Great Things Going On Now
I would like to begin Keeping Our Focus this week by thanking Skoglund Middle School Principal Carrie Zimmerman for the great work she has been doing in regard to the Skoglund Middle School and Center High School merit award program. The merit program allows entire grade levels to compete for incentive awards based on behavior and academic performance. I have no doubt the time Carrie puts in tallying the scores on a weekly basis and communicating the standings to students and staff members is greatly appreciated by the kids. Thanks Carrie for all your hard work on this!
I would also like to mention that Carrie has started putting her weekly communication about Skoglund Middle School on the internet so it can be accessed by community members. You can find her weekly report at http://centeroffocus.weebly.com/index.html
I would also like to mention that Carrie has started putting her weekly communication about Skoglund Middle School on the internet so it can be accessed by community members. You can find her weekly report at http://centeroffocus.weebly.com/index.html
I also want to take a moment to thank Haskin Elementary School Principal Kathy Kulp and the Haskin Elementary Building Leadership Team (Chris Hintz, Sarah Vance, Melissa Garcia, Jeri Trujillo, Meagan Long, JoAnn Lopez, and Jessica Stevens) for the great work they have been doing guiding the staff in implementing a new school wide behavior improvement plan. In late October the Haskin BLT identified student behavior as a major area of concern and responded by developing and implementing an action plan to bring about needed improvements. Implementation of the action plan has established a uniform way for each teacher to monitor and support positive behavior. In addition, a Positive Behavior Instructional Support program has been put in place to encourage good behavior habits in the hallways, in the cafeteria, on the playground, and during assemblies. Through this process children are being encouraged to walk quietly in the hallways in a straight line and with voices off, to obey similar rules for positive behavior in the cafeteria, and to display polite and positive behavior when gathered together for school assemblies. Students who don’t follow these expectations are issued an orange "ticket" that requires them to spend lunch and recess time in the In School Suspension program. Students who make it through an entire month without getting an orange ticket are rewarded with a movie and popcorn assembly. Children who display especially positive behavior are awarded a chance to win a special prize at the end of the week. In my opinion the implementation of this plan has created a safer, more positive school environment where kids can focus on the task of learning and increasing their academic achievement. Parents who are wondering about these new behavior expectations are encouraged to visit the school to see how it is working or to contact Mrs. Kulp with any questions they may have.
In the past few weeks the Colorado Department of Education released information about 2011 school and district drop out and graduation rates. The average graduation rate in the state of Colorado for 2011 was 73%. We are proud to announce that Center High School’s 2011 graduation rate was 90%! The average dropout rate in the state of Colorado was 3%. Center High school’s dropout rate for 2011 was only 1.9%! A very positive statistic for Center High School was the fact that its Hispanic graduation rate was 89.2% in comparison with the entire state’s Hispanic graduation rate of only 60.1%. If you are interested in comparing graduation and dropout rates statewide by district and school you can view this information at http://www.cde.state.co.us/index_stats.htm
I would also like to thank everyone who worked so hard to make the annual Center Valley Classic Wrestling Tournament a success once again. I first want to congratulate Mr. Ullery and our wrestling team for achieving a Southern Peaks League Championship at the meet. Center High School Principal Kevin Jones does a great job of organizing and promoting the tournament and I appreciate how Center Schools’ employees pitch in at all levels to make it a success. A special thank you also goes out to the Kiwanis Club of Center for organizing the pre-tournament pancake breakfast and to Center Schools RTI Coordinator Susan Banning for working so hard to provide a wonderful hospitality meal for all coaches and tournament workers. Finally, I want to thank the hard work of our Junior Class Sponsors and Junior Class Parents for running a great snack bar for the event!
A special note of appreciation goes out this week to Melissa Garcia for the great work she has been doing as our Lindamood-Bell Site Coordinator at Haskin Elementary School. Melissa received eighteen months of training to master the skills needed to serve in this role and has been a tremendous asset to the Center School District. Ms. Garcia supports Haskin students by testing and identifying students who need to participate in daily Lindamood-Bell literacy interventions, by supporting instructors who deliver interventions, and by supporting regular classroom teachers in implementing Lindamood-Bell teaching strategies in the course of regular classroom instruction. Thank you Melissa for taking on such an important responsibility and supporting the growth in reading achievement we have been seeing from Haskin students!
