Great Things Going On
Congratulations and thanks go out to Center High School science teacher Diego Martinez who took the initiative to write for, and actually receive, a grant to purchase a number of physics and earth science demonstrations for his classroom!
I would also like to thank Skoglund Middle School math teacher Linda Donaldson for the great work she has been doing keeping track of the middle and high school merit points. The merit programs are conducted in grades 6-12 as a way to incentivize and reward students for displaying good academic work ethic and behavior. The merit program pits grade levels against each other in each school, with the Skoglund Middle and Center High class earning the most points being rewarded with a special class activity.
Similar to this effort, last week the Haskin Elementary staff held a Positive Behavior Instructional Support (PBIS) reward day where all students in grades K-5 who have not been issued an orange ticket for misbehavior were allowed to attend an afternoon movie and popcorn to go with it. In total, 180 of our students earned the right to attend this event!
Haskin Elementary also held a special awards ceremony last Thursday, honoring student for improved behavior, excellent writing, and growth in math fluency.
On a final good news note, Center Schools has once again been invited to attend the Colorado Department of Education state awards ceremony, this year to be held on December 2nd. This means the district, or one of its schools, will be receiving special recognition related to accreditation, school academic performance, or school academic growth. Center High School has been a state award recipient for each of the last 5 years, earning Center of Educational Excellence status each time due to exhibiting high academic growth for a high-risk population school.
I would also like to thank Skoglund Middle School math teacher Linda Donaldson for the great work she has been doing keeping track of the middle and high school merit points. The merit programs are conducted in grades 6-12 as a way to incentivize and reward students for displaying good academic work ethic and behavior. The merit program pits grade levels against each other in each school, with the Skoglund Middle and Center High class earning the most points being rewarded with a special class activity.
Similar to this effort, last week the Haskin Elementary staff held a Positive Behavior Instructional Support (PBIS) reward day where all students in grades K-5 who have not been issued an orange ticket for misbehavior were allowed to attend an afternoon movie and popcorn to go with it. In total, 180 of our students earned the right to attend this event!
Haskin Elementary also held a special awards ceremony last Thursday, honoring student for improved behavior, excellent writing, and growth in math fluency.
On a final good news note, Center Schools has once again been invited to attend the Colorado Department of Education state awards ceremony, this year to be held on December 2nd. This means the district, or one of its schools, will be receiving special recognition related to accreditation, school academic performance, or school academic growth. Center High School has been a state award recipient for each of the last 5 years, earning Center of Educational Excellence status each time due to exhibiting high academic growth for a high-risk population school.
Big Things We Are Working On
I am pleased to say Skoglund Middle School is starting an intramural lunch-time program for students. The purpose of this program will be to provide structured activities during lunch recess to minimize behavior incidents during this time and also to give students who do not normally compete in organized sports a chance to do so. Through this program children will get a chance to pick teams and participate for prizes and rewards, as well as place on the wall of champions. Events will start with an ultimate Frisbee tournament that will be led and officiated by Americorps workers.
Mr. Jones and Mr. Murillo once again participated in a valley wide secondary principal PLC this past week. At this session participants shared how each district’s one-to-one technology device programs operate. Principals were introduced to Next Generation learning networks, and a round table on the use of technology in classrooms was conducted. At the end of the session all participants had the opportunity to conduct group classroom walkthroughs at Centennial Schools in San Luis.
Mr. Jones and Mr. Murillo once again participated in a valley wide secondary principal PLC this past week. At this session participants shared how each district’s one-to-one technology device programs operate. Principals were introduced to Next Generation learning networks, and a round table on the use of technology in classrooms was conducted. At the end of the session all participants had the opportunity to conduct group classroom walkthroughs at Centennial Schools in San Luis.
