The Douglas County School Board approved the Long-Range Planning Committee's "Option A" at its November 19 meeting. That means that the feeder elementary schools for the new Middle and High School at Monarch and McArthur Ranch Road will be: Buffalo Ridge Elementary, Elementary #35, and Wildcat Mountain Elementary.

The decision is very positive for the Castle Pines neighborhood for a number of reasons. First, students on both sides of the Parkway will be able to continue their schooling together through twelfth grade, regardless of which of the two public elementaries in CPN they attended. Secondly, the middle and high school are projected to be much smaller than, for example, Douglas County High School is currently. (See new schools' projected enrollments, below) And finally, there will be no commuting to school on the Interstate!

The middle school will open in year 2003-2004 with 7th, 8th and 9th grades. The 9th graders will be at the Middle School for this one year so that they will not have to transfer from a different campus when the High School opens. The projected enrollment is 639.

In year 2004-2005, the High School will open with 9th and 10th graders. Projected enrollment: 427. The Middle School will now house 7th and 8th graders only. Projected enrollment: 487.

During school year 2005-2006, the High School will have 9th, 10th and 11th graders with projected enrollment at 708. Middle School: 542.

In year 2006-2007 the High School will finally have 9th, 10th, 11th and 12th graders with projected enrollment at 947. Middle School: 590.

Many thanks to the Laura Kennedy, a member of the Long-Range Planning Committee, who has worked diligently on behalf of our neighborhood's students on this issue.

Site work on the newest elementary school in Castle Pines North will begin as soon as the end of August. The school will be located on the western portion of the parcel, which is located northwest of the Castle Pines Parkway/Monarch Blvd. intersection.

The school district plans to hold a Community meetings with the school's immediate neighbors will be scheduled in advance of the groundbreaking, to inform neighbors of the design and layout of the new school.

In addition, this fall, the Long-Range Planning Committee will soon schedule a series of meetings to discuss attendance boundaries for the new school. These meeting will also be a forum for discussion of the attendance areas for the new Middle/High School complex in south Highlands Ranch.

News about these meeting will come home in students' Friday folders, and will be sent out through the CPN e-mail alert list. Everyone with an interest in the issue is strongly encouraged to attend.

Following the meetings, the Long Range Planning Committee will make recommendations to the School District, which has traditionally followed the advice of the Committee. A final decision should be made by Thanksgiving of 2002.

The Elementary new school will open in Fall of 2003 with a "Modified B" track, which will last for two or three years before it begins a four-track schedule. Families should be aware that their track at the new school will be the same as the track they had at Buffalo Ridge.

For the second year, students from Douglas County teams are competing against students from around the world in the Destination Imagination Global Finals tournament, May 22-25 at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville.

Destination Imagination is a problem-solving program for students in elementary school through college. Students work in teams of seven or fewer to creatively solve an assigned problem under a set of guidelines. For several months they work on a solution, presenting the solution in a skit at regional, state and international tournaments.

At the tournaments, students must also solve an “instant challenge” problem in less than five minutes before a set of appraisers.

The international tournament this year will be Castle Rock Middle School pupils Rebecca Benson, Allyson Craigie, Ben Dimond, Mike Grattan, Brian Little, Sean McCoskey and Maiki Vlahinos, who were coached this year by John and Cathy McCoskey and Kym Craigie. The team won second place in the middle school division.

The Castle Rock team created a situation in which characters acting as cookies had to devise a way out of an oven before being cooked. The team received a Renaissance Award for exceptional engineering, a DaVinci Award for extreme creativity and risk taking in its performance and a second DaVinci Award for creativity in its instant challenge solution.

The Buffalo Ridge Elementary School team placed first in the south metro Denver regional and state tournaments. The team includes Alex Vlahinos, Brandon Little, Mandy Auten, Cole Kennedy, Erica Vlahinos, Adam Fuselier and J.P. York. The team’s challenge was to design, build and test two weight-bearing structures. Each structure had to weigh as little as possible and hold as much weight as possible.

The Castle Pines area team wrote and performed a skit that depicted the change of a liquid to a gas as water evaporates. The skit included an original song and dance routine, an illusion in which a person disappeared and a scrolling backdrop that changed through scenes depicting a storm drain, a city cape and a sunny sky. The structures were loaded with weight, up to 300 pounds, during the team’s performance.

Congratulations to all our area students who participated!

CPN’s new elementary school is scheduled to open in Fall 2003. Construction should begin late this summer or early fall. The school district is now finalizing the plans for the site, which has been moved once again - this time, to the western portion of the large vacant parcel at Monarch and Castle Pines Parkway.

Decisions about boundaries and transition questions will be made in the fall. For now, the school is referred to as “Elementary #35”; the real name will be chosen later, with participation from the kids who will attend. Lisa Phillips, currently principal at Bear Canyon Elementary in Highlands Ranch, has been selected principal for the new school.

Construction work has already begun on a new Middle School/ High School complex north of CPN, where Monarch meets McArthur Ranch Road. The attendance area will not be set until this Fall, but it is likely to include all of CPN. The Middle School will open in 2003, and the High School in 2004.

Buffalo Ridge Elementary was the recipient of a $5,000 gift from the new Castle Pines Safeway. The donation is part of Safeway's "Because Safeway Cares" program to help neighborhood schools, youth groups and non-profits. The funds will be used to enhance the audio systems in several classrooms.

Visit the "BREA" page for information on the Buffalo Ridge Educational Alliance (Buffalo Ridge Elementary's PTO organization).

New schools on the way …

By the 2003 school year, CPN will have a second Elementary School. The school district will also open a new Middle School in 2003, and a new High School in 2004, to be located north of CPN, where Monarch meets McArthur Ranch Road; while the attendance area is not yet set, it is likely to include all of CPN.

CPN's new elementary school will be located on a portion of the currently vacant land northwest of Monarch and the Parkway. The location of the school has changed, from the earlier plan to build at the corner of Monarch and Hidden Pointe Boulevard, due to some site constraints at the older site.

By early March we should be able to see the plans for the layout and traffic flow, and we will begin working with the school district on questions related to the transition, such as setting the attendance-area boundaries. For now, the school is referred to as "Elementary #35"; the real name will be chosen later, with participation from the kids who will attend. The school will be open for the 2003 school year. It could be ready for use during the 2002-2003 school year; if so, the School District will work with Buffalo Ridge to determine if some classes would be moved to the new facility.

Castle Pines North Homeowners Association
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Contact the Castle Pines North Homeowners Association (CPNHOA) by e-mail.