The Student Spotlight segment of each Board meeting celebrates a student or a group of students who are living out the Portrait of an LPS Graduate, which highlights the life skills each LPS graduate should have. Tomorrow’s workers will succeed by constantly adapting to the changing world around them, and today’s students must begin by learning and developing life skills - where every student should be well-adjusted, thriving, and balanced.

Additionally, students will develop skills in:

• Communication
• Global/Cultural Awareness
• Character
• Critical Thinking
• Problem Solving
• Adaptability
• Creativity
• Risk-Taking
• Resiliency
• Collaboration
• Self Advocacy
• All surrounding Rigorous and Relevant Academic Skills

LPS strives to implement opportunities to grow these skills at every level of education and recognize students of all ages. At their regularly scheduled meeting on January 11, 2024, the Board recognized Jessica Renteria Martinez, Odin Lien, and Ryan Brown from Arapahoe High School’s culinary arts program. These students prepared and served dinner for the Board of Education to eat between their executive session, workshop, and regularly scheduled meeting.

We need food in order to survive, but food is also synonymous with happiness, family, love, and warmth. In Arapahoe High School's Culinary 1 and 2 classes, students are introduced to a wide range of skills that will benefit them into adulthood, such as Portrait of a Graduate traits of Collaboration, Risk-Taking, and Adaptability. Students work in groups to create their dishes, so they learn to work together with different personalities, strengths, and weaknesses. Through this, they learn to adapt to all different scenarios, such as improvising with ingredients available to them, being creative with their choices, and thinking fast on their feet. Through this, students are allowed to be risk-takers. They are allowed to think outside the box and learn the art of making a recipe with their own personal stamp.

After taking these courses, students are prepared to introduce a wide range of different foods into their kitchen to help create an atmosphere of happiness, love, and warmth in their family and kitchen.

At the Board meeting, Superintendent Todd Lambert said, “I’d like to take this opportunity to express thanks on behalf of the entire Board of Education for providing dinner to us this evening. It was delicious!”