Great Things Going On Now
It would be hard to lead with a story that is more exciting than the fact that Center Schools contracted counselor Katrina Ruggles has been flown to Washington, D.C. to participate in a White House ceremony on Monday October 15th honoring her and the entire Center High School staff for great work being done in the effort to reduce student participation in unsafe behavior, to increase student academic achievement growth as measured on state tests, to increase student participation in college coursework while in high school, and to increase the likelihood that Center High School graduates are attending college two years after they leave school. Katrina will be the only rural school representative at this special ceremony honoring this work she has helped us to accomplish through the acquisition on various grants.
I also want to thank director of instruction Lori Cooper for securing a grant to put Otter Boxes on most of our new iPads that will soon be put to use by Haskin Elementary School kindergarten through third grade students. This will save the district around $6,000.
I also want to thank director of instruction Lori Cooper for securing a grant to put Otter Boxes on most of our new iPads that will soon be put to use by Haskin Elementary School kindergarten through third grade students. This will save the district around $6,000.
If you haven’t been in the Haskin Elementary hallways lately you are missing the fact that the walls are simply “dripping” with fantastic student writing. A big thank you goes out to 4th grade teacher Colleen Hurst for taking the initiative to proudly display the excellent work her students have been producing.
How about that Skoglund Middle School football team? Our young Vikings wrapped up a 9-0 season last week with a 19-0 victory over the Alamosa Mean Moose 8th grade team. Congratulations guys, great season!
How about that Skoglund Middle School football team? Our young Vikings wrapped up a 9-0 season last week with a 19-0 victory over the Alamosa Mean Moose 8th grade team. Congratulations guys, great season!
On a final note this week I want to tell everyone how proud I am of our High School and Middle school Volleyball players and coaches. Because our new varsity gymnasium has not yet been ready they have had to share space by alternating the conduct of practices beginning at 5:30 AM all season long. Working hard at practice is difficult enough. Having to be at school by 5:30 AM makes it even more challenging. Thank you girls, for your extreme dedication to this effort!
The Past Week
On Monday I met with Dave Seaney who is working as a facilitator for the Santa Fe Trail BOCES on implementing Senate Bill 191-style teacher evaluations. Mr. Seaney visited the Valley to pick our brains about how to run the evaluation process and how to incorporate student achievement data into the evaluation process.
On Tuesday I attended the San Luis Valley superintendent advisory council meeting where we prepared ourselves for Friday’s All Valley PLC session. After the SAC meeting, CDE staff were present to explain the CDE accreditation process to Valley districts. On Tuesday evening the Center Schools district accountability committee met and assigned accreditation categories to our schools as follows: Center High School-Performing, Skoglund Middle School-Performing, Haskin Elementary School-Priority Improvement. After the DAC, the board of education held its regular October meeting where it was announced that our annual financial audit will begin within the next two weeks.
On Wednesday I spent time working for the Race to the top of the Valley collaborative as I attended the weekly Race to the Top Consortium grant writing meeting, then conducted visits to the Centennial and North Conejos school districts to support their improvement efforts and to learn how they can share out their best practices with the rest of the San Luis Valley school districts.
On Thursday I travelled to and from Limon to attend the Colorado Department of Education Rural Education Council meeting. This is a meeting of rural education leaders from all over the state who advise CDE as to the needs of rural school san districts.
On Tuesday I attended the San Luis Valley superintendent advisory council meeting where we prepared ourselves for Friday’s All Valley PLC session. After the SAC meeting, CDE staff were present to explain the CDE accreditation process to Valley districts. On Tuesday evening the Center Schools district accountability committee met and assigned accreditation categories to our schools as follows: Center High School-Performing, Skoglund Middle School-Performing, Haskin Elementary School-Priority Improvement. After the DAC, the board of education held its regular October meeting where it was announced that our annual financial audit will begin within the next two weeks.
On Wednesday I spent time working for the Race to the top of the Valley collaborative as I attended the weekly Race to the Top Consortium grant writing meeting, then conducted visits to the Centennial and North Conejos school districts to support their improvement efforts and to learn how they can share out their best practices with the rest of the San Luis Valley school districts.
On Thursday I travelled to and from Limon to attend the Colorado Department of Education Rural Education Council meeting. This is a meeting of rural education leaders from all over the state who advise CDE as to the needs of rural school san districts.
On Friday the entire Center School District teaching staff attended the second Race to the top of the Valley-All Valley Professional Learning Community meeting that took place at Sargent Schools. I have to say we all should be extremely proud of the great leadership our staff members displayed at this event by sharing what they know about planning and writing quality instructional objectives and daily formative assessments, and leading their PLCs to engage in great work of importance to their grade level or subject area focus.
Though it was a long week there was still work to be done on Saturday as Center High School hosted a three-team volleyball tournament and the folks from Klipp Architecture were on site to take formal pictures of our new facility. Klipp hired the services of some local student models who did a great job of posing for hundreds of pictures that will be used to chronicle the great work done to design our new PK-12 school.
Though it was a long week there was still work to be done on Saturday as Center High School hosted a three-team volleyball tournament and the folks from Klipp Architecture were on site to take formal pictures of our new facility. Klipp hired the services of some local student models who did a great job of posing for hundreds of pictures that will be used to chronicle the great work done to design our new PK-12 school.
