SOUTHEAST CHRISTIAN SCHOOL

Knowing your local choices helps with the following: • Give parents a choice • Leads to student success • Empowers advocacy • Strengthens communities

SCHOOL OF CHOICE

Owner/Publisher JERRY HEALEY

Production Manager ERIN FRANKS

Advertising Design TINA MELTZER

Advertising Sales ERIN ADDENBROOKE

To advertise call: 303-566-4100

The 2021 School of Choice Section is a special supplement of Colorado Community Media, publisher of 24 weekly & 3 monthly community papers and websites reaching over 350,000 readers.

Table of Contents

Page Content

2. SOUTHEAST CHRISTIAN SCHOOL 4. COLORADO SKIES ACADEMY 5. ARAPAHOE COMMUNITY COLLEGE 6-7. STEM SCHOOL HIGHLANDS RANCH 8. AMERICAN ACADEMY 9. ARMA DEI ACADEMY 9. ST. THOMAS MORE CATHOLIC PARISH 10-11. RENAISSANCE SECONDARY SCHOOL 12. ELIZABETH SCHOOL DISTRICT

An Affordable Christian Education

Do you desire to provide your children with a high-quality, private Christian education but are deterred by tuition costs? Through our robust Variable Tuition program, no student at our school pays 100% of their tuition amount. Variable Tuition means that we match your tuition rates to your family’s unique financial position. At Southeast Christian School, we enroll Preschool through Eighth-grade students at only $27 per day on average before any aid is applied. Broken down, this is the same amount that a family of three spends on one fast food meal each day.

Tuition is not a one-size-fits-all-- it’s a range that spans from about 40-88% of the full cost of this high-quality Christian education. We are working tirelessly to keep our students learning in-person in a way that safely meets their academic, spiritual, physical, and mental/emotional needs. There has never been a better time to enroll your child at Southeast Christian School. Come and see what affordable private Christian education is. Come and see what a Christ-focused learning environment can do for your child. Come and see what a difference Southeast Christian School will make for your family. Scan the QR code to schedule your tour today!

for parents and students to survive and thrive COVID-19

Left: As one positive skill, even your kindergartener now likely knows how to use videoconferencing better than you did until just recently.

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Below: Both students and teachers are still fi nding how to best adapt to the pandemic.

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To no one’s surprise, the impacts of COVID-19 on the national education system have been numerous and severe. Just ask Eliott Ewy, a fi rst-grader at Centennial Elementary School, who got quite tired of trying to do her classworth through remote learning in a home with her parents, two brothers and fi ve pets all crammed together day after day. “After the COVID, can we have a party with everyone we know?” she would ask her parents. “After the COVID, can we have a sleepover that lasts for two weeks?” The pandemic’s effects can be quite immediate on a household with children, like the cancellation of birthdays and the sudden conversion of the dining table into a multi-grade classroom, but also more pernicious with the longerterm impacts of learning loss and mental health impacts. Even as the COVID-19 vaccine begins rolling out, and those playdates and birthdays can eventually start happening again, it is important for parents to know how best to respond to the current challenges of this school year.

1Be prepared to shift back to remote learning - Don’t go dismantling those in-home learning stations just yet. Even with the vaccine making the rounds, it won’t be until summer that it will be available to the general public. Colorado’s current COVID-19 numbers are a mixed bag, so even a mild turn for the worst in community infection rates can easily force schools to shut down for at least a few weeks. 2Take advantage of school support programs - All students in the Jefferson County School District are offering free lunch, with remote site pick-up for hybrid and remote learners. In the Douglas County School District, there is a group of more than 40 volunteers who make house calls to any household where students or parents are struggling with the challenges of remote or hybrid learning. Check with your school district, and see what kinds of assistance might be available for you.

3Keep learning loss in perspective - Yes, the last year has been a terrible time for student learning. Multiple surveys and studies show that even heroic measures by teachers and parents have not been able to overcome the drastic disruptions to classrooms since COVID-19 struck. It isn’t all doom and gloom though. For one thing, every current student in the world is in a similar boat. For another, just because learning has been stunted, doesn’t mean it has halted altogether. A Northwest Evaluation Association study in November found that most students are still learning, albeit at slower rates than in 2019. Math learning in particular seems to have suffered. For reading however, learning gains seemed to be in the ballpark of a regular school year. 4Keep learning loss small - Just because every student in America is dealing with the disruption of COVID-19, doesn’t mean every student is equally equipped for it. Making sure your remote or hybrid-learning student has adequate internet and computer equipment. Check with the district about issued iPad or laptop equipment if needed. Ensure students with special learning needs get the extra help and attention they need. If your student has an Individualized Education Plan, make sure to update it with your school to address additional issues that remote or hybrid learning might create for your young learner.

5Find opportunities to keep morale high - Attitude is everything. Whether it’s making sure your kindergartener always logs onto their morning Zoom a few minutes early to say “hi” and chant with their beloved classmates, or bribing your teen to fi nish that writing assignment before noon in exchange for takeout lunch from their favorite fast food joint, fi nd ways to work bits of fun into the daily routine. 6Be willing to look for alternatives - even this deep into the school year, be prepared to change things up if things aren’t working out. That might mean opting to go full remote, or get back into the classroom. It might even mean changing schools or districts. A school requiring your student to be staring at a screen for six hours straight, will defi nitely not work for everyone. Likewise, a school that seems to have given up all attempts at academic rigor during the pandemic might not be a place you want your student to stay.

More than anything, be patient. Be patient with yourself, with the teachers, with your student, with the family dog that keeps eating dropped pencils (my current pet peeve). The levels of stress, isolation and corresponding depression that current conditions have caused is historic. Being sensitive to the mental health toll this has taken on everyone, parents included, can help ease some of the hurt that’s out there, and make the rest of this wild ride just a bit better for us all.