Hello Spartan Families!

Just a reminder that there is no school today in observance of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

Spring sports are just around the corner. If your student plans on participating please make sure they have an updated sports physical on file. Online registration through arbitersports/family ID will open next week so check the website for more information. 

Currently we have the highest attendance rate amongst the traditional high schools in DPS but we are starting to see kids miss school for a variety of reasons. Let's start this semester as strong as possible - attendance is the #1 factor in your student being successful in school!

Andrew Skari
Assistant Principal

Monday-

• No school - MLK Jr. Day

Tuesday-

• Regular school day

Wednesday- 

• Class of 2027 Fundraiser at Birdcall (details below)

• 2026 Ireland trip - zoom meeting: 6:00-7:00 p.m. (For details, please contact Amber Wilson awilso2@dpsk12.net)

Thursday-

• Regular school day

Friday-

• Regular school day

Saturday-

• Set Construction/Saturday Build Days: 9:00 a.m.-2:00 p.m.

• AP Music Theory: 9:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m.

• Tambyr Reed, TJ's director of choirs, has been selected to conduct the district's Citywide Honor Choir.  This is an honor and representative of the esteem in which she is held by fellow music teachers.  She is recognized as an outstanding musician and teacher - able to elicit musicianship from students at all levels, as well as students in the school musical.

  This reflects well on TJ and what we have to offer. Please congratulate Tambyr when you see her!

• The Spartan Class of 2025 has jumped right into their college planning this semester. We’ve already met with over 75 of them! Scholars are completing their FAFSA or CASFA applications and getting started on their institutional scholarships as well. They are sharing admissions and scholarship wins while continuing to be excited AND nervous about their next steps after high school. Scholarship awards have more than doubled since mid-December! 

  Future Focus also kicked of strong with 42 attendees to programming last week.

  Check out the highlights below!

You can stop by the DECA store in the cafeteria after school Monday thru Thursday. We sell t-shirts, hoodies, pants, hats, stadium seats, socks, stickers, etc. Feel free to email us with any questions. 

Thank you to everyone who attended our meeting last week. We will have our minutes posted to the website later this month.

Save the Date! Our next meeting will be held on Tuesday February 4 from 6:00-7:00 in the community room. We would love to have you join us! If you need translation services please send an email to TJHSPTO@gmail.com

It is almost time for the 2025 TJ Spartan Grant program!  This has been funded in the past by the TJ Silent Auction and the direct giving campaign.  If you have wondered how this money has directly affected the students, take a look at this article.

In this article written by one of TJ’s talented students, it states, “The grants have historically supported countless programs, departments, and initiatives, all of which play a crucial role in shaping the TJ experience. These grants allow students and staff to explore new opportunities, overcome financial barriers, and bring innovative ideas to life. English teachers have used Spartan Grants to fund critical classroom materials, like sets of books, ensuring students can fully engage with classics like Invisible Man and The Marrow Thieves."

Ms. Tocci, English Teacher, said this when asked how the Spartan Grants were used for her students.  “I'm thrilled to share that we were able to use the grant funds to help purchase copies of The Marrow Thieves for students this school year. This fall was the pilot year for our mini Native American Literature unit, for which this novel was the anchor text. When I surveyed my class at the end of last semester to collect their thoughts, over half (53.3%) said either this text allowed them to think a lot about new ideas and develop new skills or that they absolutely loved the book and enjoyed all the associated activities we did to learn about the importance of storytelling. 

Hopefully some parents even had the pleasure of seeing the books pop up in their homes. Thanks to the grants (as well as some supplementary fundraising I completed), every student could take a copy home for the entire unit!”

Please donate to the Spartan Grant Drive today.  As you can see, the money goes directly to the classrooms and benefits our students! Spartan Grants Drive

Any students interested in going to Ireland in the summer of 2026? Please mark your calendars and join us for a virtual informational meeting on Wednesday, January 22 from 6-7:00 p.m. Please contact Amber Wilson with any questions - awilso2@dpsk12.net

We are currently in need of host families for 16 students participating in an exchange program from Chiben Gogo in Japan.

The students will be living with and attending school with students here at TJ. They will attend each of their classes but they will have their own work provided from their schools in Japan. These students study English in Japan so, although they are not fluent in English, they have the tools to communicate in the language. They simply need practice and exposure. The students will be with us from March 4th through March 23rd when they will return to Japan together. There are 8 girls and 8 boys in need of a host family.

