Park Hill School

Panther Pages

Park Hill School 5050 E 19th Ave., Denver CO 80220

Happy Friday PHE Families,

I hope you and your students had a great first week.  Students (and adults) can have a wide range of emotions this first week.  We try to work with each student to help them get through this first week successfully.  We are excited this year to have Cat Sennott and Emily Ward, our school psychologists, both with us full time to help students and staff who need a little extra support.  Please reach out to our team of teachers, staff, or administration if your student needs something extra as we start up the year.

Thank you for your partnership in making this first week a success.  Overall, things ran relatively smoothly, students were engaged and joyful, and our families were collaborative in supporting our school community - all of this despite the heat! I’m also very appreciative of the efforts our staff made to ensure a great first week back.  We are a community, and I am grateful for all of you.  A few quick reminders to everyone: 

  1. This week I saw so many families biking/walking to school, and Kiss and Drop is open and staffed by 5th graders and Ms Jenna.  Please leave a few extra minutes to allow time to park if you’re not utilizing the Kiss & Drop.

  2. The cafe opens at 7:45 am for breakfast.  Please walk your student to the cafeteria door at that time and hand off to a staff member.  We encourage parents to stay and eat with their child if they can.  The outside grounds are supervised starting at 7:55 am. Students should not be left unattended prior to that time.

  3.  If you have any questions, please reach out to your student’s teacher. You can also find Ms Bixby and me outside each morning and each afternoon.  Please stop by and say hi or bring concerns and questions to us!

  4. Please no dogs on campus this year. This is a DPS-wide policy for health and safety reasons, and we ask families to abide by the rules. Even the best behaved dogs can sometimes bump into some of our smallest students unintentionally.

Hoping you have a relaxing and enjoyable weekend. We will see you back here on Monday. 

-Ken Burdette, Principal

Special Visitors at Park Hill

Mayor Mike Johnston, Superintendent  Alex Marrero, and DPS Board Members Carrie Olson and Scott Esserman visited the school and students on Monday.  They said hi to several classrooms and staff members.

You can watch the video of their tours on Monday here on Youtube (Park Hill starts at 0:38 seconds into the video):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YiiqeEmAL1I

PHE Special Visitors

Meet Delaney Hurst our New Speech Therapist

Dear Families,

Hello! I would like to welcome you to a new school year and introduce myself as the Speech Language Pathologist (SLP) at your school. This will be my 6th year serving the DPS community! I will be at Park Hill Elementary School Monday-Friday with part-time hours. My schedule consists of daily interventions, meetings and often traveling to other schools. Leaving a voicemail or sending an email are the best ways to contact me.

What to know:I am involved in supporting children who have an Individualized Education Plan (IEP) that has service time and goals for speech/language. I will be following the IEP to support their communication skills in the educational environment.

More Information can be found here: English / Spanish

School Hours

School Hours: 8:10 am-3:10 pm

Lunch Menu

schoolcafe.com/DPS

Upcoming Dates

Sept 2- Labor Day (No School)

Sept 17-18 - Student Photos

Sept 27- Professional Learning Day (No School)

October 10-14 - Fall Break (No School)

Nov 25-29 - Thanksgiving Break (No School)

December 23- January 6 - Winter Break (No School)

2024/25 DPS Calendar

PHE School Calendar

Connect with the PTSA:

Facebook
Insta
Delaney Hurst
PTSA

How to Volunteer

Did you know all PTSA activity is volunteer driven? Now is the time to consider ways to get involved to make 2024/25 a great school year!

Below is all the committee info for you to consider, explore and possibly even express interest in! Please reach out to the current committee chairs themselves or to board@parkhillptsa.com with any questions.

 

Auction 

Co Chairs - Rolf Eisinger and Lana Cordes

Event date - March 14th, 2025

Email - auction@parkhillptsa.com

Do you like to party? If so, volunteer to make our largest fundraising event a success. First auction committee meeting takes place in early fall, so please join if you have interest in learning more.

Super Mega Awesome Dance Party (SMADP)

Co Chairs - Megan Dye, Madelyn Reid and Shannon Spezialy

Event Date - Late April/Early May

Email - SMADP@parkhillptsa.com

DANCE PARTY… Come join the Super Mega Awesome Dance Party Committee in planning our annual student let fundraiser. 

School Beautification 

Co Chairs - Rachel Taber, Natalie Schnall, & Maria Goldstein

Help keep our school beautiful year round by assisting in clean up before events, landscaping needs, etc.

Restaurant Night Out

Chair - Rachelle Reese 

Event Date - Year round

Email - RNO@parkhillptsa.com

Assist in reaching out to local businesses for restaurant night out opportunities.