Big Things We Are Working On
As of the end of the day Friday we had a completed draft of our San Luis Valley Race to the Top Consortium grant. Thus, the official “Mayoral period” where we solicit feedback and comments from the greater community has begun.
I would like to invite each of you to participate in the public comment period prior to our final submission. Our RTT-D grant proposal, if funded, will offer significant resources to the 14 districts in the San Luis Valley (Alamosa, Centennial, Center, Creede, Del Norte, Moffat, Monte Vista, Mountain Valley, North Conejos, Sanford, Sangre de Cristo, Sargent, Sierra Grande, and South Conejos) along with the San Luis Valley BOCES for the purpose of implementing an effective approach to increasing the personalization of learning for all students.
If you would like to see the full grant proposal you can go to the Race to the top of the Valley website at http://www.racetothetopofthevalley.org and click on the SLV Community tab to access an Executive Summary and the actual draft application and appendices.
You can also access these documents directly by clicking on these links or copying them to your web browser:
http://www.racetothetopofthevalley.org/index.php/slv-community/2012-10-14-19-36-41/rt3v-district-executive-summary
http://www.racetothetopofthevalley.org/index.php/slv-community/2012-10-14-19-36-41/rtd-grant-application
http://www.racetothetopofthevalley.org/index.php/slv-community/2012-10-14-19-36-41/rtd-grant-appendix
Community feedback on any specific area of the grant and our overall approach is requested. The consortium needs to collect comments no later than October 26, 2012 in order to incorporate suggested changes and to submit a final proposal to the federal government by the October 30th deadline.
I would like to invite each of you to participate in the public comment period prior to our final submission. Our RTT-D grant proposal, if funded, will offer significant resources to the 14 districts in the San Luis Valley (Alamosa, Centennial, Center, Creede, Del Norte, Moffat, Monte Vista, Mountain Valley, North Conejos, Sanford, Sangre de Cristo, Sargent, Sierra Grande, and South Conejos) along with the San Luis Valley BOCES for the purpose of implementing an effective approach to increasing the personalization of learning for all students.
If you would like to see the full grant proposal you can go to the Race to the top of the Valley website at http://www.racetothetopofthevalley.org and click on the SLV Community tab to access an Executive Summary and the actual draft application and appendices.
You can also access these documents directly by clicking on these links or copying them to your web browser:
http://www.racetothetopofthevalley.org/index.php/slv-community/2012-10-14-19-36-41/rt3v-district-executive-summary
http://www.racetothetopofthevalley.org/index.php/slv-community/2012-10-14-19-36-41/rtd-grant-application
http://www.racetothetopofthevalley.org/index.php/slv-community/2012-10-14-19-36-41/rtd-grant-appendix
Community feedback on any specific area of the grant and our overall approach is requested. The consortium needs to collect comments no later than October 26, 2012 in order to incorporate suggested changes and to submit a final proposal to the federal government by the October 30th deadline.
Construction News
We are expecting a large delivery and installation of furniture during the coming week. We will also be holding an end of project celebration dinner with core construction committee members, including our builders and architects.
Project closeout will take place during the next month as final furniture purchases will be made, punch list items will be addressed, and final details will be attendee to. The major part of closeout will include finalizing all pay submissions and paperwork documents with CDE’s capital construction department.
Project closeout will take place during the next month as final furniture purchases will be made, punch list items will be addressed, and final details will be attendee to. The major part of closeout will include finalizing all pay submissions and paperwork documents with CDE’s capital construction department.
The Week Ahead
On Monday afternoon we will have a Turnaround Improvement Grant site visit by Cindi Ward from the Colorado Department of Education. Cindi will be walking through Haskin classrooms to see how we are doing. On Monday evening the District Leadership Team will be meeting to chart the progress we have made on our 2012-13 Unified Improvement Plan.
On Tuesday I will be traveling to Denver to attend the Colorado School Finance Partnership’s technical advisory group meeting. Many superintendents from the San Luis Valley will be attending a series of these meetings to make sure the needs of our Valley schools are being taken into account as efforts are made to design a new school finance act.
On Wednesday I will be back in Center attending the weekly Race to the Top Consortium grant writing meeting and then a San Luis Valley Board of Cooperative Services cost-sharing meeting later that evening.
Thursday and Friday are fall break days for the Center School District. Our staff members greatly deserve this mid-semester break, and I hope our families get to use some of this time to catch up with one another after a hectic harvest season.
On Tuesday I will be traveling to Denver to attend the Colorado School Finance Partnership’s technical advisory group meeting. Many superintendents from the San Luis Valley will be attending a series of these meetings to make sure the needs of our Valley schools are being taken into account as efforts are made to design a new school finance act.
On Wednesday I will be back in Center attending the weekly Race to the Top Consortium grant writing meeting and then a San Luis Valley Board of Cooperative Services cost-sharing meeting later that evening.
Thursday and Friday are fall break days for the Center School District. Our staff members greatly deserve this mid-semester break, and I hope our families get to use some of this time to catch up with one another after a hectic harvest season.
Video of the Week
Speaking of school finance, Center High School graduate Stefan Welsh has been working on a project aimed at reminding folks about the value of the Building Excellent Schools Today program. Though not yet a finished project, he has put together a short video that was shown at last Friday’s Colorado School Finance Project meeting, whose topic was B.E.S.T. You can view the video at the following link: http://keepingourfocus.weebly.com/videos.html
Thanks for listening once again. Have a great week!
George
Thanks for listening once again. Have a great week!
George