Great Things Going On
I would like to thank our Americorps Vista worker Arabia Morgan for encouraging Center School District staff members and students to participate in 2014 Mayor’s Day. April first was the second time this event has been held nationwide. On this day, mayors all over the nation held public events to highlight the value and impact of national service to the nation’s cities and towns. Last year 832 mayors, representing nearly 100 million citizens, participated in the inaugural Mayor's Day of Recognition for National Service. Center Schools participated by having Mayor Herman Sisneros address the staff and students about the importance of community service, and by participating in community clean up events at the Center Community Park, along the Central Canal, and along Highway 112 between Center and Highway 285.
This week the Colorado Department of Education released a series of Colorado Sample Curriculum units in all subjects at all grade levels. This release included work on Comprehensive Health Curriculum that was done right here in Center. This resource is of tremendous value to our teachers, as they are already using it as a guide for teaching and measuring student learning of the Colorado Academic Standards.
This week the Colorado Department of Education released a series of Colorado Sample Curriculum units in all subjects at all grade levels. This release included work on Comprehensive Health Curriculum that was done right here in Center. This resource is of tremendous value to our teachers, as they are already using it as a guide for teaching and measuring student learning of the Colorado Academic Standards.
My thanks to Haskin 5th grade teacher Zoraya Vazquez for sharing with me a creative lesson she presented to her students on force and motion. Ms. Vazquez was teaching Isaac Newton’s first law of motion, inertia. The law states that an object in motion will remain in motion unless acted upon by another force, and that an object at rest will remain at rest unless a force is acted upon it. To ensure her students would understand this concept she presented the class with a simple experiment involving spinning eggs. Given two eggs, she asked her students to do their best to determine which egg was raw and which egg was boiled. Of course the students quickly determined that a raw egg will not spin very long, but a hard-boiled egg will continue to spin. Her students then had to describe how Newton’s Law determined which would spin and which would not. In talking to children about the activity, it was clear to me they very much understood the concept. Thank you, Ms. Vasquez, for sharing your great lesson and for communicating it to us!
In the coming week Colorado Department of Education personnel will be on campus to shoot video of several Center Schools teachers in action in support of CDE's effort to build a video library to help evaluators offer more consistent feedback to teachers about instruction. The decision to film in Center came from a need to expand CDE’s library on what excellent teaching looks like! The teachers being filmed are Colleen Hurst, Zoraya Vazquez, Jessica Stevens, Ashley Lane, Andy Hawkins, and Gabe Swanson.
Finally, I had the opportunity to take four of our board of education directors on an instructional tour of the district last Wednesday and we had the pleasure of peeking in on a number of classrooms where excellent instruction was taking place. My main goal was to help our board members understand the process we follow to support high quality instruction, which begins with our teaching to the Colorado Sample Curriculum, expertly aligning our lesson plans to it, providing administrative feedback regarding lesson planning, then spot checking classes to ensure instruction is aligned to lesson plans and all students are engaged in learning. Every time we visit classes we find something a teacher can improve on, and I am very appreciative that our staff members take our suggestions to heart and work toward improvement.
In the coming week Colorado Department of Education personnel will be on campus to shoot video of several Center Schools teachers in action in support of CDE's effort to build a video library to help evaluators offer more consistent feedback to teachers about instruction. The decision to film in Center came from a need to expand CDE’s library on what excellent teaching looks like! The teachers being filmed are Colleen Hurst, Zoraya Vazquez, Jessica Stevens, Ashley Lane, Andy Hawkins, and Gabe Swanson.
Finally, I had the opportunity to take four of our board of education directors on an instructional tour of the district last Wednesday and we had the pleasure of peeking in on a number of classrooms where excellent instruction was taking place. My main goal was to help our board members understand the process we follow to support high quality instruction, which begins with our teaching to the Colorado Sample Curriculum, expertly aligning our lesson plans to it, providing administrative feedback regarding lesson planning, then spot checking classes to ensure instruction is aligned to lesson plans and all students are engaged in learning. Every time we visit classes we find something a teacher can improve on, and I am very appreciative that our staff members take our suggestions to heart and work toward improvement.
Big Things We Are Working On
Center Schools is working toward compliance with the American Affordable Health Care Health act, also known as Obamacare. Traditionally Center Schools has not provided a health care benefit to non-certified district employees however, we now must do so for folks who have no other health coverage options. This will be a major budgeting issue for this spring as the current cost for a single coverage health plan is just about $6,000. Director of finance Betty Casanova has already done a lot of work and research in support of getting the district to comply with the law, and will now be engaging with staff members as to what this may look like.
