Great Things Going On
Thanks are once again due to Katrina Ruggles as she has secured an extension of our Comprehensive Health Education Grant. Because of her efforts $45,000 will come in to the district to support continued health education and healthy lifestyle choices for students and parents. Thanks again Katrina!
Center High School wrapped up its first year in a brand new building by passing on diplomas to 33 graduating seniors on Saturday May 25th. At the ceremony Center High School principal Kevin Jones offered words of encouragement for the future, Valedictorian Ofelia Gonzalez and Salutatorian Alexa Lobato addressed the class regarding joyful memories and all the support they received from Center Schools staff members all along the way, and Center High School teacher Russ Braiden shared a message of responsibility and effort, saying “you control the outcome of your future.”
Center High School wrapped up its first year in a brand new building by passing on diplomas to 33 graduating seniors on Saturday May 25th. At the ceremony Center High School principal Kevin Jones offered words of encouragement for the future, Valedictorian Ofelia Gonzalez and Salutatorian Alexa Lobato addressed the class regarding joyful memories and all the support they received from Center Schools staff members all along the way, and Center High School teacher Russ Braiden shared a message of responsibility and effort, saying “you control the outcome of your future.”
Center High School basketball coaches Scott Poole and Mark Jones put on a great youth skills basketball camp two weeks ago. Additionally, they have already been playing summer ball with their tams and it sounds like they are having quite a bit of success so far.
Finally, two weeks ago the Center School District was faced with the prospect of saying goodbye to some very wonderful teaching staff members. 5th grade teacher Sherry Pearson will be moving on to greener pastures. Sherry worked at Haskin Elementary School during the 2012-13 school year and we thank her for all her hard work. Three year Haskin Elementary second grade teacher Melissa Abbott is moving to Connecticut to be closer to family. She will be dearly missed by our children. Seven year Skoglund Middle School science teacher veteran Lisa Renner will be moving on to Utah to be closer to her children. It has been wonderful to see Lisa’s growth as a teacher in the time she spent in Center. Eight year Center High School teaching veteran Russ Braiden has been offered the Del Norte Elementary principal position and, thus, will be moving on to bigger and better things in his education career. Russ was 2012 Center Schools Teacher of the Year and was often selected by senior classes to deliver commencement speeches. His influence on our kids will be greatly missed. Jeri Trujillo, eight year veteran elementary teacher in Center Schools will begin enjoying her retirement from here on out. She has been a key leader and communicator in Haskin Elementary School for many
Finally, two weeks ago the Center School District was faced with the prospect of saying goodbye to some very wonderful teaching staff members. 5th grade teacher Sherry Pearson will be moving on to greener pastures. Sherry worked at Haskin Elementary School during the 2012-13 school year and we thank her for all her hard work. Three year Haskin Elementary second grade teacher Melissa Abbott is moving to Connecticut to be closer to family. She will be dearly missed by our children. Seven year Skoglund Middle School science teacher veteran Lisa Renner will be moving on to Utah to be closer to her children. It has been wonderful to see Lisa’s growth as a teacher in the time she spent in Center. Eight year Center High School teaching veteran Russ Braiden has been offered the Del Norte Elementary principal position and, thus, will be moving on to bigger and better things in his education career. Russ was 2012 Center Schools Teacher of the Year and was often selected by senior classes to deliver commencement speeches. His influence on our kids will be greatly missed. Jeri Trujillo, eight year veteran elementary teacher in Center Schools will begin enjoying her retirement from here on out. She has been a key leader and communicator in Haskin Elementary School for many
years. Carolyn Ruybal, 20 year Center Schools teaching veteran, is moving on to Salida to get married. We wish Carolyn all the best in her future life and will truly miss her. Finally, 36 year veteran Lloyd Garcia and 35 year veteran Shirley Atencio have officially retired. For most of us it will be darn near impossible to imagine Center Schools without their influence. Lloyd taught foreign language, PE and nearly everything he was ever asked to in support of our kids. He is a one time Center Schools Teacher of the Year, recipient of the 1997 Governor’s Award for Educational Excellence, and a long time baseball coach who has amassed over 400 victories and too many league titles to count. Shirley taught in the elementary for the first half of her career and made the transition to middle school language arts during the past 17 years. She was the 2011 Center Schools Teacher of the Year and San Luis Valley Teacher of the Year and finished her career as the best teacher she has ever been. Her leadership influence on the staff and her advocacy for addressing the needs of all our students will be tough to replace.
