Great Things Going On
This coming week will kick off with a school holiday on Monday, President’s Day. However, I would like to remind each of you that, as always, the Kiwanis Club of Center will be hosting its annual Pancake Dinner fundraiser event in our school commons area. This is the largest fundraiser of the year for this local service organization and we very much appreciate the support they offer our students when they have unmet educational needs, and through their annual college scholarship program. Please be sure to mark it on your calendar to attend!
This past week we had a visit from the Upward Bound Program at Adams State University. While here program representatives spoke to our 8th graders about the many opportunities offered. Upward Bound is a federally funded project designed to support low-income, first-generation high school students who have the potential to be successful in college. Upward Bound strives to unlock each student's potential through academic skills development and extensive career and personal counseling. Services are offered during the school year with school site work focused on preparing students for
This past week we had a visit from the Upward Bound Program at Adams State University. While here program representatives spoke to our 8th graders about the many opportunities offered. Upward Bound is a federally funded project designed to support low-income, first-generation high school students who have the potential to be successful in college. Upward Bound strives to unlock each student's potential through academic skills development and extensive career and personal counseling. Services are offered during the school year with school site work focused on preparing students for
college level academics. There is also a summer residential strand where high school students can experience what it is like to live on campus and attend college level academic classes.
Though we had hoped to include it in the original design of our building, Center Schools is finally getting an indoor batting cage installed thanks to a bit of a windfall of building improvement funds that are coming from Colorado’s capital construction grant program. Last Wednesday and Thursday the cage was put in place in the auxiliary gymnasium, and on Friday the electric wiring was completed. I want to thank director of facilities Richard Brandt and middle school principal and athletic director Luis Murillo for coordinating the install.
Though we had hoped to include it in the original design of our building, Center Schools is finally getting an indoor batting cage installed thanks to a bit of a windfall of building improvement funds that are coming from Colorado’s capital construction grant program. Last Wednesday and Thursday the cage was put in place in the auxiliary gymnasium, and on Friday the electric wiring was completed. I want to thank director of facilities Richard Brandt and middle school principal and athletic director Luis Murillo for coordinating the install.
I also want to thank our Haskin Elementary staff for taking the time this week to honor all our elementary students who took the state ACCESS exam for English Language Learners and showed significant growth. Often we focus so much on incentivizing our students for success on the common state assessment. It was nice to see the growth being made by our language learners being honored in front of their peers as well.
Finally, this week the Center High School student council will be holding a mid-winter spirit festival! This event includes spirit days such as pajama day on Monday (even though there is no school). Tuesday is Gender Bender day, Wednesday is mismatch day, Thursday is Mardi Gras day, And Friday is Blue and White Day. The event will wrap up at the end of the week with winter royalty being crowned at a basketball game and a high school dance to be held in the Commons area.
Finally, this week the Center High School student council will be holding a mid-winter spirit festival! This event includes spirit days such as pajama day on Monday (even though there is no school). Tuesday is Gender Bender day, Wednesday is mismatch day, Thursday is Mardi Gras day, And Friday is Blue and White Day. The event will wrap up at the end of the week with winter royalty being crowned at a basketball game and a high school dance to be held in the Commons area.
Big Things We are Working On
At last Thursday’s board of education meeting the entire Center School Board voted to pass a resolution asking the governor, legislature, and state treasurer to pay back the Colorado school finance “negative factor” before allowing possible future TABOR refunds to be distributed to individual taxpayers. Starting in fiscal year 2010–11 the Colorado legislature added this new “negative factor” to the public school finance formula in order to make across-the-board cuts to education spending in order to balance the state budget. These cuts have reduced funding to Colorado school districts by over $1billion annually. The “negative factor” has even caused Center Schools to be underfunded by $2.4 million compared to what the intent of Amendment 23 requires. The resolution passed by the Center School Board, and being considered by boards of education all over the state, exposes the conundrum Colorado government officials face as the constitutional provision requiring TABOR taxpayer refunds crashes into the constitutional requirement of Amendment 23 to fund K-12 public education at a specific level. Many of us believe the legislature, governor, and treasurer, acting in unison, can require TABOR refunds first go to buying down the education negative factor, as it was simply a governmental official decision back in 2010 that allowed the state to start reducing the funding that goes to education in violation of the constitution in the first place.
