Great Things Going On
This week at the annual Colorado Association of School Boards convention in Colorado Springs six Center High School students attended the student leadership strand thanks to the continued support of board members Yuridia Cendejas, Richie Barela, and Michael Lobato. While there Center High School 11th graders Alma Maldonado, Mayra Molina, Melina Espinoza, Melissa Chavez, Mason Torr, and Kendall Vance interacted with student leaders from around the state to explore leadership skills. They additionally engaged with school board members about what can be done to further improve learning conditions for the students in our school district. During a Friday morning engagement session, these students shared their thoughts about what is going well at Center Schools and what we might do to better meet their learning needs. The positives they outlined included how our grade 6-12 Individual Career and Academic Planning (ICAP) process helps them prepare for life after high school, the access each student has to technology resources in our district, the many opportunities they have to take college level coursework while still at Center High School, and how much they appreciate the effort our wonderful teachers make to meet students' individualized
learning needs. Areas where they would like us to grow include providing avenues by which students who are engaged in the many programs we offer might get support and time needed to stay organized and on track to complete all required tasks, making sure we are supporting them in learning basic life skills such as filling out tax and other governmental forms, and improving internet access around campus while also encouraging teachers to have back up plans for homework when they can’t access the internet. On Saturday Melina Espinoza was one of only six student leaders chosen to sit on a panel and respond to questions about current learning conditions in Colorado schools and she did a wonderful job explaining how the Center High School senior seminar class is giving kids opportunities to job shadow, practice basic life skills, apply for college entrance, and access opportunities to earn college scholarships.
During the past seven days the Center School District received positive shout outs from key educational leaders around the state and nation. At a joint session of education committees of the Colorado Legislature last Wednesday, Commissioner of Education Robert Hammond expressed his amazement at what we
have done in Center Schools to achieve full accreditation despite our 90% student poverty rate and our 50% English Language Learner population. In fact, he mentioned that only four school districts in Colorado with greater than 75% poverty have achieved full accreditation, and Center is the highest poverty district in the state to have done so. On Friday in Colorado Springs during a speech to roughly 2,000 school board
members gathered for the Colorado Association of School Boards convention, Lieutenant Governor Joseph Garcia pointed out how Center is one of the rural school districts showing the way to employ standards, assessment, and new teacher evaluation methods to grow student achievement and create greater postsecondary opportunities for children. Finally, on Wednesday I received an email from Lindamood-Bell chief staff developer Paul Worthington who stated, “I took all elementary schools in Colorado with 2010 and 2014 TCAP reading results and ranked them on increase in percent proficient and advanced in reading. Here's where Haskin Elementary School ranked out of 850 schools in Colorado: 3rd grade was seventh, 4th grade was first, and 5th grade was seventh. Haskin was in the top 10 in all three grade levels. No other elementary school in the state of Colorado can make that claim. That's impressive!”
I would like to offer a big thank you once again to Center Cross Country coach Dennis Schoenfelder and his assistant Dave Furukawa for the effort they put into raising money and training our students so they could attend and compete in the National Junior Olympics Cross Country championship meet in Kansas City, Missouri. This year nine of our student athletes qualified to for the event. As always, Dennis made sure our kids got to experience more than just a running event, taking them to great places to eat and exciting landmarks along the way.
Early last week in Denver, Center School District contracted counselor extraordinaire Katrina Ruggles was the opening speaker at a statewide meeting about the Individual Career and Academic Planning (ICAP) process. During this gathering of 600 people from around the state Mrs. Ruggles showed a video produced by Center Schools flex teacher Stefan Welsh, with contributions from his high school video productions class, highlighting how we conduct our ICAP process in the Center School District. Katrina humbly reported, “despite my lack of speaking abilities the video was a tremendous hit!” Knowing Katrina, I have no doubt she delivered an outstanding message. I also encourage each of you to view this video she was referring to at the following link.
Early last week in Denver, Center School District contracted counselor extraordinaire Katrina Ruggles was the opening speaker at a statewide meeting about the Individual Career and Academic Planning (ICAP) process. During this gathering of 600 people from around the state Mrs. Ruggles showed a video produced by Center Schools flex teacher Stefan Welsh, with contributions from his high school video productions class, highlighting how we conduct our ICAP process in the Center School District. Katrina humbly reported, “despite my lack of speaking abilities the video was a tremendous hit!” Knowing Katrina, I have no doubt she delivered an outstanding message. I also encourage each of you to view this video she was referring to at the following link.
I want to offer a personal shout out to Center Schools grade 6-12 RTI coordinator Susan Banning whom I have observed doing tremendous work tying together resources to help meet the needs of our students who face varying circumstances. Susan has kept the secondary administration apprised of student discipline issues and has made sure behavior program consequences are fairly applied and additional resources such as counseling or special programs are made available to the children who need them. She continues to ensure our students who qualify for homeless services get the resources they need, and even provides backpacks filled with food for them on a monthly basis. Susan has even led the charge in guaranteeing students we have identified in the community who are not attending school are held accountable for enrolling and attending. I have no doubt I have left out many things she does behind the scenes, but want to take a moment to thank her for making sure our most challenging students don’t fall through the cracks.