The Past Week
Unfortunately last week began with an unfavorable decision in the Lobato v Colorado school finance adequacy and equity lawsuit. This capped an 8 year effort by the Center School District and many other partners around the state asking the Colorado court system to hold the Colorado legislature accountable for financing the system of education it has designed. The loss is a most tremendous blow to districts like Center and those in the San Luis Valley that don’t have enough property wealth to effectively supplement the funds it receives from the state to meet the requirement of state accreditation guidelines and graduation requirements. The Lobato family, and Becky and I travelled to Denver on Sunday in anticipation of the decision and to stand by the side of lead attorney Kathy Gebhardt, win or lose, who’s efforts were key to the case progressing as far as it did.
Upon returning to Center on Tuesday I embarked on a Center Schools historic preservation project with the help of some of our current Americorps workers. We spent the better part of the rest of the week sorting through and displaying items that were recovered from time capsules last spring and in hidden closets and attics in the old buildings. These items can now be seen in the main display case in the administration office lobby. We also began sorting through historic photographs in an attempt to update visual slide shows in both the admin office and on the Center Schools heritage wall just outside the Fyock Community Library.
On Wednesday I met with a representative of Aventa Credit Union in regards to a possible partnership to raise money to support implementation of student instructional technology in Center.
On Wednesday I met with a representative of Aventa Credit Union in regards to a possible partnership to raise money to support implementation of student instructional technology in Center.
On Thursday our focus on improving school finance shifted to Senator Michael Johnston’s SB 213 and soon to be attached statewide ballot measure. At the meeting in Alamosa Senator Johnston explained how if Colorado voters approve a question to raise revenues by nearly 1 billion dollars, this would specifically benefit SLV school districts. Kathy Gebhardt was present at this meeting and she had a lot of questions for Senator Johnston regarding the ballot question language options and possible unintended outcomes. Their discussion was productive and we are hoping Senator Johnston will follow through on his commitment to meet face to face with Kathy to iron out her concerns. After the meeting I had the pleasure of bringing Senator Johnston on a whirlwind tour of the facilities of the South Conejos (Antonito) and Sanford School Districts. Antonito was just announced as a 2013 BEST grant recipient and Sanford is in the midst of finishing a BEST construction project. One specific highlight of SB 213 is that it commits a long-term stream of funding to the BEST program, keeping it viable for schools and districts that still demonstrate the need to upgrade facilities but don’t have the local property wealth to do so.
On Friday I met with Kate Willink, a professor from Denver University, about the history of bilingual education in the san Luis Valley and about possibly working with Center High School students on research project surrounding local history story telling.
As if the week were not busy enough, Becky and I spent Friday afternoon and Saturday morning preparing for Saturday’s annual Center Beginner Sprint Length Triathlon at the Sand Dunes Swimming Pool in Hooper. The weather was wonderful, the pool was beautiful, the turnout was great, and four folks closely related to Center Schools completed the event as well as a slew of educators and first time triathletes from around the Valley and state. I would like to offer special thanks to pool managers Carly Harmon and Donnie Bautista for their hospitality, and to our Amiricorps crew for help with set up, registration, route patrol, photography, and event break down.
On Sunday afternoon Becky and I welcomed a bi-national exchange teacher from Mexico into our household. Idalia will be getting trained in Lindamood-Bell reading intervention techniques this week and then she will be supporting our Haskin Elementary Summer Reading Academy work from June 13 to July 4. We hope as folks see her around town they make her feel welcome in her home away from home for the next 6 weeks.
As if the week were not busy enough, Becky and I spent Friday afternoon and Saturday morning preparing for Saturday’s annual Center Beginner Sprint Length Triathlon at the Sand Dunes Swimming Pool in Hooper. The weather was wonderful, the pool was beautiful, the turnout was great, and four folks closely related to Center Schools completed the event as well as a slew of educators and first time triathletes from around the Valley and state. I would like to offer special thanks to pool managers Carly Harmon and Donnie Bautista for their hospitality, and to our Amiricorps crew for help with set up, registration, route patrol, photography, and event break down.
On Sunday afternoon Becky and I welcomed a bi-national exchange teacher from Mexico into our household. Idalia will be getting trained in Lindamood-Bell reading intervention techniques this week and then she will be supporting our Haskin Elementary Summer Reading Academy work from June 13 to July 4. We hope as folks see her around town they make her feel welcome in her home away from home for the next 6 weeks.
Big Things We Are Working On
Summer routines are starting to catch hold. Building administrators are now working to design class schedules and fill open staff positions. I will begin work on our annual federal programs application in the next few days, and I’ll work on sorting through a years worth of policy revision and record keeping final details.