If you are interested and able, please contact Mr. Jackson at kjackso@dpsk12.net for more information. This is a tremendous opportunity because it opens the doors for our students from TJ to travel to Japan and be hosted with families there as well. 

Thomas Jefferson High School is hosting a Blood Drive for students and staff!

HOPE begins with you. Make a difference by donating blood on Thursday, February 6, 2025, from 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. in the gymnasium at 3950 S. Holly St., Denver, CO 80237.

Your donation can save lives! To sign up for an appointment, call 1-800-RED CROSS (1-800-733-2767), visit RedCrossBlood.org and use the sponsor code: TJHSGO, or reach out to Nurse Ally.

Important: Bring a photo ID or your blood donor card, or two other forms of ID. Students who are 16 or 17 years old will need parent/guardian consent forms signed prior to donation.

Tip: Save up to 15 minutes when you donate blood by using RapidPass! Find more information at RedCrossBlood.org/RapidPass.

As a thank you, all presenting donors will receive a FREE Red Cross t-shirt while supplies last!

Together, we can bring hope to those in need. Don’t miss your chance to make a difference!

For more information, visit RedCrossBlood.org, download the Blood Donor App today!

¡Thomas Jefferson High School organizará una campaña de donación de sangre para estudiantes y personal!

La ESPERANZA empieza con usted. ¡Marque la diferencia donando sangre el jueves 6 de febrero de 2025, de 8:30 a.m. a 2:30 p.m. en el gimnasio ubicado en 3950 S. Holly St., Denver, CO 80237!

¡Su donación puede salvar vidas! Para registrarse y agendar una cita, llame al 1-800-RED CROSS (1-800-733-2767), visite RedCrossBlood.org y use el código del patrocinador: TJHSGO, o contacte a la enfermera Ally.

Importante: Lleve una identificación con foto o su tarjeta de donante de sangre, o dos formas de identificación adicionales. Los estudiantes de 16 o 17 años necesitarán que se firme un formulario de consentimiento de los padres/tutores antes de donar.

Consejo: ¡Ahorre hasta 15 minutos al donar sangre usando RapidPass! Encuentra más información en RedCrossBlood.org/RapidPass.

Como agradecimiento, todos los donantes recibirán una camiseta gratis de la Cruz Roja, ¡hasta agotar el stock!

Juntos, podemos llevar esperanza a los que lo necesitan. ¡No pierde la oportunidad de hacer la diferencia!

Para más información, visita RedCrossBlood.org, ¡descargue hoy la aplicación de Donantes de Sangre!

Sign up for the February Food Distribution will be available in next week's newsletter.

 Please reach out to Megan Perkins (megandperkins@gmail.com) Becca Mahoney (beccaandjoemahoney@gmail.com) or Jillian Krause (jillian.krause@gmail.com) with questions.

Spring Musical: Anastasia (license pending)

Show Dates: Tickets are $5 for children, students, faculty and staff, veterans, and seniors, $10 general admission.

Thursday, March 6th at 7PM

Friday, March 7th at 7PM

Saturday, March 8th at 2PM

Saturday, March 8th at 7PM

Stay tuned for more information about casting and other important details. Keep your eye out for flyers and Spartan Edition spots in the near future!

New Year, New You? Start of 2025 by exploring the world of apprenticeships, where you get to earn while you learn.  CareerWise will be accepting applications from rising juniors and seniors for apprenticeships in the 25-26 school year.  Connect with Emily Bobrick if you want to learn more. 

Spartan Seniors and Families,

Congratulations on an amazing first semester! We look forward to cheering you on this semester as your finalize your plans for life after high school graduation! 

Have you been admitted to college(s)? Share your wins by completing the linked form.

Have you completed your FAFSA and/or been awarded scholarship(s)? Share your wins by completing the linked form. Your name and the name of the scholarship(s) will be celebrated on the graduation program! (We do not share $ amounts, FYI.) 

College planning tasks from your Future Center schoology to work on now:

• If you have not yet done so, complete the FAFSA! Be sure to complete the 2025-2026 FAFSA. Student and parent(s) will need an FSAID (username and password). We recommend that once your accounts are verified you set aside 30 minutes together to submit your FAFSA application. Check out the resources in the TJ Future Center schoology course too! 

