Mr. Virostko - Castle Rock Middle School Counselor

Friday is the last day for our Thanksgiving Food Drive and we still need lots of food items from the list below to complete our Thanksgiving meals for Castle Rock families. If your family is able and willing to help, please turn in donated food items to Mrs. Goodman at the Attendance Office by the end of the day on Friday. Thank you!

Students interested in cheerleading at Skyview High School are invited to attend Little Falcons Youth Cheer Champ. The camp is coming up soon, so don't delay! Information is on the image below, with a link for the registration page.
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdorwtSU2gbiww3OMvnv0TwOVqTYYoNrLMov9cHWF2JCOb_3g/viewform?usp=sf_link

A community service organization called Sleep In Heavenly Peace is planning a "build day" to construct 15 beds for children in need. Their motto is "No kid sleeps on the floor in our town." They have asked us to share the following announcement and request for volunteers to help them with their upcoming project.

***** ***** ***** *****
We are excited to announce that we have enough donations and an indoor location to conduct a community build day (15 beds)! It's a quick turnaround so we want to ensure we are sharing the invite with as many people as possible!

When: 12/14/2024 at 10am MST (until completion)
Where: The Paper Mill (full address available upon sign-up)
How to join: Visit https://x.gldn.io/e/ckdxoXwF0Ob

Our GOAL is to build 15 beds so, we are looking for about 30 volunteers (40 max). You may come and go as you please and little ones are more than welcome to join in on the fun. We have PLENTY for everyone to do.

Let's get these kids off of the floor this Christmas!

My school counseling colleague, Mrs. Toney, had this to say about the success of last week's "Gobble Groove" school dance and "foodraiser," demonstrating the amazing spirit of service and qualities of leadership being developed by our students.

"The Fall dance was a huge success.
We received so much food that we will easily be able to build Thanksgiving meal boxes for our CR families. We have identified 24 students that we are creating boxes for this year.
Additionally we had a huge turn out and the kids had a blast. Mr. Moran dressed up in a turkey suit and did some gobble grooving.
Thank you to Mr. Moran, Mr. Gaugler, Mr. Virostko, Mrs. Goodman, Mrs. Brackney for sticking around to help out and supervise. Thank you to the custodian staff for helping get what we needed to set up and then the after care.
Our Student Council and WOW club students did an AMAZING job putting on the dance from running the activities, selling concessions, taking food and money for admission, making cotton candy (which turns out is super messy) and cleaning it all up. Tonight they will stay late again and put together the boxes to be picked up by families tomorrow. They are an exceptional group of kids and it is pretty amazing to watch youth leadership.
Hope you all have a well deserved break and Happy Thanksgiving. I am so grateful to work with a caring community of people!"

Billings Family Service is accepting sign-ups for Thanksgiving Food Boxes. If your family could benefit from some extra community support for Thanksgiving, please see the helpful people at
Family Service and sign up. If you know a family who could use extra support, please pass this information along to them.

I'll be sharing information about trauma-informed approaches to parenting and personal relationships tonight at Skyview High School from 6 pm to 7:30 pm. The presentation covers the widespread prevalence of traumatic experiences, the effects it has on brain development, and the steps each of us can take to heal ourselves and our kids from the effects of trauma and toxic stress.

Billings Early College School - Billings Public Schools Billings Early College School - Billings Public Schools

8th grade students will register for their 9th grade classes on Tuesday 2/20/24 during their science classes. Those who were absent during my pre-registration presentations during the week can look over the registration form and the high school course catalog linked on my Google Classroom this weekend to get a better idea of which electives they plan to take.

The article linked below contains excellent information and advice for parents on how to help children "detox" from electronics and social media and highlights the importance of not underestimating the effect that too much digital exposure has on the developing brain.

Why We All Need a Digital Detox | Newport Academy With unlimited access to smartphones, laptops, and tablets we are often plugged in. It is important to do a digital detox from time to time.