Great Things Going On
Last Thursday evening Center Schools hosted a Noche de Cultura y Diversitad (night of culture and diversity) for school district families. This was a wonderful way to honor the many different circumstances our district students come from at home. I want to thank Haskin Elementary ESL teacher JoAnn Lopez, principals Kathy Kulp and Sarah Vance, and BOCES Migrant Director Esmeralda Martinez for the effort they put forth in putting this event on. It was a rousing success!
Congratulations are certainly due to Luis Mariscal, the first Center High School wrestler to win an individual weight class state title since 1996! On Saturday night Luis pinned his opponent in the championship match, presenting long time coach Brian Ullery with his first ever state champion wrestler. On the strength of Luis’ victory and Jose Chavez’ second place finish the Viking mat men finished 8th overall in the Colorado state championship tournament. Congratulations!
Though the Sochi Winter Olympics ended Sunday night I would like to point out that the Skoglund Middle School staff and student body conducted their own Olympic games through a cross curricular unit in which all grade levels took part. I want to commend principal Carrie Zimmerman for encouraging this work to be done and I want to thank our entire Skoglund instructional staff for finding many ways to tie this theme to existing curricular concepts. This is the right instructional work to be doing and I have no doubt our kids will remember this experience for the rest of their lives!
On a final note this week, I’m not sure how many of our Center folks are aware that Center High School junior Aidee Valles is currently serving as our region’s KEY Club Lieutenant Governor. Aidee spent this past weekend in Denver helping to plan for the KEY Club state convention and has been representing Center Schools in an exceptional way all year long.
Congratulations are certainly due to Luis Mariscal, the first Center High School wrestler to win an individual weight class state title since 1996! On Saturday night Luis pinned his opponent in the championship match, presenting long time coach Brian Ullery with his first ever state champion wrestler. On the strength of Luis’ victory and Jose Chavez’ second place finish the Viking mat men finished 8th overall in the Colorado state championship tournament. Congratulations!
Though the Sochi Winter Olympics ended Sunday night I would like to point out that the Skoglund Middle School staff and student body conducted their own Olympic games through a cross curricular unit in which all grade levels took part. I want to commend principal Carrie Zimmerman for encouraging this work to be done and I want to thank our entire Skoglund instructional staff for finding many ways to tie this theme to existing curricular concepts. This is the right instructional work to be doing and I have no doubt our kids will remember this experience for the rest of their lives!
On a final note this week, I’m not sure how many of our Center folks are aware that Center High School junior Aidee Valles is currently serving as our region’s KEY Club Lieutenant Governor. Aidee spent this past weekend in Denver helping to plan for the KEY Club state convention and has been representing Center Schools in an exceptional way all year long.
Big Things We Are Working On
Last week Center School Board President Michael Lobato and Director Richie Barela attended the Colorado Association of School Boards legislative conference to discuss the recently proposed Student Success Act. The Student Success Act aims to provide 260 million dollars in additional K-12 funding beyond what has already been proposed by Governor Hickenlooper in this year’s state budget. The current proposal offers an 80 million dollar buy down of the current one billion dollar public education constitutional shortfall, while also channeling some dollars toward school construction, at-risk student programs, and a few reform efforts. Educators around the state are thrilled that the legislature is working toward providing more dollars to serve students, but are hoping for more of an effort to buy down the one billion dollar negative factor in the process. As the legislative session continues Center Schools will continue to advocate that dollars allocated by the legislature are distributed equitably to support the needs of the students in our community.
I am currently in the process of finalizing mid-year principal evaluations in advance of contract recommendations that will take place during the March board of education meeting. These evaluations will be based on the newly implemented requirements of educator effectiveness in Colorado, and include an analysis of student achievement performance and growth, as well as independent third party evaluations of each building.
I am currently in the process of finalizing mid-year principal evaluations in advance of contract recommendations that will take place during the March board of education meeting. These evaluations will be based on the newly implemented requirements of educator effectiveness in Colorado, and include an analysis of student achievement performance and growth, as well as independent third party evaluations of each building.
