Great Things Going On
On Saturday our most recent Americorps NCCC team departed Center for their next work assignment. While here the members of this team did a wonderful job supporting the instruction and coordination of our elementary and middle school summer school programs. They also helped to make many enrichment opportunities available to Center children including a weekly movie night, a trip to the Great Sand Dunes National Park, a trip to the Creede Reperatory Theater, gardening club, art club, cheerleading camp, and weekly swimming lessons. We will miss these folks, but as always their presence was valuable and because of their presence new friendships have been formed to last a lifetime.
This weekend Becky and I had the pleasure of hosting the Newmyer family as they prepare to depart for a wonderful family adventure. Starting on July 28th Center High School science teacher Daniel Newmyer will be participating in a one-year work internship with NASA. His wife, former Center Schools music teacher Kate Newmyer is going along to home school their two wonderful children, using the incredible historical resources that will be within walking distance of their apartment. Daniel and Kate have already spent a little time in the Washington D.C. area this summer while Daniel was receiving training on tasks he will be assigned. It was fascinating to hear about the experiences they have already acquired and exciting to hear about what their home life will be like living only a twelve minute walk from the capitol mall. The whole Center Schools community wishes each of them the best of luck during this once in a lifetime experience and look forward to seeing them back in our neck of the woods next year!
This weekend Becky and I had the pleasure of hosting the Newmyer family as they prepare to depart for a wonderful family adventure. Starting on July 28th Center High School science teacher Daniel Newmyer will be participating in a one-year work internship with NASA. His wife, former Center Schools music teacher Kate Newmyer is going along to home school their two wonderful children, using the incredible historical resources that will be within walking distance of their apartment. Daniel and Kate have already spent a little time in the Washington D.C. area this summer while Daniel was receiving training on tasks he will be assigned. It was fascinating to hear about the experiences they have already acquired and exciting to hear about what their home life will be like living only a twelve minute walk from the capitol mall. The whole Center Schools community wishes each of them the best of luck during this once in a lifetime experience and look forward to seeing them back in our neck of the woods next year!
Big Things We Are Working On
This week I met with Kirk Banghart, superintendent of schools in Moffat, and Curtis Garcia, principal in Centennial Schools and recently employed by the Colorado Education Initiative to support the work we are doing in the San Luis Valley related to teaching and measuring student learning of the Colorado Common Core curriculum. At this meeting we developed a game plan for preparing teacher leaders for the four all Valley PLC workdays SLV school districts have scheduled for the coming year.
I also met with Lori Cooper this past week to begin preparations for upcoming new staff member orientation activities and whole staff inservice work related to the beginning of the 2014-15 school year. New teachers will begin work during the week of July 29th while the rest of our staff members will return to work on Thursday August 7th. The first day of school for children in grades K-5 will be Monday August 11th. August 11th is also the first day of Jump Start for students in grades 6-12.
I also met with Lori Cooper this past week to begin preparations for upcoming new staff member orientation activities and whole staff inservice work related to the beginning of the 2014-15 school year. New teachers will begin work during the week of July 29th while the rest of our staff members will return to work on Thursday August 7th. The first day of school for children in grades K-5 will be Monday August 11th. August 11th is also the first day of Jump Start for students in grades 6-12.
The Past Week
While tending to all Valley PLC plans and planning for the opening of the schools I also met with some of our department heads about their annual evaluations and providing feedback to the folks they supervise.
Thanks to great work by director of instruction Lori Cooper and administrative office assistant Jessica Ornelas we are also ready to place Jump Start attendance letters in the mail early this week. As a reminder, Jump Start is a three-week program that will take place August 11th through August 28th. It has been designed to assist students in bringing their core academic achievement up to grade level standard.
Annually, at the end of July each parent of a child heading into grades 6-12 receives a letter from the school district indicating one of two possibilities: Your child scored high enough on state assessment tests and is not required to attend Jump Start School. In this case the child gets to extend his/her summer by two weeks, beginning school on the Tuesday August 26th for registration and orientation, and again on Wednesday and Thursday August 27th and 28th to take their beginning of year NWEA benchmark tests –or- Your child has not scored high enough on one or more of their TCAP tests and is required by the Center Consolidated School District to attend Jump Start School for the purpose of receiving individualized tutoring in their core academic area(s) of need, and to be evaluated as to the appropriateness of promoting him or her to the next grade level or awarding him or her their high school credit in that subject area.