Finally, the Center Schools Board of Education formally bade farewell to board members Kim Martinez and Miguel Cendejas at a dinner event held Friday evening. Kim served on the board for nearly 8 years; Miguel served for about 6 years. Each brought a unique perspective to their board work and clearly left the Center School District in better condition than they found it. Miguel and Kim’s hard work was greatly appreciated and their influence on the Board will be sorely missed.
The Past Week
Last week I travelled to Denver to participate in the Colorado Education Association-Colorado School Boards Association-Colorado Association of School Executives Anchor Group meeting, the district experienced a supportive site visit by Lindamood-Bell advisor Tom Mendoza who attended our LMB parent night, I attended the Southern Colorado Superintendent’s meeting in Pueblo, the district focused efforts on planning to submit a 21st Century Community Learning Centers Grant in conjunction with Del Norte School District, and we worked with other San Luis Valley Superintendents to begin to develop a plan to pool our Race to the Top Round 3 dollars to benefit all students in the San Luis Valley.
Big Things We Are Working On
While in the midst of our annual on site financial audit (see photo), Human Resources Director Betty Casanova, Business Manager Sean Monroe and I also revised our 2011-12 budget to better reflect our actual income and expenditures for the fiscal year to this point. We hope to have the Center Schools Board of Education approve our recommendations at a special meeting to be held on Monday January 30th at Noon.
Other major areas of focus right now include working with San Luis Valley School Districts on a plan to leverage Race to the Top Round 3 dollars and working with the Del Norte School District to plan and submit a 21st Century Community Learning Centers grant to benefit Haskin Elementary School, the Academic Recovery Center of the San Luis Valley and Del Norte’s Underwood Elementary School.
Other major areas of focus right now include working with San Luis Valley School Districts on a plan to leverage Race to the Top Round 3 dollars and working with the Del Norte School District to plan and submit a 21st Century Community Learning Centers grant to benefit Haskin Elementary School, the Academic Recovery Center of the San Luis Valley and Del Norte’s Underwood Elementary School.
Construction News
I truly enjoyed conducting construction site walkthrough tours with staff and community members this past week and the general reaction of participants has been very positive to this point. As hoped, many of our tour guests have also been very helpful in offering suggestions as to how we might finish the job right as we approach putting final construction details in place.
It was also wonderful to see several Center High School graduates working on the job site while on these tours!
It was also wonderful to see several Center High School graduates working on the job site while on these tours!
Our Core Beliefs
Center Schools core belief number 2 states “With our support ALL children can achieve at high levels.” This concept is steeped in the belief that the efforts of our staff members truly matter. This means that by working hard to do the things research has shown work when it comes to increasing student achievement, we CAN significantly raise student achievement.
Many of you might also notice that in most of our core beliefs the words ALL or EVERYONE are rendered in all capital letters. This is done because we want to make it absolutely clear that every child is important and every child CAN learn, grow and achieve at high levels. It is only through our hard work and support for children that we will accomplish this core belief.
Many of you might also notice that in most of our core beliefs the words ALL or EVERYONE are rendered in all capital letters. This is done because we want to make it absolutely clear that every child is important and every child CAN learn, grow and achieve at high levels. It is only through our hard work and support for children that we will accomplish this core belief.
The Week Ahead
The Center Schools Board of Education will hold a special budget revision meeting on Monday at Noon. On Tuesday I will be in Denver for a Colorado Department of Education Senate Bill 191 (Educator Effectiveness) work group session. I will be spending the rest of the week in the Denver area attending a Colorado Department of Education Turnaround Professional Learning Community meeting and then to be the Master of Ceremonies at the annual Colorado Association of School Executives Winter Leadership Conference in my role as CASE President.
At the end of the week Becky and I will be hosting a Super Bowl party for our current crew of Center Americorps workers. Despite being a Giants fan, their team leader Jeff Burnor will not be excluded (remember, we believe ALL children can learn:-). Go Patriots!
