Great Things Going On
Last Wednesday Center High School seniors had the opportunity to spend a day at the Wolf Creek Ski Area as a result of their winning the 3rd quarter high school merit contest. Merit awards are earned by middle and high school grade levels when students display excellent behavior along with outstanding academic responsibility and success. Congratulations seniors, as I understand each student who attended this trip had a wonderful time skiing or snowboarding in some of the best conditions Wolf Creek has seen all year!
We are truly excited that Alejandro Tovar, Alyssa Tovar, Jonathon Olvera-Cruz, and Omar Mendoza have been given the opportunity to travel to a national migrant education conference in New York City during the coming week. I want to thank San Luis Valley BOCES migrant education director Esmeralda martinez for making this trip possible.
During the coming week our many of our students will be taking the Language Arts and Math PARCC exams. PARCC is the new assessments that takes the place of our former CSAP-TCAP state assessments and though we are all a bit stressed out about the evaluation format we are confident we have done all we can with the resources we have to prepare our students for it. In the future we will learn from our student results and work toward improvement.
We are truly excited that Alejandro Tovar, Alyssa Tovar, Jonathon Olvera-Cruz, and Omar Mendoza have been given the opportunity to travel to a national migrant education conference in New York City during the coming week. I want to thank San Luis Valley BOCES migrant education director Esmeralda martinez for making this trip possible.
During the coming week our many of our students will be taking the Language Arts and Math PARCC exams. PARCC is the new assessments that takes the place of our former CSAP-TCAP state assessments and though we are all a bit stressed out about the evaluation format we are confident we have done all we can with the resources we have to prepare our students for it. In the future we will learn from our student results and work toward improvement.
Finally, what an outstanding weekend Center Schools scientists at all levels experienced at the 2015 San Luis Valley regional science and technology fair! For the sixth year in a row Center High School captured the small high school award and one of our high school students qualified to present at the state competition. Many of our students won numerous awards and scholarships to attend college. Here is a quick list of those accomplishments: Local Special Awards went to Genesis Villa (SLV Regional Medical Center Award $50), Dean Martinez (High School Computer Award $150), Yamileth Chaparro and KarenHolgiun (Pioneers of Science Award $28), Aidee Valles (Engineering Awards $75), Yarelli Maez (Novice Newton), Obed Perez (SLV Middle School Principal Award), Melissa Chavez (Intel science and engineering; American Meteorology Society), Carmen Ruggles (Intel science and engineering; sustainability), Aaliyah Porres (Intel science and engineering; Mu-Alpha-Theta), and Carmen Ruggles (Healthy Living Award). Grand Awards: Carmen Ruggles (1st Place Behavioral and Social Sciences), Camille Ruggles (2nd Place Chemistry), Ingrid Hernandez & Cynthia Aguilar (Honorable Mention Chemistry), Jozlynn Moreno (Honorable Mention Earth and Space Sciences), Arleth Villalobos and Karina Maez (2nd Place Earth and Space Sciences), Armando Salazar (Honorable Mention Earth and Space Sciences), Melissa Chavez (Honorable Mention Earth and Space Sciences), Blanca Villagomez and Sharon Valadez (Honorable Mention Earth and Space Sciences), Adrian Garcia (Honorable Mention Engineering), Joaquin Martinez (Honorable Mention Engineering), Jordan Lobato (3rd Place Engineering(, Aidee Valles (Honorable Mention Engineering), Melina Espinosa (3rd Place Environmental Sciences), Dean Martinez (Honorable Mention Mathematics and Computer Sciences), Christian Espinosa (2nd Place Physics), Jonathan Torres (3rd Place Physics), Jerry Gonzales (Honorable Mention Physics). Academic Awards: Cael Ruggles, Joel Gonzalez, and Eduardo Holguin Guzman (Honorable Mention Paper). Scholarships: ($3,500 was given and Center students earned $3,000 of that) Genesis Villa (ASU $1,500), Aidee Valles (ASU $1,500) State, Student Observer, and International Awards: Carmen Ruggles (State Qualifier).
Great work folks!
Great work folks!
Big Things We Are Working On
On Monday we’ll conduct our annual Haskin Elementary School mid-year building review. This is taking place a little late this year because of a delay due to bad weather. Our report should be wrapped up in a week’s time. During such a review we bring in an outside consultant to examine the extent to which the building is achieving its academic improvement goals, to review mid-year benchmark assessment results, and to observe the quality of instruction that is being offered to our children by each teacher. Wendy Birhanzel from the Harrison School District will be supporting this process for us this year.
This Thursday brings the end of our 3rd instructional quarter. On Friday there will be no school so teachers can close out their grade books. Additionally, many of you might have noticed that we don’t have any student instructional contact days on Fridays for the rest of the school year. This was designed into our calendar last spring because of the many field trips and student activity events that take place each year after spring break. Of course the district still has the required number of student contact days and hours in its calendar. However, not having students attend school on Fridays this spring will guarantee we don’t have as many instructional interruptions as we used to and we students won't have an excessive amount of replacement teachers during the remainder of the school year. We’ll also be planning many student enrichment activities that will take place on Fridays after spring break in order to provide our families with the opportunity to engage their children in learning activities on during this time anyway.
This Thursday brings the end of our 3rd instructional quarter. On Friday there will be no school so teachers can close out their grade books. Additionally, many of you might have noticed that we don’t have any student instructional contact days on Fridays for the rest of the school year. This was designed into our calendar last spring because of the many field trips and student activity events that take place each year after spring break. Of course the district still has the required number of student contact days and hours in its calendar. However, not having students attend school on Fridays this spring will guarantee we don’t have as many instructional interruptions as we used to and we students won't have an excessive amount of replacement teachers during the remainder of the school year. We’ll also be planning many student enrichment activities that will take place on Fridays after spring break in order to provide our families with the opportunity to engage their children in learning activities on during this time anyway.
The Past Week
I completed a lot of office work on Monday. On Tuesday I had my monthly Early Steps to School Success site visit meeting, participated in a meeting about next steps related to our English language learner instructional process, and was then interviewed during our AmeriCorps State Grant site visit. On Wednesday I worked with director of instruction Lori Cooper on the new things Enet Colorado's Dream platform can offer to our teachers as far as organizing curriculum, quarterly assessments, and teaching resources for our teachers. On Thursday and Friday our students competed in the annual San Luis Valley Regional Science Fair. On Friday I worked on Race to the top of the Valley collaborative tasks.
The Week Ahead
On Monday I will participate in the Haskin Elementary School mid-year instructional review by reviewing benchmark achievement data, discussing improvement processes, and observing classroom instruction. On Tuesday I will attend the San Luis Valley Superintendent Advisory Council meeting in Alamosa in the morning, and return to Center for our regular March board of education meeting. Wednesday will allow me plenty of time to catch up on paperwork. I’ll be taking Thursday and Friday off to attend to personal matters.
Thanks for listening once again!
George
Thanks for listening once again!
George