As per district policy IKE, any student not scoring high enough on any spring state test is required to attend Jump Start classes in the subject(s) in which they struggled academically. Because of this policy, we do not award high school math, science, or language arts credit or officially promote students to the next grade level until acceptable test results are received or students prove to us through academic progress at Jump Start that they have made sufficient growth during the last academic year. Other details about Jump Start include the following:
· Required participants will attend Jump Start from Tuesday August 11th to Thursday August 28th.
· Any student required to must attend for the entire school day on each of these days.
· The Jump Start school day will run from approximately 8:00 AM to approximately 2:30 PM on each of these days, and transportation will be provided to and from the Jump Start program for all required attendees.
On August 29th each required Jump Start participant will find out if they have shown enough academic growth to earn their high school credit that is in question, or to proceed to the next grade level as appropriate. This determination is based on NWEA reading, math, science, and language mechanics testing or district adopted writing assessments. Students who show one year plus ten percent growth on the appropriate assessments as compared to their performance in the fall of 2013 will then be awarded their high school credit or be promoted to the next grade level.
Thanks to great work by director of instruction Lori Cooper and administrative office assistant Jessica Ornelas we are also ready to place Jump Start attendance letters in the mail early this week. As a reminder, Jump Start is a three-week program that will take place August 11th through August 28th. It has been designed to assist students in bringing their core academic achievement up to grade level standard.
Annually, at the end of July each parent of a child heading into grades 6-12 receives a letter from the school district indicating one of two possibilities: Your child scored high enough on state assessment tests and is not required to attend Jump Start School. In this case the child gets to extend his/her summer by two weeks, beginning school on the Tuesday August 26th for registration and orientation, and again on Wednesday and Thursday August 27th and 28th to take their beginning of year NWEA benchmark tests –or- Your child has not scored high enough on one or more of their TCAP tests and is required by the Center Consolidated School District to attend Jump Start School for the purpose of receiving individualized tutoring in their core academic area(s) of need, and to be evaluated as to the appropriateness of promoting him or her to the next grade level or awarding him or her their high school credit in that subject area.
As per district policy IKE, any student not scoring high enough on any spring state test is required to attend Jump Start classes in the subject(s) in which they struggled academically. Because of this policy, we do not award high school math, science, or language arts credit or officially promote students to the next grade level until acceptable test results are received or students prove to us through academic progress at Jump Start that they have made sufficient growth during the last academic year. Other details about Jump Start include the following:
· Required participants will attend Jump Start from Tuesday August 11th to Thursday August 28th.
· Any student required to must attend for the entire school day on each of these days.
· The Jump Start school day will run from approximately 8:00 AM to approximately 2:30 PM on each of these days, and transportation will be provided to and from the Jump Start program for all required attendees.
On August 29th each required Jump Start participant will find out if they have shown enough academic growth to earn their high school credit that is in question, or to proceed to the next grade level as appropriate. This determination is based on NWEA reading, math, science, and language mechanics testing or district adopted writing assessments. Students who show one year plus ten percent growth on the appropriate assessments as compared to their performance in the fall of 2013 will then be awarded their high school credit or be promoted to the next grade level.
The Week Ahead
This week I will be attending the Colorado Association of School Executives convention along with most other Center Schools administrators. This is an annual event during which we get to share with others what we have learned about increasing student achievement, and we get to learn from others about what they are doing to improve learning opportunities for kids. I have an extremely busy agenda at the conference this year that includes attending a Center for Assessment and Learning feedback session and the Colorado Department of Education Rural Education Council meeting on Monday I will be attending a session on competency based learning systems and the annual Rural Educators Workshop on Tuesday. On Wednesday I have the opening general session, breakout sessions, a luncheon with Commissioner Robert Hammond, and a work session related to San Luis Valley Race to the Top collaborative with Kirk Banghart and Curtis Garcia. On Thursday I’ll attend the second general session, a Commissioners Superintendent Advisory Council meeting, and the Colorado Association of Senior School Administrators department meeting while also presenting the work we have accomplished through our Haskin Elementary School turnaround project during a breakout session. I end the day on Thursday at the CASE president’s reception event before heading back to Center on Friday to host 40th and 50th reunion tours.
Thanks for listening once again and have a great week!
George
Thanks for listening once again and have a great week!
George