One other major item we continue to work in Center Schools is to have our two-year warranty checklist items addressed. This past week we had workers on site to patch up cracked walls in our school network server room. This caused us to have to turn off our servers, meaning our mail system and web page were inoperable for a period of time.
One other major item we continue to work in Center Schools is to have our two-year warranty checklist items addressed. This past week we had workers on site to patch up cracked walls in our school network server room. This caused us to have to turn off our servers, meaning our mail system and web page were inoperable for a period of time.
The Past Week
On Monday I met with secondary administrators and counselors about revisions that have been made to Colorado’s graduation requirements. This year’s 6th graders, the class of 2021, will eventually be subject to new graduation requirements put forth by the state and we are already talking about how we will prepare them, and our entire system, for this. On Tuesday I attended the San Luis Valley Superintendent Advisory Council meeting in Alamosa and got to participate in a fascinating round table discussion with commissioner of education Robert Hammond about statewide testing, curriculum, and the future of accreditation in Colorado. I then attended our monthly Center Schools District Accountability Committee meeting in the late afternoon, and our regular February board of education meeting in the evening. On Wednesday and Thursday Center Schools held spring semester parent-teacher conferences. On Friday I traveled to Denver to prepare for my week long trip to Mexico as part of Colorado’s bi-national educator exchange program.
The Week Ahead
On Saturday I flew to the Mexican state of Jalisco to participate in a one week binational educator exchange program. I was asked to do so by San Luis Valley BOCES Director of Migrant Education Esmeralda Martinez who said Colorado Department of Education Director of Migrant Education Tomas Mejia encouraged me to attend. I had the pleasure of meeting Dr. Mejia when Center Schools hosted the statewide migrant education director meeting last June. It was a wonderful at that time to present to the group the great things we are doing for all of our students and the participants were much impressed by the evidence we have regarding the tremendous growth we are showing in migrant student achievement.
The Binational Teacher Exchange initiative is an international program between the U.S. and Mexico that provides direct services to migrant students who travel between the two countries with their parents. A main objective of the program is to reinforce knowledge about the history, culture, values, and national traditions of Mexican
The Binational Teacher Exchange initiative is an international program between the U.S. and Mexico that provides direct services to migrant students who travel between the two countries with their parents. A main objective of the program is to reinforce knowledge about the history, culture, values, and national traditions of Mexican
origin students who live in the United States, thereby strengthening their identity and improving their education. Another objective is to improve the educational services offered to the Mexican and Mexican descendent school population living in the U.S.
As part of the Binational Teacher Exchange Initiative this year, 8 Colorado educators will travel to Mexico together from February 14-21. Though I would much rather spend Valentines Day with my beautiful wife Becky, I am attending this event because I feel it will be extremely helpful for me, and for Center Schools, to learn more about the Mexican school system, especially parental expectations and how we might more deeply involve parents in the education of their children.
As part of the Binational Teacher Exchange Initiative this year, 8 Colorado educators will travel to Mexico together from February 14-21. Though I would much rather spend Valentines Day with my beautiful wife Becky, I am attending this event because I feel it will be extremely helpful for me, and for Center Schools, to learn more about the Mexican school system, especially parental expectations and how we might more deeply involve parents in the education of their children.
Extra Points
In a letter recently mailed out to the Center community board members Sanchez and Varoz cherry picked 22 words out of roughly 4 hours of testimony I presented during the August 2011 Lobato v Colorado lawsuit in an attempt to claim I somehow have mislead people about the success of Center Schools.
As is true of much of what they are doing in their current roles on the board of education, there is a slight shred of truth to what I am being quoted as saying. Unfortunately, like they have been doing with every piece of information they share about the Center School District, they present it completely out of context.