Yearbook 

Returning members - Nina Le and Carolyn Pauls

Event Date - year round

Email - yearbook@parkhillptsa.com

Do you like digital layout? Help collect and organize pictures submitted via google drive and create the layout for the yearbook. 

Safety

Chair - Maria Goldstein

Event Date - year round

Email - safety@parkhillptsa.com

Help make our school a safe place for our students and staff!

Staff Appreciation 

Chair - Sarah Robinson

Event Date - year round, Staff Appreciation Week is May 5th - May 9th

Email - teacherappreciation@parkhillptsa.com

Love on our staff! Assist in Staff Appreciation Week and make our staff feel our love throughout the school year. 

Back to School Social Committee

Chair - Sara Labadie and Madelyn Reid

Event Date - week before school starts

Email - vp@parkhillptsa.com

This committee will be responsible for planning and executing New Parent Happy Hour and Back to School Social events.

New Parent Happy Hour - socialize with new PHE families, staff and PTSA members at a neighborhood restaurant. 

Meet Your Teacher - Families are invited to meet their new teacher, explore their classroom and socialize with friends at our Back to School Social.

Sponsorship

Chair: Ben Seymour

Event - year round

Email: sponsorship@parkhillptsa.com

Help offset expenses and engage and recognize our community partners!

Communications

Chair: Mollie Meeks

Event - year round

Email: socialmedia@parkhillptsa.com

Help spread the word about our school, our events and fun engaging updates! New ideas welcome too!

Book Fair

Event - Nov- Jan

Email:  board@parkhillptsa.com

Coordinate with a book seller and school to run the fair, and coordinate book delivery if needed. We tried a new partner, The Bookies, this past year and are open to that same partnership or new ideas!

We’re Bringing SEXY Back!

Pizza, that is!

Just a reminder that Monday, August 26th is our first Restaurant Night Out (RNO) with Sexy Pizza.  Sexy Pizza Park Hill (2846 Fairfax St.) is donating 15% of all the day's sales (11am to close), merchandise, and gift card purchases to Park Hill Elementary. Order pickup or delivery on August 26th and 15% of your order will go to our school! Find the menu and place an order at https://sexy.pizza/menu/.

SexyPizzaLogo

Park Hill Weekend at the Rockies

Get your friends, neighbors and family together to enjoy a game cheering on our Rockies! A portion of all ticket sales will go back to the school. One of our easiest fundraisers that also doubles as a great social and community building activity!

Get your tickets here!

Things to Remember

  • Join or renew your PTSA Membership 

  • Set-up Cashback programs: King Soopers and Give Backs

2024 - 2025 PTSA Calendar

  • Monday, Aug 26th: Restaurant Night Out at Sexy Pizza - 15% of total daily sales will be donated to PHE

  • Monday, Sept 9th: First PTSA meeting at 5:30pm in PHE library

  • Sept 13th - 15th :  Park Hill Weekend at the Rockies ($5/ticket donated to PHE)

  • Friday, Sept 20th: Coffee with Ken at PHE playground

  • Thursday, Oct 21st: Screen Sanity Parent Night (more info to come)

  •  Friday, March 14th, 2024: The Park Hill Elementary School Auction!

PTSA Contacts

President

Shannon Spezialy 

president@parkhillptsa.com


Vice President

Courtney Swearingen

vp@parkhillptsa.com


Secretary

Lisa Sarno 

secretary@parkhillptsa.com


Treasurer

Gregg Cassarini 

treasurer@parkhillptsa.com


Helpful Links

  • PTSA Website

  • Join the Park Hill Elementary Directory!

  • Join or renew your PTSA Membership

  • Follow us on Instagram & Facebook @pheptsa

  • Set-up Cashback programs: King Soopers & Givebacks



Important Dates:

RNO @ Sexy Pizza: 8/26

PTSA Meeting: 9/9

Coffee with Ken: 9/20

Rockies Weekend: 9/13 - 9/15

Direct Giving & Movie Night: 9/20

About Us

The Park Hill PTSA is a volunteer-based service organization with two goals:

  • Bridge the gap between school and home by building community.

  • Raise funds to cover educational necessities that the district (DPS) does not cover. In addition to covering costs to better the school itself, our efforts in fundraising support essential school workers and programs that benefit our teachers and children. 

We’ll continue to provide more “what we do” information in the coming weeks and as the school year gets rolling! In the meantime, you can contact us at the addresses on the right, or click on the QR code to learn more:

PTSA QR
PHERockies