Great Things Going On
Center Schools is proud to announce that Mr. Luis Murillo has been offered, and has accepted, a contract to serve as principal of Skoglund Middle school for the 2014-15 school year. Mr. Murillo, currently a school counselor at Ortega Middle School in Alamosa impressed the seven members of the hiring committee with his belief that with hard work and tenacity anyone can overcome any obstacle, with his knowledge and experience of migrant and English language learner students, and with his overall understanding of what good classroom instruction looks like and how to support it. Mr. Murillo will be on campus for a few days starting Monday June 9th before taking over the duties full time on July 1st.
Gigantic thanks to Haskin Elementary summer school director Sarah Vance, and Skoglund Middle School summer school director Susan Banning for all of the hard work they have put forth preparing for our month long summer school session that begins on Monday June 2nd. They, and their summer school staff instructors, have already identified, contacted, and scheduled kids to attend intense intervention sessions in math and reading during the month of June.
Gigantic thanks to Haskin Elementary summer school director Sarah Vance, and Skoglund Middle School summer school director Susan Banning for all of the hard work they have put forth preparing for our month long summer school session that begins on Monday June 2nd. They, and their summer school staff instructors, have already identified, contacted, and scheduled kids to attend intense intervention sessions in math and reading during the month of June.
Last week Center High School basketball coaches Scott Poole, Jan Vigil, and Mark Jones supported their athletes in offering a summer basketball skills camp to many youngsters in our community. Morning sessions were conducted for students in grades 1-5 and afternoon sessions were put on for the benefit of kids in grades 6-12. I just can’t thank these folks enough for offering their precious time to put on such a great program for our kids in Center!
On Tuesday it was a pleasure to welcome a new Americorps crew to Center. For the next six weeks our community will be be blessed with a crew of seven NCCC workers who will support our summer school program and offer afternoon enrichment opportunities for many of our children. Two of our current Americorps crew members chose to make a return trip to Center, as they had already served us a little more than a year ago in the spring of 2013!
On Tuesday it was a pleasure to welcome a new Americorps crew to Center. For the next six weeks our community will be be blessed with a crew of seven NCCC workers who will support our summer school program and offer afternoon enrichment opportunities for many of our children. Two of our current Americorps crew members chose to make a return trip to Center, as they had already served us a little more than a year ago in the spring of 2013!
On Thursday, at the request of the Colorado Department of Education, I had the pleasure of presenting to the Council of Chief State School Officers about the great work we are doing in Colorado and the San Luis when it comes to supporting and improving rural education opportunities for students. The CCSSO is an organization that includes persons at a governance level from all over the United States similar to that of our own commissioner of education Robert Hammond. At this particular gathering in Broomfield, Colorado representatives from the state departments of education of Alaska, Colorado, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Mississippi, Washington, and Wyoming. Additionally, Deborah Delisle, Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Department of Education was on hand and very interested in how Colorado has been leveraging its Race to the Top round 3 dollars in places like the San Luis Valley.
Big Things We Are Working On
We are currently continuing work on completing our annual federal programs grant application and overall budgeting process, and filling all open district teaching staff positions for the upcoming school year. Last week several new Center Schools teachers received Lindamood-Bell Visualizing and Verbalizing and Seeing Stars training in preparation for their careers in the district. We are also well prepared for our upcoming grade K-5 summer reading academy and grade 6-8 summer school intervention programs that kick off next week.
The Past Week
On Tuesday I met with Center Preschool director Nicole Rocky and Early Steps to School Success program director Alondra Chaparro about sharing the modular facility at the Northwest corner of the school property for the benefit of early childhood programs. On Wednesday I will be working with University of Colorado at Denver research specialist Reginaldo Garcia to locate office space on our campus to host next year’s SPARK PE staff developers. On Thursday I travelled to Broomfield to present at a Council of Chief State School Officers gathering about the work Colorado is doing with its Rural Education Council. I was back in Center on Friday working on department head and classified staff evaluation processes and preparing for the 2014 Center Beginner Triathlon that took place on Saturday.
The Week Ahead
I will be taking some of my vacation time this week to travel to Tucson to visit my Dad who has been in a rehabilitation facility since mid-March. Though I’ll be answering email and taking calls, I’ll officially return to work on Monday June 9th.
Extra Points
Each year near the end of May the Center Beginner Triathlon is held at the Sand Dunes Recreation Pool in Hooper. Though it is just a one-day event that includes aspects of swimming, biking, and running that take place from 7:30 AM until around 11 AM, event participants are actually culminating roughly 20 weeks of difficult training to prepare themselves to complete the 500 meter swim, 12 mile bike ride, and 5 kilometer run. Over the years many Center and San Luis Valley educators have participated in the event, learning how hard work pays off by completing their very first sprint triathlon as a result of the effort. This year around 10 Valley educators trained for and competed in the contest and we are very proud to announce that Haskin Elementary School assistant teacher John Noriega was one of them! John is a highly skilled Lindamood-Bell interventionist for the district, and probably most known as the “voice of the Vikings” at high school athletic contests. If you know him, you may have recognized the physical transformation he has gone through in the past year as he has taken steps to eat better and exercise more, resulting in a tremendous amount of weight loss. In fact this past year John religiously participated in Center High School principal Kevin Jones’ after school workout club. Though he suffered a leg injury just two weeks ago, John gritted his teeth and toughed out the triathlon, completing his very first one in less than 3 hours and 45 minutes this past Saturday. Congratulations John! As the words of wisdom by legendary UCLA basketball coach John Wooden that are printed on the back of your event t-shirt say “do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you CAN do.” You clearly live by this sentiment.
Thanks for listening once again. Have a great week!
George
Thanks for listening once again. Have a great week!
George