On a final note, while up late on Thursday night networking at the CASB convention my personal habit of incessantly checking email on my iPhone kicked in and as I saw message after message enter my inbox from teachers submitting lesson plans as late as midnight, and responses from principals late into the evening providing feedback to teachers about how their plans might be improved, I reflected on just how lucky our children are to have such fully prepared and committed professionals working for them. Center Schools has required its teachers to formally submit high quality lessons plans each week for roughly seven years. For the past four and a half years our building principals have been required to provide constructive feedback to teachers on a weekly basis regarding ways they might improve their plans. Elementary teachers must submit their plans, including a copy to me, by midnight each Thursday evening. Middle-high teachers must turn theirs in by Monday morning at 8 AM. Weekly, each principal quickly responds to teachers with feedback aimed at improvement. I want the community to understand that the bulk of this work takes place on weekends and in the evenings, and though we have been doing it for more than four years, I am aware of no other school district in the state that does this on such a comprehensive level.
Big Things Going On
The final push to fund the federal Secure Rural Schools act is in full swing and we have been keeping a close eye on what is happening in Congress. Our understanding is the Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILT) program is alive and well in a current piece of legislation, and know this will be very helpful to the counties in Colorado if passed. Unfortunately SRS is not in current legislation but I know the better part of Colorado’s congressional delegation has signed on to a letter requesting it be placed into an omnibus funding bill that should hit Congress this coming week. Funding both programs is extremely important to Center Schools and Saguache County, providing more than a million dollars to pay for services to support our citizens, and we are all hopeful funding for it continues for the current year.
Other major items of focus right now include preparing to share the results of our annual financial audit with the board of education, conducting mid-year surveys with our instructional staff about the quality of the work our custodial crew has been providing, surveying teachers about the direction of our schools and the support they are receiving from their principals, and surveying students about the quality of instruction their teachers are providing them.
Other major items of focus right now include preparing to share the results of our annual financial audit with the board of education, conducting mid-year surveys with our instructional staff about the quality of the work our custodial crew has been providing, surveying teachers about the direction of our schools and the support they are receiving from their principals, and surveying students about the quality of instruction their teachers are providing them.
The Past Week
During the past week we tied up final details related to our audit including publishing a management discussion and analysis of our financial condition. On Tuesday board president Michael Lobato and I trekked to Denver and back for to attend the CDE state awards ceremony where Center High School received another Center of Educational Excellence award. While there we also had the opportunity to meet with deputy commissioner of education Keith Owen and Paul Worthington from Lindamood-Bell about sharing out what has been learned through the Haskin Elementary school turnaround model.
During this past week our friend and former colleague Diane Parker was invited back to Center High School to assist with lesson plan reviewing, curriculum crosswalks, and classroom instructional walkthroughs. Ms. Parker will also be helping us with future ACT preparation days, when she is not spending her time enjoying her retirement.
During this past week our friend and former colleague Diane Parker was invited back to Center High School to assist with lesson plan reviewing, curriculum crosswalks, and classroom instructional walkthroughs. Ms. Parker will also be helping us with future ACT preparation days, when she is not spending her time enjoying her retirement.
I spent Thursday through Sunday at the Colorado Association of School Boards annual convention first attending a community messaging session on Thursday. On Friday I enjoyed a meeting with our student leaders, heard a keynote speech by “Good to Great” author Jim Collins, enjoyed a luncheon where Lieutenant Governor Joseph Garcia was the featured speaker, worked on finalizing the December board meeting packet, then presented about the Colorado Department of Education Rural Education Council along with CDE rural liaison Tina Goar, Commissioner of Education Robert Hammond, Deputy Commissioner Keith Owen, and former CASB president and Rocky Ford school board member John Knapp. On Friday evening I had the opportunity to visit with our building architect Greg Cromer, lead attorney in the Lobato v Colorado lawsuit Kathy Gebhardt, and our bond election advisor from RBC Capitol Markets, Rudy Andras. On Saturday I attended a keynote speech about quality teaching by Vicky Phillips where I also enjoyed seeing Center High School Junior Melina Espinoza share her thoughts on education as part of a student leader panel. On Saturday afternoon I attended a breakout session where audience members were able to question Commissioner Hammond about current issues facing school districts in Colorado. On Sunday I had breakfast with Yuri, Richie, and Michael to plan how to use the things we learned from the convention when we return to Center.
The Week Ahead
On Monday morning I have an AmeriCorps state meeting about a recent state level site review, then an afternoon orientation session with some new AmeriCorps staff members. On Tuesday I’ll begin my day at the SLV Superintendent’s Advisory Council meeting in Alamosa, and end it with our December district accountability and school board meetings in Center. On Wednesday Center High School will be holding an important ACT prep day for students, and on Thursday we’ll hold our annual Haskin Elementary Winter Concert. I’ll be spending a lot of time on various to-do tasks on both of these days as well.
I would also like to remind everyone that the Kiwanis Club of Center is sponsoring a Christmas parade on Saturday December 13th at 1 PM. I hear that after the parade Center merchants will be holding a big drawing, and Santa will make an appearance at the old Radio Shack building. I encourage everyone to attend!
Thanks for listening once again and have a great week!
George
I would also like to remind everyone that the Kiwanis Club of Center is sponsoring a Christmas parade on Saturday December 13th at 1 PM. I hear that after the parade Center merchants will be holding a big drawing, and Santa will make an appearance at the old Radio Shack building. I encourage everyone to attend!
Thanks for listening once again and have a great week!
George