Center High School and Skoglund Middle School held yet another fantastic Individual Career and Academic Planning day (ICAP) this past Wednesday as students got the opportunity to listen to presentations about the dangers of drinking and driving, while also having a chance to use a DUI simulator. In addition, Adams State University athlete and graduate Zoila Gomez shared her life story, from being raised in the small town of Charcas, México, to becoming a U.S. citizen and following her dreams of becoming a professional runner, and getting a college education along the way. Students also had a chance to experience the Milestones in College in Colorado curriculum, offering them a chance to think about creating short term goals and putting some of those goals into action this year.
The Past Week
On Monday and Tuesday I was in Columbus, Ohio as a guest of the Colorado Department of Education attending the Rural Education National Forum. While there I presented, along with Tina Goar, CDE Rural Education Liaison, and John Knapp, former Rocky Ford School District board president, on the topic of Colorado’s unique Rural Education Advisory Council. While at the Forum I also attended a session in which United States Secretary of Education Arne Duncan spoke about rural education issues. In his speech Duncan said the primary challenges for rural educators include adequate funding, access to technology resources, attracting and retaining great teachers, and engaging families in education. Personally, I think we have addressed many of these issues in the Center School District, continually advocating for better funding, implementing a one to one device program and training teachers to use it effectively, and teaming up with Adams State University, PBIC and the Boettcher Foundation on the Boettcher Rural Teacher Program. Duncan says what many rural systems are doing well include development of leaders, innovation, collaboration, creating partnerships between rural schools and districts, and the rural value of commitment to education in general. Duncan pointed out specific examples of rural places successfully turning around schools, providing expanded access to technology, and offering college level work to students while they are still in high school. It sounded to me like he was talking about Center Schools as we are doing all of these things, including concurrently enrolling more than 70 students in college level coursework this year.
I was back on campus Wednesday observing grade 6-12 students experience yet another ICAP day and meeting with representatives from the Boettcher Foundation about two more teacher program grants. On Thursday I had my monthly meeting with Early Steps to School Success supervisor Alondra Chaparro. I met with administrators about this year’s teacher evaluation processes, and also attended a regional meeting in Monte Vista to provide CDE with feedback about the design of a new state assessment and accountability system. On Friday morning I had a wonderful meeting with Nicole Smith, the new Healthy Eaters, Lifelong Movers regional coordinator. We had the opportunity to discuss how the HELM program can support school districts with improved physical education instruction and the role HELM can play in the all valley PLC process. I also attended our Haskin Elementary’s traditional Halloween costume parade on Friday afternoon.
I was back on campus Wednesday observing grade 6-12 students experience yet another ICAP day and meeting with representatives from the Boettcher Foundation about two more teacher program grants. On Thursday I had my monthly meeting with Early Steps to School Success supervisor Alondra Chaparro. I met with administrators about this year’s teacher evaluation processes, and also attended a regional meeting in Monte Vista to provide CDE with feedback about the design of a new state assessment and accountability system. On Friday morning I had a wonderful meeting with Nicole Smith, the new Healthy Eaters, Lifelong Movers regional coordinator. We had the opportunity to discuss how the HELM program can support school districts with improved physical education instruction and the role HELM can play in the all valley PLC process. I also attended our Haskin Elementary’s traditional Halloween costume parade on Friday afternoon.
The Week Ahead
On Monday I will attend a meeting with director of technology Julio Paez and building principals aimed at solidifying policies related to appropriate student use of technology resources. I will also participate in CHS counselor Adele Alfson’s People with a Cause blood drive on Monday. On Tuesday I will spend time in the buildings, while also catching up on job related paperwork. On Wednesday and Thursday Center Schools will conduct annual fall parent-teacher conferences. On Wednesday all students will be released from school at 2 PM; conferences will run from 3:30 PM 7:30 PM. Students in grades 6-12 will follow the same schedule on Thursday while elementary students will not have school at all. We will not have school on Friday in order to give our staff members a chance to recover from consecutive 12 hour days, but on this day I will travel to Pagosa Springs to attend the quarterly CDE Rural Education Council meeting.