The Coming Week
This coming week teachers from all over the San Luis Valley, including some from Center, will be attending Lindamood-Bell reading intervention training as part of our Valley wide IDEA grant. On Monday I will take a half personal day to work on my sprinkler system. I will attend an IDEA grant meeting on Tuesday morning and will work on credit advancement policies with Mr. Jones in the afternoon. On Wednesday and Thursday I will be in Durango along with other Center Schools leaders to present at the Colorado Legacy Foundation Growing Together seminar. CSD presenters at this event include Center Virtual Academy Director Chris Vance, Skoglund Middle School principal Carrie Zimmerman and Center High School principal Kevin Jones. I will sprint from Durango to Denver on Thursday to attend my last CASE Executive Committee meeting. I will remain in Denver on Friday to attend the CASE Coordinating Council meeting and a bi-national teacher exchange reception at the Mexican consulate.
Extra Points
Last week the Colorado supreme court opinion in Lobato v Colorado leaked out early and, unfortunately, the high court completely reversed the December 2011 opinion of Judge Sheila Rappaport by a 4-2 vote.
Many people have asked me exactly what this means and the best way I can describe it is that because of the court’s newly minted definition of “thorough and uniform,” for the remainder of our generation we will not likely be able to rely on the Colorado judicial branch of government to ensure there is an equitable and adequate system of finance to support our education system.
The decision began with a sweeping statement:
“The supreme court holds that the public school financing system complies with the Colorado Constitution. It is rationally related to the constitutional mandate that the General Assembly provide a “thorough and uniform” system of public education. It also affords local school districts control over locally-raised funds and therefore over “instruction in the public schools.” Accordingly, the supreme court reverses the trial court’s finding that the public school financing system is unconstitutional.”
In arriving at this opinion the court defined a “thorough and uniform system of education” as being one that is “of a quality that is marked by completeness, is comprehensive, and is consistent across the state.” In doing so the court seems to offer evidence that simply by meeting a standard laid out in the constitution that public schools operate for at least three months per year, and that the state simply allocates any amount of funds to these schools, and that the state has given some thought as to how those dollars are divided and distributed, is enough to create a system that is “of a quality that is marked by completeness, is comprehensive, and is consistent across the state.”
The court goes on to say that simply by creating a formula, though it may be admittedly inadequate, the state has created a finance system that is “rationally related to the thorough and uniform mandate.”
Finally, the court ruled that the current finance system does not infringe on local school board control over instruction because the constitution provides local school boards with “mill levy override and bonded indebtedness mechanisms which authorize school districts to raise additional revenue beyond their total programs.” The court says, “these mechanisms afford school districts the opportunity to exert additional local control over instruction by generating and using supplemental local funds.” They add that, “while we recognize that “disparities in wealth” may impair a low-wealth district’s ability to pass mill levy overrides and bonded indebtedness, such a “result, by itself, does not strike down the entire school finance system” on local control grounds. In conclusion, the court states, “we have held that courts must avoid making decisions that are intrinsically legislative. It is not up to the court to make policy or to weigh policy.” While the trial court’s detailed findings of fact demonstrate that the current public school financing system might not be ideal policy, this Court’s task is not to determine “whether a better financing system could be devised, but rather to determine whether the system passes constitutional muster. Our holding today that the current public school financing system complies with the Education and Local Control Clauses of the Colorado Constitution satisfies this Court’s duty to say what the law is without unduly infringing upon the policy-making power of the General Assembly. It thereby affords the General Assembly an opportunity to reform Colorado’s education policy, including the public school financing system, consistent with this opinion.
Importantly, several justices dissented from the opinion. Chief Justice Bender wrote, “In my view, a thorough and uniform system of education must include the availability of qualified teachers, up-to-date textbooks, access to modern technology, and safe and healthy facilities in which to learn. The record, however, reveals an education system that is fundamentally broken. It is plagued by underfunding and marked by gross funding disparities among districts. The General Assembly has failed to . . . fund the increased costs necessary to educate children. Colorado’s education system is, beyond any reasonable doubt, neither thorough nor uniform. I would hold that Colorado’s method for financing public education is not rationally related to the General Assembly’s affirmative duty to provide and to maintain a thorough and uniform system of free public schools. This affirmative obligation requires the General Assembly to implement a finance system that provides Colorado’s students the education system to which they are constitutionally entitled. Hence, I respectfully dissent. “
Bender added, “Student performance rates continue to decline. Colorado ranks 46th in the nation in the rate of high school completion. For those students who do graduate high school, 29% (who attend college) are not college-ready, meaning they must take remedial classes before taking college-level courses. In some districts, over 50% of students are not college-ready by graduation. According to Lieutenant Governor Joe Garcia, who testified as an expert in Colorado education policy, these percentages significantly increase for African-American and Hispanic students and for low-income students. White students are 36% more likely to complete college than Hispanic students. This is the largest “degree attainment gap” in the country and twice the national average. Additional funding is required to close these achievement gaps, but, according to John Barry, superintendent of Aurora Public Schools, “we have been on a steady decline on our resources available to move student achievement and close the achievement gap.”
