Hallett Academy

Community Updates 9/11

Ariel view of Hallett Academy

From the Desk of Ms. D

Dear Hawks Community,

Thank you all for joining for Back to School Night tonight! I hope you enjoyed seeing the amazing things going in your students' classrooms. We had a great time sharing our Hawks' growth and learning with you all!

Fall is right around the corner (even though it still feels like summer outside!) which means cold and flu season is right around the corner as well. Check out our guidelines below on how to determine when your child is too sick to send to school. Remember, every minute in school matters, so if your child has mild symptoms (more info below), they should still come to school!

Warmly,

Ms. D, Principal

“To teach in a manner that respects and cares for the souls of our students is essential if we are to provide the necessary conditions where learning can most deeply and intimately begin.”

- bell hooks, Teaching to Transgress: Education as the Practice of Freedom

📅 Important Dates for Your Calendar

SEPTEMBER

  • Monday, September 22: NO SCHOOL FOR STUDENTS (DPS Non-Contact Day)

  • Monday, September 29: SustainEd Farms @ Hallett

  • Monday, September 29: Picture Day

OCTOBER

  • Thursday, October 9 @ 5 p.m.: Parent Night (More info below)

  • Friday, October 10: NO SCHOOL FOR STUDENTS (Hallett Non-Contact Day)

  • Monday, October 13: NO SCHOOL FOR STUDENTS (Parent-Teacher Conferences)

📷 Monday, Sept. 29: Picture Day

Picture Day will be Monday, Sept. 29. Make sure your Hawk is picture-ready!

👨🏾‍👩🏾‍👧🏾 Thursday, Oct. 9: Parent Night

Mark your calendars for our Parent Night on Thursday, October 9 at 5 p.m.! We will have a Title 1 meeting, plus you'll get to hear from our Community Hub and learn about opportunities to get involved at Hallett! Dinner will be provided.

😷 How Sick is Too Sick? When to Stay Home From School

As we get into cold and flu season, please use the chart below and read the How Sick is Too Sick guide from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE) to help guide decisions around keeping students home and reduce infections at school. Remember that washing your hands is one of the best ways to stay healthy!

Keep your child home or seek care if they:

  • Have a fever of 100.4°F (38°C) or higher.

  • Have vomited two or more times in the last 24 hours.

  • Have a persistent cough, difficulty breathing or trouble catching their breath or if they develop a fever with the cough.

  • Have a rash with blisters that are draining, are painful, look like bruises and/or if a fever develops.

  • Have a sore throat causing drooling, trouble swallowing or a fever and/or rash.

  • Have eye swelling, eye pain, trouble seeing or an eye injury.

  • Have head lice. Children may stay at school or child care until the end of the day but cannot return until after they've had the first treatment.

Send your child to school even if they:*

  • Have a mild cold, which may include a runny nose and/or cough.

  • Have eye drainage without fever, eye pain or eyelid redness.

  • Have a mild stomach ache.

  • Have a mild rash with no other symptoms.

  • Haven’t had a fever overnight and they have not taken fever-reducing medicine during that time.

* If you don’t know whether to send your child to school or have specific concerns regarding your child's health, contact your child’s health-care provider, a local urgent care or the school nurse

❓ Possip Survey Platform

As many of you know, we used a platform called Possip last school year to get feedback from our community! We heard from many of you on topics including communications preferences, support needs, and what you'd like to see at Hallett going forward.

Possip helped us implement your feedback in a timely manner. That's why we're planning to use it again this year! We don't want to overwhelm you with too many surveys, so we've decided to send Possip surveys once a month instead of twice a month.

Our first survey will go out on Sept. 23 - keep an eye out! We look forward to hearing from you.

🌟 Gifted and Talented Screenings

Starting this fall, only 1st and 5th grade students will automatically take part in Gifted and Talented Universal Screening cognitive assessments. Kindergarten, 2nd, and 6th grade students will no longer be tested unless families choose to opt in.

If you want your child in Kindergarten, 2nd, or 6th grade to be tested this fall:

  •  Please click here to fill out the opt-in form (available in English and Spanish) by 9/22/25.

  • If you need the form in another language, click here to download the file. Completed forms can be emailed to giftedandtalented@dpsk12.org or give directly to our Gifted and Talented teacher, Annie Witwer, before 9/22/25.

Please know: this testing is optional and will not negatively affect your child if you choose not to participate. You are also welcome to nominate your child for testing at a later time if that works better for your family. For more information about the nomination process, please visit the GT Department website.

Important: If your child is already identified as Highly Gifted and Talented (HGT) or Magnet Eligible (ME), they don’t need to take this test again. They have already met the qualifying score this test is designed to measure.

The deadline to submit the form is September 22, 2025.

If you have any questions or need help with the form, feel free to reach out to Annie Witwer at awitwer@dpsk12.net.

💗 Parent Survey: Student Social and Emotional Development

As part of our effort to support the whole child, Hallett is implementing a universal social and emotional screening for students.

Universal social and emotional screening can provide a fair and impartial way of looking at how students are progressing in their social and emotional development. Screenings can also help identify areas where school personnel can improve or adjust our supports. This screening is NOT an assessment or an evaluation.

The school staff would appreciate your time in completing this survey. The link is below:

https://review360connect.com/Prod/DenverPublicSchools/Parent

Please complete the questionnaire above by Friday, October 31, 2025.

The survey is 29 questions and will take approximately 10 minutes to complete. You will need your child’s six-digit student ID. Only one survey can be completed for each student.

We appreciate your assistance as we work together to educate and support your students!

🔎 It's Not Too Late To Register for Discovery Link!

Our Discovery Link program offers FREE before and after school enrichment for our Hawks! Sign your child up to join us! We offer homework help, STEM activities, arts and crafts, dance, healthy snacks and more.

You can sign your child up for Discovery Link here. If you have questions, please contact Ms. T at anntoinette_hackney@dpsk12.net.

Discovery Link hours are as follows:

  • The before school program starts at 7 a.m.

  • The after school program ends at 5:30 p.m.

  • The ECE Little Links before school program starts at 6:30 a.m.

  • The ECE Little Links after school program ends at 6 p.m.