• The CASFA application is now open for non-US Citizens who qualify for ASSET.

• Work on your Institutional Scholarship applications. These are often students greatest forms of financial aid. Colleges will send you information on how to access these applications through their portals. Stop by the FC for help! 

Upcoming Deadlines and Events:

Thursday, January 26th: Community College of Aurora Rep Visit in the TJFC 
Monday, January 27th: FAFSA Workshop at Capital One Cafe Downtown
Tuesday, January 28th: CSU Webinar: Being First Gen at CSU! 
Wednesday, January 29th: FAFSA/CASFA Workshop at CSU Spur Denver 
Saturday, February 1st: Scholarship Workshop for African American Girls 

Emily Webster, M.S. Alyssa Baker, M.Ed.
DSF Lead College Advisor DSF College Advisor
emily_webster@dpsk12.netalyssa_baker@dpsk12.net

Did You Know...? 

That you can facilitate an increase in happiness in your kid?

Here are 11 questions that can make your child happier:

Some people are naturally happy/care-free, seemingly without having to make much effort to feel this way. Other people may struggle with this a bit more. The good old “Glass Half Full versus Glass Half Empty” debate. The good news is that there are some questions you can bring into your routine at home that can increase happiness in your family members (and even yourself!). These 11 questions focus your children on how to make themselves happy. Eventually, your children will internalize these questions and ask them in their own heads. Then you'll have given them the gift of happiness, which will make you so (you guessed it) happy.

1. What was your favorite part of today?

This is a good question to ask at bedtime, to help your child feel content and happy before sleep. It also instills a habit of focusing on the best thing that happened in any given day rather than the worst. If you make this part of your bedtime routine, it will become second nature.

2. What are you grateful for?

This is a good question for the dinner table. Every family member can take a turn saying what he or she is grateful for that day. There is a strong correlation between happiness and gratitude, so this one is very powerful.

3. What are you going to do about that?

When a child comes to you with a problem, ask this question in a warm and curious tone. Don't just jump in and solve their problem; how does that help them in the long run? At least give them a chance to work it out on their own, and give them the gift of your confidence in them, which is evident by this question that implies that they can think of solutions to their own issues. If your child says "I don't know," you can say, "I am not sure either, let's try to figure it out together." Happy people are people who think of problems as surmountable, and think of themselves as effective problem solvers.

4. How did that make you feel?

At the risk of sounding shrink-y, an essential part of happiness is being able to notice and express your own emotions. If you can verbalize what you're feeling, you can make sense of it, you can process it, and you can obtain support from others. This is a great question to ask when your child comes to you with something "bad" that happened, instead of either dismissing it ("that wasn't that bad") or fixing it ("let mommy get you some ice!"). It trains your child to be aware of his feelings, and to use that information effectively.

5. What do you think he/she feels?

In any situation, you can cultivate empathy by asking your child to wonder about what someone else feels. Empathy will make your child a happier person; he or she will have stronger interpersonal relationships, feel better about himself for thinking of (and then, often, helping) others, and derive more meaning from life.

6.  How can we look on the bright side?

In any situation, you can teach your child that there are positives. With preteens or teenagers, this question may be way too corny, but little kids will like it. You can also teach them the expression "making lemonade out of a lemon" and ask them how you can make lemonade out of a bad situation.

7. What part of that can we learn more about?

In any TV show, book, trip outside the house, basically any situation at all, there is something to learn more about. And look at you, Super Parent, you already have your smartphone at the ready!  So this time use it for teaching your child that life is full of learning opportunities.  Happy people are people who are curious and always learning.  So when you watch TV and someone says "Bonjour," you can look up pictures of France or a YouTube song sung in French. Let’s use our ever progressing technology to keep learning conversations going between each other!

8. What do you want to do on the weekend?

Research shows that anticipation of positive experiences brings more happiness than the experiences themselves. Once your child is old enough to realize that tomorrow is not today, start instilling a habit of positive anticipation of small pleasures. A child who is excited all week to get frozen yogurt on the weekend is a happy child, just as an adult who plans a vacation six months in advance is happier during those six months.

