Great Things Going On
At the time I was wrote this week’s message Center High School had two students competing in the International Sustainable World Energy Engineering Environment Project competition in Houston, Texas. At this event Carmen Ruggles and Daisy Garcia had the opportunity to share the results of their multi-year scientific research projects, competing against the best students in the world. In my opinion just earning a spot in the program is an outstanding achievement for any high school student. We will be very excited to hear how they finished when the news comes out. Congratulations ladies!
I also want to take a moment to thank Center Schools instrumental music director Kate Newmyer, and Haskin Elementary music instructor Gabriel Swanson, for the great work they did preparing their musicians for our annual spring concerts. The middle-high concert took place Wednesday evening, the elementary kids performed on Thursday evening and I have received a lot of feedback about how well the kids performed. Fortunately Center High School Video Productions student Ricky Ward captured the full elementary concert on video and if you want to check it our just click on this link.
I also want to take a moment to thank Center Schools instrumental music director Kate Newmyer, and Haskin Elementary music instructor Gabriel Swanson, for the great work they did preparing their musicians for our annual spring concerts. The middle-high concert took place Wednesday evening, the elementary kids performed on Thursday evening and I have received a lot of feedback about how well the kids performed. Fortunately Center High School Video Productions student Ricky Ward captured the full elementary concert on video and if you want to check it our just click on this link.
Something I have not mentioned for quite a while is how after school tutoring and reading academy has continued to take place during the entire spring semester. Extending the learning day for our students who are performing below grade level is simply a must, and these programs have proven to be quite fruitful in bringing many of our children closer to grade level performance. I first want to thank Haskin Elementary 3-5 principal Sarah Vance, Haskin literacy intervention site coordinator Melissa Garcia, and all of the elementary reading intervention instructors for their hard work all year. I also want to thank Zoraya Vazquez, our MS-HS tutoring coordinator, Center Schools teachers Daniel Newmyer and Kevin Hagan, her main tutors, as well as the bevy of Adams State University and Center Schools employees she has used to provide excellent targeted services to our students in grades 6-12 this year. In Center Schools we know we need to outwork others to catch up, and all of the folks involved in these programs are certainly doing this.
I want to thank Haskin Elementary School secretary Lupita Ortega and assistant teacher Sharon Bacon-Windhorst for the great work they did coordinating the National Elementary Honor Society this year. Their hard work culminated with a wonderful induction ceremony that took place last Tuesday at the Center Schools auditorium. At the event it was wonderful to see the many parents whose tremendous home support has made it possible for so many of our children to achieve this great status.
The Center High School video productions program is still hard at work, and based on their reputation for quality has been asked by the Colorado Education Initiative to produce a video outlining the success of the San Luis Valley Extended Learning Opportunities grant. Dennis Schoenfelder and Stefan Welsh will guide this work, hoping to complete the project by the last day of school. In the mean time their kids continue to put out great, and entertaining, weekly news blurbs, as well as some mighty powerful short videos. I encourage you to explore the Center Schools Facebook page to explore some of these productions.
The Center High School video productions program is still hard at work, and based on their reputation for quality has been asked by the Colorado Education Initiative to produce a video outlining the success of the San Luis Valley Extended Learning Opportunities grant. Dennis Schoenfelder and Stefan Welsh will guide this work, hoping to complete the project by the last day of school. In the mean time their kids continue to put out great, and entertaining, weekly news blurbs, as well as some mighty powerful short videos. I encourage you to explore the Center Schools Facebook page to explore some of these productions.
On a final note, if this is May I must be writing about how the Center High School Baseball team, under the continuing tutelage of legendary coach Lloyd Garcia, has secured a share of yet another Southern Peaks League Baseball Championship. Congratulations guys! We will be rooting for you to secure the overall title this coming Friday in the league baseball tournament and hold hopes for you to advance to regionals and perhaps even the state tournament this year.
Big Things We Are Working On
The Center Schools Calendar Committee did some great work last Monday and will be putting forth a recommendation for 2014-15 to the Center School Board at its regular May meeting. The calendar is quite traditional, except that it calls for a series of “Flex Fridays” in next year's 4th quarter to guarantee less disruption of instruction at this hectic time of year.
Center Schools director of finance Betty Casanova is hard at work piecing together a proposal for our 2014-15 district budget. The major work we are engaging in right now includes pinning down our anticipated end of 2014 fund balance and making our best determination about how much state and federal income we will receive in the coming year. As the legislative session comes to a close we’ll have a better idea as to how much state and local funding we will be working with. However, actual amounts of federal funding in the form of Title and SRS program is still a bit in the air. We are also exploring several scenarios as to how to spend our resources next year including the provision of healthcare benefits for classified staff members, possibly hiring additional teachers to meet our needs at grade levels, in math, and in ESL programs, and making important capital purchases related to transportation and student technology. We’ll be presenting a series of options related to these priorities to the board of education at our regular May meeting on the 13th, and we then hope to adopt a preliminary budget before the end of May and a final budget by July 1.
Center Schools principals have been hard at work, as they always are this time of year, interviewing candidates to fill our known open teaching positions. Kathy, Sarah, Carrie, and Kevin are great at this and I look forward to meeting some of the new folks they are attracting to the district to teach our children.
This coming Wednesday I will meet in a spring negotiations session with leaders of the Center Education Association. At this time of year we look at issues surrounding Master Contract language, and perhaps the largest issue we’ll tackle is just how to get the district to affordably meet the requirements of Obamacare. I always look forward to this work as the relationship between Center Schools and the Center Education Association has always been outstanding.
