Dear Friends,

As we embrace the midpoint of summer, I want to share an update from Clayton. In the spirit of delivering an exceptionally high-quality early childhood education, we saw another cohort of students successfully graduate from our program and soon transition to Kindergarten. It hasn’t been an easy time in the classroom, as with schools across the country, we have seen an increase in the number of children with special needs. We have started to address this with new investments in special education support and are evaluating new ways to implement additional mental health support for our families and our staff.

In terms of families, we are making an intentional and strategic pivot to better address the needs of our families. Starting this month, a bi-lingual Director of Family Engagement will be working to design and implement new services and programs for our families. We have already made significant strides this year in building new and innovative strategic partnerships. Through our Clayton Cares Market, we are serving over 200 people a week in the delivery of fresh and nutritious food. By partnering with Food Bank of the Rockies and We Don’t Waste, we are working hard to combat food insecurity for our families and the community at large.

Working with Big Green, we conducted our first coordinated home gardening program, providing over 100 families with home gardening kits. Teaming up with the Denver Art Museum, we delivered a fantastic arts-based experience for our educators and our families.

Through Swallow Hill Music, and Inside the Orchestra – we are giving children access to the music in the classroom and through performances and events for our school and families. On Saturday, July 20th, we will host our first-ever Inside the Orchestra concert for the community, and we’d love to see you there. Check out all the details here. Thank you to PNC Bank for this tremendous partnership!

As a strategic priority to open our campus we started our partnership with the Denver Metro YMCA to bring summer camps, youth programming, adult sports, and nutrition-based programming to the campus.

Within the next six months, we will be releasing our new vision for the campus to address how we can further leverage our facilities and grounds to better serve our families and the community. You are cordially invited to a Clayton Open House on Saturday, July 20th on Campus where we share more about our strategic vision.

The first stage of this vision will become a reality with our renewable energy focus as we begin to install solar panels on the historic building that is now our Educare Denver school this August. This investment will not only reduce carbon and significantly reduce operating costs; it will teach the children a valuable lesson about how the sun produces energy.

Finally, we invite you all to the September 6th Taste of Clayton fundraising event and gala. We will announce our second annual Charlotte Brantley Teacher of the Year winner and will share exciting developments for our future.

While it’s challenging in the early education arena, these are exciting times at Clayton as we embrace our mission around the whole child and whole family approach. With a deeper and more intentional interest in bringing the very best partnerships to Clayton, we are determined to help families achieve their dreams.

Ever forward with gratitude –

William