At the end of the week Becky and I will be hosting a Super Bowl party for our current crew of Center Americorps workers. Despite being a Giants fan, their team leader Jeff Burnor will not be excluded (remember, we believe ALL children can learn:-). Go Patriots!
Extra Points
This past week there was an interesting article in EdNews Colorado that highlighted a tale of two schools in the Denver Public School District. One has a Parent Teacher Organization that provided roughly $250,000 in extra funds to its school. The other gets $160,000 more than the first school in Title I money because it has an extremely high poverty rate.
I’ll let you read the article and establish your own opinion about which school has the resources it needs to do its job, but I would also like to share mine with you.
Go to this link to see the story: http://www.ednewscolorado.org/2012/01/24/31775-winners-losers-in-dps-private-giving
In a state where the education accreditation system has been designed with an expectation that ALL children will make progress to perform at grade level in each tested subject and ALL children will end school being postsecondary ready, the fact that only SOME schools are capable of doing this, only because they have a population well off enough to contribute the extra dollars it takes to establish such a school, is downright troubling.
By no means am I disparaging a group of school parents who find it in their hearts to pump enough money in their local school to purchase extra music and classroom teachers and extra classroom instructional assistants. I have no doubt they have done this because they found it was needed. I just ask myself, “what do the schools that have these same needs do if they don’t have such a wealthy and generous community that will support it?”
This was a primary question of the Lobato lawsuit. Colorado has examples of many schools that, even though they don’t get enough resources from the state to provide the fundamental education programs being expected by the state, they find a way to do so. What many people in Colorado don’t understand is that there are any places where this is just not possible.
I just have to believe there is something misguided about a state’s education finance system if the prime factor in whether or not a child gets access to the fundamental education services they need is dependent on where that child lives.
I’ll let you read the article and establish your own opinion about which school has the resources it needs to do its job, but I would also like to share mine with you.
Go to this link to see the story: http://www.ednewscolorado.org/2012/01/24/31775-winners-losers-in-dps-private-giving
In a state where the education accreditation system has been designed with an expectation that ALL children will make progress to perform at grade level in each tested subject and ALL children will end school being postsecondary ready, the fact that only SOME schools are capable of doing this, only because they have a population well off enough to contribute the extra dollars it takes to establish such a school, is downright troubling.
By no means am I disparaging a group of school parents who find it in their hearts to pump enough money in their local school to purchase extra music and classroom teachers and extra classroom instructional assistants. I have no doubt they have done this because they found it was needed. I just ask myself, “what do the schools that have these same needs do if they don’t have such a wealthy and generous community that will support it?”
This was a primary question of the Lobato lawsuit. Colorado has examples of many schools that, even though they don’t get enough resources from the state to provide the fundamental education programs being expected by the state, they find a way to do so. What many people in Colorado don’t understand is that there are any places where this is just not possible.
I just have to believe there is something misguided about a state’s education finance system if the prime factor in whether or not a child gets access to the fundamental education services they need is dependent on where that child lives.
Video of the Week
This week I have placed on the Keeping Our Focus video page a project I completed in 2010 called “Ninety Three Years of Center Schools.”
At a time when tremendous changes are taking place both inside and outside our schools I thought many of you might like to get a taste of just how many generations of students our wonderfully old structures have been serving the community of Center.
There is no doubt we are truly excited about the coming opening of our new school. However, I hope when you view this video you get the message that what really matters most about our educational community are the people. Center Schools has a tremendous history of being filled by outstanding people and we are hoping our new building will guarantee this legacy to continue for another ninety three years or so.
Go to this link to access the video: http://keepingourfocus.weebly.com/videos.html
At a time when tremendous changes are taking place both inside and outside our schools I thought many of you might like to get a taste of just how many generations of students our wonderfully old structures have been serving the community of Center.
There is no doubt we are truly excited about the coming opening of our new school. However, I hope when you view this video you get the message that what really matters most about our educational community are the people. Center Schools has a tremendous history of being filled by outstanding people and we are hoping our new building will guarantee this legacy to continue for another ninety three years or so.
Go to this link to access the video: http://keepingourfocus.weebly.com/videos.html
Thanks for once again listening and have another great week.
George
George