A Message from the Director

Hello, CSA Community!

Celebrations

We have so many things to celebrate: increasing our staff for the 2021-22 school year, accomplishments of our learners, and more! Our Star Search was very successful, and we have been able to find an additional math teacher (a chemical engineer) to join our CSA team! We had such an awesome team of learners, parents, staff members and board members participate in the process! It was amazing! We will have more Star Searches, providing more opportunities to be part of this important CSA event.

Our learners are preparing Flipgrids of their Presentations of Learning (POL), which will allow parents and guardians to view their learners’ POLs. This also allows learners to see each other’s work across grade levels while maintaining grade-level distancing. Learners in grades 7 and 8 who wish to do so can submit their Flipgrid to National Public Radio (NPR) for their podcast competition. One of our 8th grade learners, Patrick Adamson, is part of a team of 6th-8th grade learners selected to design and send an experiment to the International Space Station. The launch date is June 2021!

Academic Progress

Our interim assessment, Measures of Academic Progress (MAP), just closed on Friday, February 26. We will send the Student Profile home with your learner this week so you can see how your learner has grown since our last assessment in September. 

As I am sure many of you are aware, the Colorado Measures of Academic Success (CMAS) assessments will be conducted across the state in April. CSA always intended to participate in CMAS, as we have never taken CMAS. This is an important milestone in our school. We hope every learner will join us in CSA’s first opportunity to participate. It is important to know how well we are doing as a school, regardless of the outcome. CMAS will provide important information to guide our continued curriculum development and refinement, ensuring we are providing quality instruction for our learners. I encourage every learner to consider participating in CMAS. The dates are as follows:

  • CMAS Language Arts: April 6, 7, 8
  • CMAS Mathematics and Science (grade 8 only): April 13, 14, 15

Learner Special Events

On Friday, April 16, CSA will be in session the entire school day to provide the additional instructional time needed to meet the required hours and days of instruction for the year. As a celebration of the conclusion of CMAS and doing what is needed to meet the state’s requirements, the learner-inspired school dance will be on April 16! 

Looking Forward to Fall 2021

Enrollment is in full swing, with our goal of having between 300 and 325 learners attending CSA in the fall of 2021. Currently, we have 267 learners signed up and ready to attend! 

It truly is an exciting time to be part of Colorado SKIES Academy!

Warm regards,

Suzanne Acheson
School Director

Colorado SKIES Academy
Colorado SKIES Academy is a free public charter school authorized by the Cherry Creek School District, open to students throughout the Arapahoe County and Douglas County areas. This STEAM middle school serving grades 6-8 is located at Centennial Airport next to Wings Over the Rockies Exploration of Flight.
Colorado SKIES Academy

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