The Past Week
Last Tuesday I participated in our district’s monthly Early Steps to School Success meeting, and spent time in the school buildings in the afternoon. On Wednesday I engaged in Race to the top of the Valley work, mainly organizing quarterly assessments and submitting financial and reporting paperwork. On Thursday and Friday I was in Denver for the Colorado Association of Schools Boards legislative conference where we learned more about this year’s school finance act and other legislation that might effect K-12 education. A highlight of this experience was being honored on the floor of the Colorado House of Representatives as a past Demont Award winner for outstanding work as a rural school administrator.
The Week Ahead
On Monday I will be meeting with Center School District Nurse Alice Burch about a new statewide school nurse evaluation process. Center Schools will be conducting Promethean response board training for teachers on Monday afternoon. On Tuesday I have to go back to Denver to attend an event sponsored by Education Trust and Equal Opportunity Schools to learn more about how to increase low income and minority student participation in Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate coursework. My participation in this meeting will allow Center Schools to qualify for grant opportunities aimed at assisting us in this work. Wednesday is an early release PLC day during which students in grades 6-12 will conduct work on their Individual Career and Academic Plans. Also on Wednesday morning I will be in Alamosa attending a meeting related to the renewal of the district health insurance plan. I’ll be back in Alamosa on Wednesday evening to attend a BOCES cost sharing meeting during which I will present general information about Colorado school finance to board members from around the San Luis Valley. On Thursday I have a 2014-15 improvement planning meeting scheduled with building administrators, and will travel to Ridgeway late in the afternoon for Friday’s CDE Rural Education Council meeting that will be held there.
Extra Points
Right now there seems to be a lot of confusion about just what Colorado’s “negative factor” is as it applies to the state’s K-12 school finance system.
The negative factor was put in place by the legislature and then Governor Bill Ritter beginning in 2009 as a result of the state's need to cut school finance in order to balance the state budget due to reduced tax revenues as a result of the Great Recession.
The negative factor measures just how far below Colorado’s Amendment 23 constitutional requirement for education funding the state is (currently just over a billion dollars).
Many educational leaders realize it would be impossible for the legislature to pay back the negative factor all at once at this point in time. However, we are all doing our best to continually remind Colorado’s lawmakers of the negative factor’s existence, its effect on schools, and of the legislature’s obligation to work toward buying it down as soon as it can.
This week I have attached two items that can help you to better understand the effect the negative factor has on schools. The first is a picture (to the right) that shows all the money that has been taken away from school districts over time as a result of the imposition of negative factor. In order to view it you will want to go to this link at http://www.greateducation.org/statistics-faqs/statistics/negative-factor/
The second is a link to a video that shows former Pagosa Springs superintendent Mark DeVoti singing a song encouraging legislators and the Governor to “make that negative factor go away.” It has been done in good humor, but in a way in which you can learn more about what it is.
You can view Mr. Devoti's video at this link;
http://player.vimeo.com/video/87305032
Thanks for listening once again.
George
The negative factor was put in place by the legislature and then Governor Bill Ritter beginning in 2009 as a result of the state's need to cut school finance in order to balance the state budget due to reduced tax revenues as a result of the Great Recession.
The negative factor measures just how far below Colorado’s Amendment 23 constitutional requirement for education funding the state is (currently just over a billion dollars).
Many educational leaders realize it would be impossible for the legislature to pay back the negative factor all at once at this point in time. However, we are all doing our best to continually remind Colorado’s lawmakers of the negative factor’s existence, its effect on schools, and of the legislature’s obligation to work toward buying it down as soon as it can.
This week I have attached two items that can help you to better understand the effect the negative factor has on schools. The first is a picture (to the right) that shows all the money that has been taken away from school districts over time as a result of the imposition of negative factor. In order to view it you will want to go to this link at http://www.greateducation.org/statistics-faqs/statistics/negative-factor/
The second is a link to a video that shows former Pagosa Springs superintendent Mark DeVoti singing a song encouraging legislators and the Governor to “make that negative factor go away.” It has been done in good humor, but in a way in which you can learn more about what it is.
You can view Mr. Devoti's video at this link;
http://player.vimeo.com/video/87305032
Thanks for listening once again.
George