Hello Steck Families,

Happy New Year! We hope you enjoyed a restful and joyful winter break and are feeling refreshed as we begin the year together. January is an exciting time at our school as we return to routines, set new goals, and continue supporting our students’ academic and social growth.

As we begin this new year, I’d like to share a brief update. My final day serving as Interim Principal will be January 14th. I am grateful for the opportunity to support our school community during this time. Beginning January 15th, Mr. Ken Burdette will step fully into his role as our principal. 

We are excited for this new beginning and grateful for your continued partnership and support.

A Reminder About Personal Items at School

Following winter break, we have noticed an increase in personal items coming to school, including cell phones, smart watches, and toys (such as 3D-printed figures and Labubus). We understand many of these items were recent gifts and are exciting for students to share. However, their presence at school has begun to impact learning time, recess and lunch routines, and has led to items being misplaced or going missing.

To help support a focused and safe learning environment, we kindly ask families to partner with us by:

⋅ Encouraging students to leave personal devices and toys at home, or if brought to school, to keep them          stored in backpacks throughout the day, including during recess and lunch

⋅ Ensuring all personal devices are turned off during school hours

⋅ Helping students understand that toys and personal devices can be distracting and are best enjoyed at home

Please know that our school has security and communication procedures in place during the school day to ensure student safety and timely communication with families if needed. If you need to reach your child during the school day, we ask that you call the main office, and messages will be delivered promptly.

Thank you for your continued support in helping us maintain a safe, focused, and positive school environment for all students.

Important Calendar Dates
Please mark your calendars:

Assessment Day:
Friday, January 23, 2026
(Please refer to the additional note below for details.)

Spring Conference Day:
Wednesday, February 11, 2026
Conferences are by invitation only and will be held from 3:00 PM – 6:00 PM.

Comp Day for Conferences:
Friday, February 13, 2026
There will be NO SCHOOL for students or teachers.

Thank you for your kindness and support during my time at Steck this year. I wish you all the best, as I return to retirement. Your children have truly touched my heart! Stay warm and have a wonderful weekend!

Warm regards,

Mrs. Klava

Teresa Sena Klava
Interim Principal
Steck Elementary

We are gathering information to help us project enrollment numbers for the 2026-2027 school year. Please answer the following questions to assist us with this planning. Please fill this survey out for each of your children. Please complete the enrollment survey through this link:  Enrollment Survey for 2026-2027

Dear Steck Families,

As we start the 2026 half of this school year, we are taking a different approach to attendance and proactively working to make sure all of our students come to class on time and remain in class for the full day, every day. Regular attendance not only builds students’ ability to follow daily routines but also is important to their personal, social, academic and emotional development. DPS has prioritized student attendance as one of the top initiatives, and our Steck Attendance Team is rolling out a comprehensive strategy to decrease chronic absenteeism and improve student attendance overall! 

In years past at Steck, individual classrooms were in competition to achieve the highest overall attendance percentage each month. Classes were awarded a traveling trophy and a coveted bulletin board spot for a class photo. The Steck attendance team is proud to announce our attendance challenges and activities for the month of January:

Students who were in attendance at school 95% or more for the entire first half of the year will receive a special Steck 1/2 year attendance certificate and their “name in lights” at the Steck Stars assembly on January 30th. 

Students who are at school 95% or more for the month of January will receive a special January Attendance certificate and a smelly pencil! 95% of the 18 school days in January means that students can only miss one day or less in order to receive their smelly pencil and certificate. 

The grade level that reaches the highest overall percentage of attendance for the month of January, will have the opportunity to have a special recess with Mr. B, our new Steck Principal! In addition to receiving Stecky the snake stick. The winning grade level will be announced during our Steck Stars assembly on January 30th.

To further encourage attendance surrounding our 3 day weekend this month, any student in class at 2:30PM Friday, January 16th AND exactly 7:30AM Tuesday, January 20th will receive 2 Starbucks…each day! 

Our Teachers and paras have also been challenged to be at school each and every day.

While some absences, especially those due to illness, may be unavoidable, it is important to get your child to school as often as possible. Visit the DPS Attendance webpage for guidance around when to keep your child home or send them to school. It is important for your child, their classmates and our school community that students miss no more than 1-2 days per month.

If your child will be absent, you have questions, or are experiencing hardships that make your child’s attendance an obstacle, please either call our front office at (720) 424-3870 or submit an online absence request. We care about our students and love seeing them here every day! We appreciate your partnership in supporting your child's attendance and look forward to seeing them in school!

So far, our January Grade Level attendance percentages are:

ECE- 94.87%

Kinder- 93.62%

1st- 93.59%

2nd- 95.63%

3rd- 95.48%

4th- 96.97% 

5th-  93.33%

Sincerely,

Steck Attendance Team

Assessment Day- Friday, January 23rd is our second Assessment Day. The purpose of the day is to gather important student diagnostic data to help staff determine instructional support for students. During the day, we ask families to bring in their students for 1-to-1 or small group testing in 2-hour blocks. Those blocks will be designed to assess their students in either literacy or math. Students will be assigned a testing window based on the format below:

7:30-9:30 (Last names from A-K)

9:45-11:45 (Last names from L-Z)

Students will stay at Steck for the entire 2-hour block of time.

Discovery Link (DL) will offer a full day camp on that day for students REGISTERED for DL ONLY. Registered Families, please look for an email to register for this day.

Steck Elementary

Phone: 720-424-3870

Attendance_Steck@dpsk12.org

Attendance Line: 720-424-3880

PTSA Website

Upcoming Dates: