Great Things Going On
There have been many great things going on in Center Schools during the past week so please bear with me as I try my best to touch on most of them.
First I would like to thank Center High School track and cross-country coach Dennis Schoenfelder for putting a team of athletes together to participate in the Alamosa Recreation “5K on Ice” event that took place on Saturday January 31st. The cold weather held out long enough for the event to be held, our kids had a great time, competed well, and even won a spirit award for their efforts. Thanks once again Dennis for keeping them involved beyond the regular season and instilling in them a lifelong passion to stay fit!
Thanks also go out to the San Luis Valley BOCES Migrant Education program. Because of their effort 14 of our students attended a wonderful migrant youth conference that took place this past weekend in Alamosa. I want to thank regional migrant
First I would like to thank Center High School track and cross-country coach Dennis Schoenfelder for putting a team of athletes together to participate in the Alamosa Recreation “5K on Ice” event that took place on Saturday January 31st. The cold weather held out long enough for the event to be held, our kids had a great time, competed well, and even won a spirit award for their efforts. Thanks once again Dennis for keeping them involved beyond the regular season and instilling in them a lifelong passion to stay fit!
Thanks also go out to the San Luis Valley BOCES Migrant Education program. Because of their effort 14 of our students attended a wonderful migrant youth conference that took place this past weekend in Alamosa. I want to thank regional migrant
education program director Esmeralda Martinez and Center Schools transportation director Mike Phillips for working together to transport our students to and from events so they could participate.
Center Schools will have a new, yet old, face on campus for the next 3 months. CHS graduate Jose Garcia will be working in our technology department as an intern through Trinidad State Community College. He’ll be helping out in our main tech office and throughout our classrooms. I am truly excited to hear this as I know Jose was in one of our first student cohorts that had access to laptop computers on a daily basis, and always seemed to make the most of that opportunity. Welcome back to Center Jose!
Center Schools will have a new, yet old, face on campus for the next 3 months. CHS graduate Jose Garcia will be working in our technology department as an intern through Trinidad State Community College. He’ll be helping out in our main tech office and throughout our classrooms. I am truly excited to hear this as I know Jose was in one of our first student cohorts that had access to laptop computers on a daily basis, and always seemed to make the most of that opportunity. Welcome back to Center Jose!
Student scientific research and preparation for the upcoming annual San Luis Valley Regional Science Fair is in full swing at the moment and we have many students who are rapidly approaching the finish line with their projects. Center High School science teacher Diego Martinez tells me much of the work our students are doing is simply “astonishing.” There is a super-conductor project, as well as a radiation project that is aiming to find remaining traces of the detonation of the very first atomic bomb that was exploded in southern New Mexico in the early 1940’s. Recently Center High School students have done well at regional, state, national, and international science fairs thanks to the hard work of individuals and our excellent science teachers.
If you are a student, or even an adult, on the Center Schools campus it is getting to be extremely hard to say, “I’ve got nothing to do” as Katrina Ruggles and her crew of Americorps Vista and Local workers are keeping everyone quite busy with after school health, wellness, and enrichment activities that include regular strength exercise classes, Pilates, Zumba, rock wall climbing, and student academic tutoring and scientific enrichment activities such as rocketry. Top all off this off with a wonderful mid-winter Hawaii Day celebration offered by the Center High School student council and our kids and adults have been able to find absolutely no reason not to stay active during and beyond the school day. No wonder Center High School, Skoglund Middle School, and Haskin Elementary School have once again been named finalists for the Colorado Education Initiative's Healthy Schools Champion awards.
Big Things Going On
Last Thursday at the Colorado Association of School Executives winter leadership conference superintendents from all over Colorado held a press conference asking Governor Hickenlooper and the state legislature to increase education spending by $270 million dollars over what he interprets the minimum requirement of Amendment 23 to be. These extra dollars would begin to make up for the current $800 million dollar “negative factor” Colorado education-funding shortfall that was created during the Great Recession. Something I think to be even more significant than this dollar amount ask for is that 174 of Colorado’s 178 superintendents of schools agree the major focus of a large portion of these dollars should go first toward supporting small-rural school districts and school systems that have large concentrations of student poverty.
A major focus of our 2014-15 academic improvement plan has been to offer greater instructional support for our many English Language Learner students. One way we are doing this is by taking the good work we have accomplished during the past several years learning to write clear and concise lesson objectives for all students, then adding distinctive language learner objectives to the mix. In an email to her staff members this past week Haskin Elementary grade 3-5 principal shared this example: A common language arts objective for all young students in a classroom might be, “I will be able to match house vocabulary (words such as house, apartment, floor, door, window, room) to their pictures. An additional objective to support our English Language Learners might look like this: “I will be able to write household related vocabulary words in sentences with the use of a word bank and pictures.” Such an objective allows our English Language Learners to apply the knowledge they are acquiring, while also making sure they have the reference tools they need to guarantee their success in doing so. This process of creating additional language objectives will be quite difficult for our teachers at first. However, thanks to our hiring of Jerry LeBlanc as a part time teacher to support our ESL instructional program, our regular ESL teachers JoAnn Lopez, Anna Bishop, and Nate Koerber are being made available to offer regular classroom teachers extra help toward this effort.
The Past Week
On Sunday I worked on this publication and I also worked quite a bit on revising details related to our Center High School Schools of Opportunity award nomination packet. I also worked on this project on Monday and then met with Ray Abbot to address matters related to how we might transfer ownership of the old Masonic Building to Center Schools. On Monday evening I attended a meeting held by Saguache County Clerk and Recorder Carla Gomez that answered questions related to the conduct of our upcoming board of education recall election. On Tuesday I travelled to Denver to chair the quarterly Colorado School Safety Resource Center advisory board meeting. On Wednesday I worked on a lot of paperwork, including mid-year principal evaluation documents. On Thursday and Friday, along with Center High School principal Kevin Jones, Skoglund Middle School principal Luis Murillo, director of instruction Lori Cooper, and alternative school director Joy Werner, I attended the Colorado Association of School Executives Winter Leadership Conference in Westminster.
The Week Ahead
On Monday I will be meeting with secondary administrators about revisions to Colorado’s high school graduation requirements. On Tuesday I will attend the San Luis Valley Superintendent Advisory Council meeting in Alamosa, our monthly 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 will hold spring semester parent-teacher conferences. We have no school on Friday as we will allow staff members an opportunity to catch their breath following two straight 12 hour work days due to the conduct of parent-teacher conferences. As a reminder, this coming weekend will be a 4 day holiday as we will also recognize President’s Day on Monday February 16th in Center.
Extra Points
This coming Tuesday I have the pleasure of placing a resolution before the board of education of the Center School District to consider naming the baseball field at the Center Community park after long time coach Lloyd M. Garcia. Following is a copy of this resolution:
As can be seen in the board resolution Lloyd has positively impacted our students and athletes here in Center for more than 36 years. I do not have access to the Colorado state high school coaching record book, but have to assume Lloyd is near the top in total games coached, games won, and league championships secured. As long time superintendent of schools here in Center I am truly proud to say I have been in the district for more than half of this amazing man's victories. As a proud father and avid fan of baseball I can think of no better person to have taught my children the intricacies of the game. Should this recommendation be approved by the board of education we look forward to scheduling a special day this spring during which we can honor Lloyd in front of his family and friends, and current and former players.
You are truly worthy of such an honor Mr. Garcia!
Thanks for listening once again.
Geroge
You are truly worthy of such an honor Mr. Garcia!
Thanks for listening once again.
Geroge