The section of testimony they highlight in their political flyer refers to when a state lawyer cross examined me, reading a passage from a letter I placed in the Center Schools 2007 annual report to the public where I said, “my personal measure of the success of Center Consolidated Schools during the past 12 years are the experiences my children have had here and the excellent preparation they have received in anticipation of facing the challenges of the outside world. Center has, in my opinion, provided my children with outstanding educational experiences and excellent academic skills that allow them to compete to the level of anyone they may ever encounter.”
I was asked on cross-examination if I still stood by that statement.
My answer was “no” because by 2011 (4 years after I wrote that letter) after 3 of my children who graduated from Center High School had faced many struggles in college, I came to realize we had not truly been able prepare them for a college life experience.
In the global context I was testifying about the poor condition of the building our kids learned in, our lack of money for adequate instructional resources, and the difficulties we had attracting high quality teachers at the salary we were paying a that time. My issue was equity. Were Center High School children getting the same opportunities as kids in the Telluride, Cherry Creek, and Aspen school districts?
My answer was a resounding “NO.”
The data we have from 2007 shows that by the time our CHS class of 2005 graduates were 2 years out of college, only around 20% were still engaged in postsecondary studies. By 2011 I had come to the conclusion we were indeed doing the best we could with the resources we had, but that was not ever going to be enough and this was why we were suing the state for more.
It is now 2015 and we currently have more than 70 Center High School students taking, and being successful at completing, college level coursework while in high school. As of now nearly 80% of our most recent graduates who have been out of school for 2 years are still engaged in post-secondary studies.
Did I say it was important to put a “positive spin” on our school district accomplishments back in 2007 as they state in their letter? Absolutely! We were doing the best we could with the facilities, dollars, and human resources we had to work with at the time in the Center School District. The state of Colorado set up a system by which we were to compete with other districts for students and the funding that comes along with them. We were in no way doing a horrible job for our kids, especially considering the resources we had to work with. However, our kids in Center clearly weren’t getting access to the resources they needed to get an equitable education. Why do you think we were in court?
Sanchez and Varoz take this information and stretch it to say all I do is place a positive “spin” on what is going on in the school district. If bragging about how the Center School Board, before these guys started their antics, was named Colorado’s school board of the year is “spin,” then I am certainly guilty of that. If writing about the wonderful success we have had through our high school science fair program, sending students to regional, state, national, and international fairs and having them place or win is “spin,” I am guilty of that as well. If having Center High School be the only school in Colorado to win the CDE Center of Educational Excellence Award all 6 years it has been in existence is “spin,” well shame on me. If being proud of having two Center teachers in the past 4 years win SLV Teacher of the Year honors, and one of them named a national Alan Shepard award winner and Einstein Fellow for great instruction utilizing technology is “spin,” well you caught me again. If being proud that Center Schools has achieved full accreditation despite having the most challenging student body demographic in the state of Colorado is “spin,” then I guess I just need to find other field of work.
I hear Varoz is now going around knocking on doors trying to convince people I somehow "lied under oath.” I trust the lawyers who cross-examined me on the witness stand for several hours would have picked up on that. I was asked to give a qualified opinion. That is what I gave. They also had access to five years worth of Center Schools expenditures at that time. In all the time I was on the witness stand they never challenged me about how we spent a dime on kids in Center Schools.
I would like to point out that since the Lobato v Colorado lawsuit our kids in Center now have an excellent new school facility with brand new furnishings (no thanks to Varoz who campaigned vigorously against it), a K-12 one-to-one device program, more support programs such as tutoring and enrichment because of various grants we have been able to access, and a stronger teaching staff to work with them on a daily basis. This did not just happen by mistake. We have fought for all of this over many years.
I hope they know I don't appreciate having them taint this hard work with their slanderous remarks.
Thanks for listening again and don't forget to vote in the recall election when you get your ballot.
George
As is true of much of what they are doing in their current roles on the board of education, there is a slight shred of truth to what I am being quoted as saying. Unfortunately, like they have been doing with every piece of information they share about the Center School District, they present it completely out of context.
The section of testimony they highlight in their political flyer refers to when a state lawyer cross examined me, reading a passage from a letter I placed in the Center Schools 2007 annual report to the public where I said, “my personal measure of the success of Center Consolidated Schools during the past 12 years are the experiences my children have had here and the excellent preparation they have received in anticipation of facing the challenges of the outside world. Center has, in my opinion, provided my children with outstanding educational experiences and excellent academic skills that allow them to compete to the level of anyone they may ever encounter.”
I was asked on cross-examination if I still stood by that statement.
My answer was “no” because by 2011 (4 years after I wrote that letter) after 3 of my children who graduated from Center High School had faced many struggles in college, I came to realize we had not truly been able prepare them for a college life experience.
In the global context I was testifying about the poor condition of the building our kids learned in, our lack of money for adequate instructional resources, and the difficulties we had attracting high quality teachers at the salary we were paying a that time. My issue was equity. Were Center High School children getting the same opportunities as kids in the Telluride, Cherry Creek, and Aspen school districts?
My answer was a resounding “NO.”
The data we have from 2007 shows that by the time our CHS class of 2005 graduates were 2 years out of college, only around 20% were still engaged in postsecondary studies. By 2011 I had come to the conclusion we were indeed doing the best we could with the resources we had, but that was not ever going to be enough and this was why we were suing the state for more.
It is now 2015 and we currently have more than 70 Center High School students taking, and being successful at completing, college level coursework while in high school. As of now nearly 80% of our most recent graduates who have been out of school for 2 years are still engaged in post-secondary studies.
Did I say it was important to put a “positive spin” on our school district accomplishments back in 2007 as they state in their letter? Absolutely! We were doing the best we could with the facilities, dollars, and human resources we had to work with at the time in the Center School District. The state of Colorado set up a system by which we were to compete with other districts for students and the funding that comes along with them. We were in no way doing a horrible job for our kids, especially considering the resources we had to work with. However, our kids in Center clearly weren’t getting access to the resources they needed to get an equitable education. Why do you think we were in court?
Sanchez and Varoz take this information and stretch it to say all I do is place a positive “spin” on what is going on in the school district. If bragging about how the Center School Board, before these guys started their antics, was named Colorado’s school board of the year is “spin,” then I am certainly guilty of that. If writing about the wonderful success we have had through our high school science fair program, sending students to regional, state, national, and international fairs and having them place or win is “spin,” I am guilty of that as well. If having Center High School be the only school in Colorado to win the CDE Center of Educational Excellence Award all 6 years it has been in existence is “spin,” well shame on me. If being proud of having two Center teachers in the past 4 years win SLV Teacher of the Year honors, and one of them named a national Alan Shepard award winner and Einstein Fellow for great instruction utilizing technology is “spin,” well you caught me again. If being proud that Center Schools has achieved full accreditation despite having the most challenging student body demographic in the state of Colorado is “spin,” then I guess I just need to find other field of work.
I hear Varoz is now going around knocking on doors trying to convince people I somehow "lied under oath.” I trust the lawyers who cross-examined me on the witness stand for several hours would have picked up on that. I was asked to give a qualified opinion. That is what I gave. They also had access to five years worth of Center Schools expenditures at that time. In all the time I was on the witness stand they never challenged me about how we spent a dime on kids in Center Schools.
I would like to point out that since the Lobato v Colorado lawsuit our kids in Center now have an excellent new school facility with brand new furnishings (no thanks to Varoz who campaigned vigorously against it), a K-12 one-to-one device program, more support programs such as tutoring and enrichment because of various grants we have been able to access, and a stronger teaching staff to work with them on a daily basis. This did not just happen by mistake. We have fought for all of this over many years.
I hope they know I don't appreciate having them taint this hard work with their slanderous remarks.
Thanks for listening again and don't forget to vote in the recall election when you get your ballot.
George