Extra Points
This past week a story aired on Channel 7 News about our Alternative to Expulsion program. I will not jump into the deep discussion that is now taking place as a result of the story, but rather attempt to offer everyone a bit of a history of the program, how it began, the problems that were identified, and what was done about these problems.
Our Alternative to Expulsion program was instituted around 10 years ago when Center Schools was seeking to offer a better way to support the continued learning of expelled students rather than sending them home for a year and having them risk being unsupervised throughout their days, getting in deeper trouble, and heading off course from completing their education. Since its inception, participation in the program has been by choice of a child’s parent. Parents can choose to have them participate in the program, or to have them serve out their expulsion in an out of school environment. Center Schools got the idea of using quiet rooms for the program after a visit to Pagosa Springs High School where we saw such 4 by 6 rooms being employed in their In School Suspension program to keep kids from interacting with one another. When Center Schools purchased the modular building at the corner of 4th Street and Sylvester to serve as its new Alternative School facility we also designed it to have a classroom space that could be used for ISS, along with quiet rooms to be used for our Alternative to Expulsion program. The intent of the program has always been to keep expelled kids coming to campus, supervised during the day, away from interaction with other kids who display habitually disruptive or dangerous school behaviors, and on track with daily academic assignments. Another intent of the program has been to shorten the time span during which a student is removed from the regular classroom setting to serve their expulsion. From day one of the program students placed in it have had access to counseling services, a daily ISS style lunch, been exposed to random drug testing (if appropriate for their circumstance), and have usually had a full time staff member there to supervise and support them. Additionally, on occasion the teachers of the students who have been placed in the program visit students to offer support, tutoring, and explanation regarding their required daily assignments.
This past spring, because we had concerns that two of our new board members would not approve the hiring of a full time person to supervise the program, we unfortunately made the decision to have a current employee split time supervising it while conducting the other duties he was responsible for. This left children placed in the program somewhat unsupervised at times during the day. This employee moved back and forth between classroom spaces that were right next to each other. After an incident in which a child in the program told his mother he urinated in a container while in a quiet room, and after the child’s mother reported this information to an individual board member, two of our board members (James Sanchez and Phil Varoz) came to the school to investigate the matter. Their investigation led them to be concerned about the lack of full time supervision for the students in the program, and about our practice of placing students in the quiet rooms with windowed doors that closed them in.
Sanchez and Varoz never contacted me about this investigation and did not express their concerns about the way the program is operated until our board of education meeting approximately 3 weeks after their original visit to the program. I also believe Varoz immediately reported what he observed to the Center Police Department, who then investigated the matter, including asking me for copies of policies related to the operation of the program. I assumed this police investigation was on behalf of Saguache County Social Services and the District Attorney’s office and, as best I know, the Center Police Department at least reported to the District Attorney’s office that they had no reason to believe any crimes against children were being committed in the way we were operating the program. In past written communications I have stated that the police, social services, and the District Attorney said there was nothing wrong with the program. The police definitely said this to me. I assumed there was no concern about the program voiced through social services and the District Attorney because neither of them pursued the matter with us following the police investigation. If I have made it appear that each of these entities have somehow given our program their personal stamp of approval I apologize for that. However, the fact remains that neither of them ever engaged with us to change the program after the police investigation took place.
At the board of education meeting following the Sanchez and Varoz investigation, Varoz read a letter of concern he had about the program that included language using terms such as placing kids in “cells” and “torture.” Many of the district administrators and teachers in attendance were angry when this letter was read, mainly because we felt quite blindsided at the moment. However, an agreement was made that evening to remove the doors from the quiet rooms and to hire a full time program supervisor. All of this was done by that very next morning.