A lot is happening right now on the legislative front when it comes to school finance. The Student Success Act and the traditional School Finance Act are due to hit the floor of the House of Representatives this week and already some changes were made to the documents. One major change to the SSA is that the Average Daily Membership requirement has changed from a full-blown implementation to a CDE study project. This should mean a few more dollars will be available to schools and districts in the regular finance formula. Additionally, the SSA now has a $110 million buy down of the negative factor, pushing even more money out to schools than the Governor had originally budgeted. Finally, instead of re-writing how extra dollars designated for English Language Learners should be tracked and spent, the SSA is simply adding these dollars to our current funding formulas. We believe this is a good thing in Center, as what we truly need are more dollars to support our ELL students, not more regulations. Items we are hoping will continue to evolve as this legislation potentially moves into the Senate are: easing the attempted additional requirements surrounding financial transparency (aimed at large population districts), detaching the strings the House of Representatives wants to place on the expenditure of dollars within the Building Excellent Schools Today program (none of which would benefit San Luis Valley school districts), and just how extra dollars will be delivered to high risk student populations, whether through students identified in the READ Act, through the negative factor, or through additional funding of free or reduced lunch students.
A lot is happening right now on the legislative front when it comes to school finance. The Student Success Act and the traditional School Finance Act are due to hit the floor of the House of Representatives this week and already some changes were made to the documents. One major change to the SSA is that the Average Daily Membership requirement has changed from a full-blown implementation to a CDE study project. This should mean a few more dollars will be available to schools and districts in the regular finance formula. Additionally, the SSA now has a $110 million buy down of the negative factor, pushing even more money out to schools than the Governor had originally budgeted. Finally, instead of re-writing how extra dollars designated for English Language Learners should be tracked and spent, the SSA is simply adding these dollars to our current funding formulas. We believe this is a good thing in Center, as what we truly need are more dollars to support our ELL students, not more regulations. Items we are hoping will continue to evolve as this legislation potentially moves into the Senate are: easing the attempted additional requirements surrounding financial transparency (aimed at large population districts), detaching the strings the House of Representatives wants to place on the expenditure of dollars within the Building Excellent Schools Today program (none of which would benefit San Luis Valley school districts), and just how extra dollars will be delivered to high risk student populations, whether through students identified in the READ Act, through the negative factor, or through additional funding of free or reduced lunch students.
The Past Week
I took a personal leave day last Monday. On Tuesday Center Schools participated in Mayor’s Day, and elementary staff members participated in anti-bullying training. On Wednesday I participated in several legislative updated phone conferences and took several Board of Education members on an instructional tour of the district, then stopped in on the middle-high bullying prevention session. On Thursday I started my day by sitting in on the middle-high building leadership team meeting, then conducted a lot of office work, preparing for final evaluation meetings with our director of instruction, alternative school director, and virtual school director. On Friday I had to do a Denver and back trip as I attended a Colorado Association of School Boards “Rural Agility Project” meeting, and did some legislative advocacy for the district.
The Week Ahead
On Monday I will start my day at 7 AM on a legislative advocacy call with the committee representing superintendent interests from all over the state. I will then hold evaluation post conferences with our director of instruction, alternative school director, and virtual school director. In the afternoon I am participating in a WebEx conference with Lindamood-Bell. On Tuesday I have my monthly marathon of meetings beginning with the San Luis Valley superintendent advisory council meeting in the morning at Adams State University, then a Save the Children partnering meeting at 1 PM, then our April district accountability and board of education meetings in the evening. Wednesday is ICAP day for grades 6-12 and I will be participating in the morning as a presenter about careers in education. I’ll participate in legislative update calls at 9 AM and again at 11 AM on this day. On Wednesday afternoon I will meet with classified staff members about Obamacare compliance. I have a light office schedule on Thursday and will be back in Denver on Friday for the April CASE Legislative Committee meeting.
Extra Points
As stated above, on Friday I attended the CASB Rural Agility project meeting. The Rural Agility project is an effort by CASB to support rural districts in applying for waivers from state law, innovation school projects, or even possibly to become “charter districts.” The concept behind this effort is to establish a support system for helping districts go through the legal hoops required to apply for such status. At our meeting we brainstormed three major areas of focus that might be beneficial to rural school systems: 1. Simplifying the Unified Improvement Planning process for rural schools and districts. 2. Being more creative regarding recruitment and qualifications for rural educators, and 3. Alternative ways to evaluate teachers and administrators for rural districts.
I was honored to be allowed to participate in this brainstorming process and believe the work CASB is embarking on could be very helpful in tailoring unfunded mandates and state regulations toward better supporting the success of rural school districts. I am participating on a committee that will create a straw design for a simplified Unified Improvement Planning process and I will, no doubt, share the experiences I have gathered in Center to make this, possibly, an easier and more successful process for other districts.
Thanks for listening once again.
George
I was honored to be allowed to participate in this brainstorming process and believe the work CASB is embarking on could be very helpful in tailoring unfunded mandates and state regulations toward better supporting the success of rural school districts. I am participating on a committee that will create a straw design for a simplified Unified Improvement Planning process and I will, no doubt, share the experiences I have gathered in Center to make this, possibly, an easier and more successful process for other districts.
Thanks for listening once again.
George