Also in dissent Justice Hobbs made reference to evidence that was presented by Center High School graduates Stefan Welsh and Taylor Lobato at trial. Referring to Stefan Welsh’s video showing inequities in school facilities, Hobbs wrote, “Students at Vail’s Battle Mountain High School enjoy state-of-the-art video editing labs, a culinary arts studio, and top-end Apple computers. Students at schools in the San Luis Valley attend buildings with crumbling foundations, partially collapsed roofs, caved-in ceilings, ancient heating systems, and inadequate plumbing. Some of these students receive only 40 minutes of computer time per week. Some computers still in use only take 5 1⁄2-inch floppy disks.
Hobbs also quoted Taylor Lobato testifying that when she was at Center High School a single webpage took 20 minutes to load during an online assessment test.
Hobbs concluded that: The majority interprets “thorough” to mean “complete” and “comprehensive” and “uniform” to mean “consistent,” holding that a constitutionally adequate system of free public education is “of a quality marked by completeness, is comprehensive, and is consistent across the state.” For the purposes of this dissent, I need not quarrel with the majority’s definition. I agree with the majority that a thorough system of education must be complete and comprehensive—especially insofar as those terms require an education system to be of a certain quality to be constitutionally adequate— and I also agree that a uniform system of education requires some degree of consistency across districts. However, I cannot conclude, as the majority does, that the finance system is rationally related to providing a thorough and uniform education when the record reveals an education system so crippled by underfunding and so marked by gross disparities among districts that access to educational opportunities is determined not by a student’s interests or abilities but by where he or she happens to live.
On a final note regarding the opinion, I think the court has seriously opened the door to all Coloradans to question whether or not current statute surrounding school accreditation, required student attendance time, and high school graduation standards are constitutional.
In the end I think the majority of the court simply did not have the will to require the legislature to fulfill its role.
So where do we go from here? We in Center will do what is right. We will continue to fight for adequate and equitable funding for our kids. Unfortunately we can no longer rely on our state court system to make sure this happens, so we will have to be the ones to find ways to ensure that our elected officials no longer pass unfunded mandates or ask us to do things we haven’t been given the resources to accomplish. We also have to be the ones to seek statewide support for education by electing people who reflect this value of ours and by acting on ballot questions that will help to bring about real change. I have a basic belief that it is never wrong to do what is right. Fighting for the resources needed to give every child the opportunity to learn and become a productive member of our society is simply the right thing to do. We need to reflect on our efforts and be both sad and angry. But then we need to pick ourselves up and continue to do what has only been right.
Thanks so much for listening again and have a great week!
George
In arriving at this opinion the court defined a “thorough and uniform system of education” as being one that is “of a quality that is marked by completeness, is comprehensive, and is consistent across the state.” In doing so the court seems to offer evidence that simply by meeting a standard laid out in the constitution that public schools operate for at least three months per year, and that the state simply allocates any amount of funds to these schools, and that the state has given some thought as to how those dollars are divided and distributed, is enough to create a system that is “of a quality that is marked by completeness, is comprehensive, and is consistent across the state.”
The court goes on to say that simply by creating a formula, though it may be admittedly inadequate, the state has created a finance system that is “rationally related to the thorough and uniform mandate.”
Finally, the court ruled that the current finance system does not infringe on local school board control over instruction because the constitution provides local school boards with “mill levy override and bonded indebtedness mechanisms which authorize school districts to raise additional revenue beyond their total programs.” The court says, “these mechanisms afford school districts the opportunity to exert additional local control over instruction by generating and using supplemental local funds.” They add that, “while we recognize that “disparities in wealth” may impair a low-wealth district’s ability to pass mill levy overrides and bonded indebtedness, such a “result, by itself, does not strike down the entire school finance system” on local control grounds. In conclusion, the court states, “we have held that courts must avoid making decisions that are intrinsically legislative. It is not up to the court to make policy or to weigh policy.” While the trial court’s detailed findings of fact demonstrate that the current public school financing system might not be ideal policy, this Court’s task is not to determine “whether a better financing system could be devised, but rather to determine whether the system passes constitutional muster. Our holding today that the current public school financing system complies with the Education and Local Control Clauses of the Colorado Constitution satisfies this Court’s duty to say what the law is without unduly infringing upon the policy-making power of the General Assembly. It thereby affords the General Assembly an opportunity to reform Colorado’s education policy, including the public school financing system, consistent with this opinion.