Having assumed that Varoz’ concerns about the program had been addressed the district continued to operate it for the remainder of the year with no further complaints being voiced. However, during the summer months I engaged in personal email communication with Varoz and came to the realization he had additional concerns that we had not yet addressed. The concerns Varoz itemized at this time included making sure all participants have access to counseling services, making sure all participants get exercise breaks, making sure participants get tutorial services, limiting the amount of time participants can be placed in the program, holding weekly conferences with the parents of students placed in the program, letting participants go to the cafeteria to eat their meals, and that the board should be appraised about students placed in the program on a monthly basis.
At our August board of education meeting the administration presented information to the entire board about the progress each individual alternative to expulsion student made following their placement in the program during the last 5 years, then presented to them a draft copy of a newly written administrative policy that codified the practices and addressed most of the concerns Varoz voiced about the program. At the end of our presentation on the policy language we asked for additional feedback should the program not yet meet the desires of all board members. At that time board member Yuri Cendejas asked us to make sure we develop a signature sheet for parents to sign so we can verify their understanding of the program requirements. Varoz said he was "going to be busy for the next three weeks" and did not know if he would have time to offer up any additional suggestions. At our regular October meeting each board member had an opportunity to offer additional suggestions to improve the program. None were offered.
Though the program has already been significantly changed and improved, Channel 7 News, after being contacted by Varoz about the issue, ran what I view to be a one sided story that placed the school district in a negative light. A major aspect of the story is an outright assumption that isolating students from each other for weeks at a time, after they have caused so much trouble in school that they should be expelled for a year, will lead to psychological damage of the child. I haven't done enough research to know if this is true. However, as per our policy change I would like to remind everyone we no longer close children in quite rooms as part of the program.
A last point I would like to offer is that this whole policy discussion about our Alternative to Expulsion program could have actually happened this way if we didn't have a dysfunctional board: A parent could have voiced their concern about the program to one of our board members. That board member could have contacted me about the concern. The board member and I could have visited the program together with the parent and had a discussion about the appropriateness of doors on the quiet rooms and trying to supervise the program with a part time person. We could have addressed these and perhaps many other issues or concerns that very day, and then entered into respectful and thoughtful dialogue with the rest of the board as to how we might make changes to the program or if it is even appropriate to maintain it.
Instead of this potentially productive avenue I was completely left out of the investigation, the post investigation report went to the police and not me or the rest of the board members, follow up letters of concern about the program were distributed throughout the community, a TV news channel was contacted about the concerns (possibly before I ever was), and multiple letters were sent to the State Board of Education (all without knowledge of me and the majority of the board members).
It is my opinion that this is perfect behavior to exhibit as a board member if your actual goal is to deeply embarrass the school district, its majority board, and its superintendent, as opposed to making sure kids are being educated in a safe environment and being treated fairly.
As a bit of a follow up, though I asked Varoz for additional feedback regarding the wording of our updated policy at our September meeting, he still has not offered suggestions for additional changes to me. However, I am completely aware that he hand delivered letters to the editors of the Valley Courier and Center Post Dispatch two days after our October 14th meeting asking for more changes to be made to the policy, and reiterating my need to resign. In my opinion Varoz' actions reflect poor boardsmanship. He had a captive audience of more than a hundred community members on the night of October 14th and could have reiterated his concerns about the program and offered up suggestions to further improve the policy.
It is my belief that improving the policy (which indeed needed to be improved) has not been his real goal. I think discrediting the district and its employees is really his goal.
A final comparison I would like to make is this. When I was in grade school, spanking kids with a wooden paddle was common practice in the realm of school discipline. I got spanked several times. I have spoken to people here in Center who say they were actually spanked by Phil Varoz when he was an administrator in the district. I don't know when the policy allowing spanking ended in Center, but I can pretty much guarantee it was at least a conversation that included the superintendent and all board members. It was probably not initiated by a call to a Denver news channel, the local police department, and letters written to the state board of education.
