCO Father/Daughter Dance 5:30pm

Mar 3: PTCO General Meeting 5:30pm

Mar 5: PTCO Science Fair 4pm

See more events and club schedules HERE