Center Schools director of finance Betty Casanova is hard at work piecing together a proposal for our 2014-15 district budget. The major work we are engaging in right now includes pinning down our anticipated end of 2014 fund balance and making our best determination about how much state and federal income we will receive in the coming year. As the legislative session comes to a close we’ll have a better idea as to how much state and local funding we will be working with. However, actual amounts of federal funding in the form of Title and SRS program is still a bit in the air. We are also exploring several scenarios as to how to spend our resources next year including the provision of healthcare benefits for classified staff members, possibly hiring additional teachers to meet our needs at grade levels, in math, and in ESL programs, and making important capital purchases related to transportation and student technology. We’ll be presenting a series of options related to these priorities to the board of education at our regular May meeting on the 13th, and we then hope to adopt a preliminary budget before the end of May and a final budget by July 1.
Center Schools principals have been hard at work, as they always are this time of year, interviewing candidates to fill our known open teaching positions. Kathy, Sarah, Carrie, and Kevin are great at this and I look forward to meeting some of the new folks they are attracting to the district to teach our children.
This coming Wednesday I will meet in a spring negotiations session with leaders of the Center Education Association. At this time of year we look at issues surrounding Master Contract language, and perhaps the largest issue we’ll tackle is just how to get the district to affordably meet the requirements of Obamacare. I always look forward to this work as the relationship between Center Schools and the Center Education Association has always been outstanding.
The Past Week
On Monday I had a very busy meeting schedule including doing some work on major budget items for the coming year, conducting our calendar committee work, and enjoying a visit with Chalkbeat rural education writer Kate Schimel. On Tuesday I spent time working in my office, visited classrooms, and keyonoted the Haskin Elementary Honor Society induction ceremony along with part-time Haskin Elementary teacher Jerry LeBlanc. On Wednesday I travelled to and from Oak Creek to attend the CDE Rural Education Advisory Council meeting. On Thursday I spent some time in the Adult Learning-Career Tech facility and attended a CDE webinar meeting regarding an assessment study conducted by the folks at West Ed. On Friday Center Schools hosted Tara Jahn from the Colorado Education Initiative (formerly Colorado Legacy Foundation) to prepare the CHS Video productions class to produce a promotional video about our collaborative Extended Learning Oppotunties work, and to share out what we have learned about blended learning in our buildings.
The Week Ahead
This is Teacher Appreciation Week in Colorado and in Center Schools will be doing all we can to honor the hard work of our excellent teaching staff! During the past 5 years Center kids have academically outgrown most of Colorado’s children and the primary reason for this is engaging classroom instruction aligned to the state standards by excellent teachers, and it is my opinion that our teachers are the best at doing this. If you get the opportunity to personally thank a Center Schools teacher this week for all they are doing to improve the lives of our children, I encourage you to do so. National school nurse day.
On Monday we will be conducting end of year building reviews and we will be providing coaching for our principals to finalize their 2014-15 academic improvement plans. On the same day I will be attending a special Early Steps to School Success lunch event in Alamosa, where some national observers will be gathering, eventually coming to Center Schools on Tuesday afternoon to learn more about the way we operate our program under outstanding site coordinator Alondra Chaparro. On Wednesday I will be meeting with CEA leaders in our traditional spring negotiations session, while Skoglund Middle School will be inducting National Junior Honor Society members during an evening ceremony. Wednesday is also National School Nurse Day, and we will be honoring the wonderful work Center Schools nurse Alice Burch does to keep our children healthy and ready to learn on a daily basis. On Thursday and Friday I get to help supervise the annual 5th grade trip to the Denver Museum of Science and Nature!
On Monday we will be conducting end of year building reviews and we will be providing coaching for our principals to finalize their 2014-15 academic improvement plans. On the same day I will be attending a special Early Steps to School Success lunch event in Alamosa, where some national observers will be gathering, eventually coming to Center Schools on Tuesday afternoon to learn more about the way we operate our program under outstanding site coordinator Alondra Chaparro. On Wednesday I will be meeting with CEA leaders in our traditional spring negotiations session, while Skoglund Middle School will be inducting National Junior Honor Society members during an evening ceremony. Wednesday is also National School Nurse Day, and we will be honoring the wonderful work Center Schools nurse Alice Burch does to keep our children healthy and ready to learn on a daily basis. On Thursday and Friday I get to help supervise the annual 5th grade trip to the Denver Museum of Science and Nature!
Extra Points
Last week Center High School Social Studies Teacher Scott Poole invited a very special speaker to address our high school history students, George Eidinger. Mr. Eidinger taught Social Studies at Las Animas Schools for 31 years. He was born in the Netherlands, living there until he was 8 years old, then immigrated to the United States. Importantly, George’s father was a rescuer in World War II, helping to save over 2,000 Jews who would otherwise have been killed by the Nazis in concentration camps. During his presentation Mr. Eidinger spoke about the heroic work his father took part in and about many other experiences of rescuers during World War II had. Though this is a truly difficult topic for high school students, we in Center Schools believe that as World War II’s "greatest generation" continues to pass it is extremely important that people like Mr. Eidinger are still willing to share what they know about these troubling events that occurred at this point in history. I truly thank Mr. Poole for inviting him here, for exposing our young men and women to this most troubling historical event, and for honoring the good acts that were performed by brave people during such a troubling time in history.
Thanks for listening once again. Have a great week!
George
Thanks for listening once again. Have a great week!
George