9. What can we do to help/to make someone happy?

Bringing your child along to visit a sick relative, or someone recovering from surgery, or to volunteer at a soup kitchen is a wonderful gift that you can give to your child. Your child will feel even more proud of his behavior if he is the one to think up the nice thing that can be done (e.g., baking cookies to deliver, drawing a card). Research shows that giving even releases oxytocin and endorphins, so it's like a high that your child can become addicted to. Also, involve your child in your charitable activities, as giving charity is a form of altruism that is also linked directly to happiness (and just to being a good person, which you also want for your child). Incorporate a spirit of generosity into your child's daily life. 

10. What do you want to do outside today?

Getting outside and engaging in physical activities alongside your child is a wonderful way to get him or her in the habit of not just sitting around. Exercise releases endorphins and can be as effective as treating depression with medication. And the most powerful way that you can teach your child about exercise is to do it yourself. Children whose mothers exercise are more likely to exercise themselves. And sunlight can also help boost mood and regulate circadian rhythms, which means better sleep for your kids, which makes everyone happier.

11. When do you feel happiest?

If you direct your children's attention to the experiences that they most enjoy, they will start to realize that they can choose to proactively increase their time spent in activities that make them feel best about themselves.  According to researcher Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, "flow" is the state where people find an activity so enjoyable and rewarding that they become completely immersed in it, losing all sense of time and feeling completely in the moment. If your child is lucky enough to have found an activity that makes him feel a sense of "flow," it is helpful for you to point this out and allow your child enough time to attain this state. 

Mental Health and Social Emotional “Did You Know”: Compiled by Natalie Koncz, Ed.S., NCSP and Samanda Davis, LCSW, MSW. Resources:Harvard Health Publishing, Discover Magazine, Greater Good Magazine, CBS News, Healthline.

Mental Health and Social Emotional “Did You Know”: Compiled by Natalie Koncz, Ed.S., NCSP and Samanda Davis, LCSW, MSW. Resources: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/psychology-through-technology/201901/winter-blues-making-you-sad

Thanks to everyone who supported Class of 2025 at Chipotle on January 14th! Our next restaurant night is February 6th from 4-8pm at Qdoba 7155 E. Hampden Ave. Here is the link to flyers and to order online https:qdoba.force4good.com/event/6c9e5bb5-17b4-441c-a5cb-ff5c985e27a8

Our goal is to raise more money for prizes and food for After Prom. As always if restaurant nights aren’t a good fit for you, please consider donating directly to the parent committee of 2025 where 100% of the money you spend goes directly to After Prom! https://tjhsstore.square.site/product/2025-class-donations/99

Please consider making a donation to the Class of 2026. 

Give $26 to The Class of '26 through the PTO’s Online Square Account:

2026 Class Donations | TJHS PTO

Thank you,
Sheila and Carrie

Class of 2026 have Prom Ideas?

Complete this form: 

Prom Locations 2026

More questions check in with Mr. Klimczak or Ms. Lynch

Please come support the class of 2027 for a restaurant night on Wednesday, January 22, 2025 at Birdcall (4996 E. Hampden Ave). You will need to enter TJHS122 for online or in-store checkout. 

Join us for a delicious meal and help support our school!!!

Does your employer match donations? We are looking for an organization to do a match with one of our fundraisers. If you know of an organization willing to make a corporate match, please contact Tiffany or Katie at the emails listed below. Your donation is tax deductible as the TJ Partners PTO is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. 

Please also consider making a donation to the Class of 2027’s Class Fund. Donations will support the After Prom (held Senior Year) and other class activities. This can be done through the online square account listed below
https://tjhsstore.square.site/product/2027-class-donations/

Want to get involved and help with ideas and planning for the Class of 2027? Please contact Class of 2027 parent co-chairs Tiffany Berry at broncofantif@hotmail.com or Katie Mousel at katielmousel@gmail.com 

Hello Class of 2028 parents and families! The class of 2028 has found its two co-chairs – Kevin and Jill Krug.

They are looking for help with fundraising activities. Some of the planned activities are “Eat Out Nights,” Bottom of the 9th and a few others. Email Kevin at kevkrug@gmail.com or Jill at jillkrug@gmail.com if you are interested in helping out.

We need to raise funds for all the fun social activities, After Prom and other senior events.

It’s time to give $28 to the Class of $28

It’s time to give $28 to the Class of $28 to help cultivate community for our students! If each family gives $28, we get close to our fundraising goals. You can give the $28 for the class of 2028 through the PTO’s Online Square Account: https://tjhsstore.square.site/product/2028-class-donations/151.