Importantly, several justices dissented from the opinion. Chief Justice Bender wrote, “In my view, a thorough and uniform system of education must include the availability of qualified teachers, up-to-date textbooks, access to modern technology, and safe and healthy facilities in which to learn. The record, however, reveals an education system that is fundamentally broken. It is plagued by underfunding and marked by gross funding disparities among districts. The General Assembly has failed to . . . fund the increased costs necessary to educate children. Colorado’s education system is, beyond any reasonable doubt, neither thorough nor uniform. I would hold that Colorado’s method for financing public education is not rationally related to the General Assembly’s affirmative duty to provide and to maintain a thorough and uniform system of free public schools. This affirmative obligation requires the General Assembly to implement a finance system that provides Colorado’s students the education system to which they are constitutionally entitled. Hence, I respectfully dissent. “
Bender added, “Student performance rates continue to decline. Colorado ranks 46th in the nation in the rate of high school completion. For those students who do graduate high school, 29% (who attend college) are not college-ready, meaning they must take remedial classes before taking college-level courses. In some districts, over 50% of students are not college-ready by graduation. According to Lieutenant Governor Joe Garcia, who testified as an expert in Colorado education policy, these percentages significantly increase for African-American and Hispanic students and for low-income students. White students are 36% more likely to complete college than Hispanic students. This is the largest “degree attainment gap” in the country and twice the national average. Additional funding is required to close these achievement gaps, but, according to John Barry, superintendent of Aurora Public Schools, “we have been on a steady decline on our resources available to move student achievement and close the achievement gap.”
Also in dissent Justice Hobbs made reference to evidence that was presented by Center High School graduates Stefan Welsh and Taylor Lobato at trial. Referring to Stefan Welsh’s video showing inequities in school facilities, Hobbs wrote, “Students at Vail’s Battle Mountain High School enjoy state-of-the-art video editing labs, a culinary arts studio, and top-end Apple computers. Students at schools in the San Luis Valley attend buildings with crumbling foundations, partially collapsed roofs, caved-in ceilings, ancient heating systems, and inadequate plumbing. Some of these students receive only 40 minutes of computer time per week. Some computers still in use only take 5 1⁄2-inch floppy disks.
Hobbs also quoted Taylor Lobato testifying that when she was at Center High School a single webpage took 20 minutes to load during an online assessment test.
Hobbs concluded that: The majority interprets “thorough” to mean “complete” and “comprehensive” and “uniform” to mean “consistent,” holding that a constitutionally adequate system of free public education is “of a quality marked by completeness, is comprehensive, and is consistent across the state.” For the purposes of this dissent, I need not quarrel with the majority’s definition. I agree with the majority that a thorough system of education must be complete and comprehensive—especially insofar as those terms require an education system to be of a certain quality to be constitutionally adequate— and I also agree that a uniform system of education requires some degree of consistency across districts. However, I cannot conclude, as the majority does, that the finance system is rationally related to providing a thorough and uniform education when the record reveals an education system so crippled by underfunding and so marked by gross disparities among districts that access to educational opportunities is determined not by a student’s interests or abilities but by where he or she happens to live.
On a final note regarding the opinion, I think the court has seriously opened the door to all Coloradans to question whether or not current statute surrounding school accreditation, required student attendance time, and high school graduation standards are constitutional.
In the end I think the majority of the court simply did not have the will to require the legislature to fulfill its role.
So where do we go from here? We in Center will do what is right. We will continue to fight for adequate and equitable funding for our kids. Unfortunately we can no longer rely on our state court system to make sure this happens, so we will have to be the ones to find ways to ensure that our elected officials no longer pass unfunded mandates or ask us to do things we haven’t been given the resources to accomplish. We also have to be the ones to seek statewide support for education by electing people who reflect this value of ours and by acting on ballot questions that will help to bring about real change. I have a basic belief that it is never wrong to do what is right. Fighting for the resources needed to give every child the opportunity to learn and become a productive member of our society is simply the right thing to do. We need to reflect on our efforts and be both sad and angry. But then we need to pick ourselves up and continue to do what has only been right.
Thanks so much for listening again and have a great week!
George