Our establishment of this Alternative to Expulsion program has been for the sole purpose of solving a problem we had in our community at the time with what to do with kids who would likely be expelled out of school for a year, unsupervised at home, and falling through the cracks. The program has not been perfect. However, I think it has worked better than the alternative. We have made it better. We can still make it better. I just resent that district administrators, the majority of the board of education, and I were never treated like adult professionals during the process.
Thanks for listening once again and have a great week!
George
Our Alternative to Expulsion program was instituted around 10 years ago when Center Schools was seeking to offer a better way to support the continued learning of expelled students rather than sending them home for a year and having them risk being unsupervised throughout their days, getting in deeper trouble, and heading off course from completing their education. Since its inception, participation in the program has been by choice of a child’s parent. Parents can choose to have them participate in the program, or to have them serve out their expulsion in an out of school environment. Center Schools got the idea of using quiet rooms for the program after a visit to Pagosa Springs High School where we saw such 4 by 6 rooms being employed in their In School Suspension program to keep kids from interacting with one another. When Center Schools purchased the modular building at the corner of 4th Street and Sylvester to serve as its new Alternative School facility we also designed it to have a classroom space that could be used for ISS, along with quiet rooms to be used for our Alternative to Expulsion program. The intent of the program has always been to keep expelled kids coming to campus, supervised during the day, away from interaction with other kids who display habitually disruptive or dangerous school behaviors, and on track with daily academic assignments. Another intent of the program has been to shorten the time span during which a student is removed from the regular classroom setting to serve their expulsion. From day one of the program students placed in it have had access to counseling services, a daily ISS style lunch, been exposed to random drug testing (if appropriate for their circumstance), and have usually had a full time staff member there to supervise and support them. Additionally, on occasion the teachers of the students who have been placed in the program visit students to offer support, tutoring, and explanation regarding their required daily assignments.
This past spring, because we had concerns that two of our new board members would not approve the hiring of a full time person to supervise the program, we unfortunately made the decision to have a current employee split time supervising it while conducting the other duties he was responsible for. This left children placed in the program somewhat unsupervised at times during the day. This employee moved back and forth between classroom spaces that were right next to each other. After an incident in which a child in the program told his mother he urinated in a container while in a quiet room, and after the child’s mother reported this information to an individual board member, two of our board members (James Sanchez and Phil Varoz) came to the school to investigate the matter. Their investigation led them to be concerned about the lack of full time supervision for the students in the program, and about our practice of placing students in the quiet rooms with windowed doors that closed them in.
Sanchez and Varoz never contacted me about this investigation and did not express their concerns about the way the program is operated until our board of education meeting approximately 3 weeks after their original visit to the program. I also believe Varoz immediately reported what he observed to the Center Police Department, who then investigated the matter, including asking me for copies of policies related to the operation of the program. I assumed this police investigation was on behalf of Saguache County Social Services and the District Attorney’s office and, as best I know, the Center Police Department at least reported to the District Attorney’s office that they had no reason to believe any crimes against children were being committed in the way we were operating the program. In past written communications I have stated that the police, social services, and the District Attorney said there was nothing wrong with the program. The police definitely said this to me. I assumed there was no concern about the program voiced through social services and the District Attorney because neither of them pursued the matter with us following the police investigation. If I have made it appear that each of these entities have somehow given our program their personal stamp of approval I apologize for that. However, the fact remains that neither of them ever engaged with us to change the program after the police investigation took place.
At the board of education meeting following the Sanchez and Varoz investigation, Varoz read a letter of concern he had about the program that included language using terms such as placing kids in “cells” and “torture.” Many of the district administrators and teachers in attendance were angry when this letter was read, mainly because we felt quite blindsided at the moment. However, an agreement was made that evening to remove the doors from the quiet rooms and to hire a full time program supervisor. All of this was done by that very next morning.
Having assumed that Varoz’ concerns about the program had been addressed the district continued to operate it for the remainder of the year with no further complaints being voiced. However, during the summer months I engaged in personal email communication with Varoz and came to the realization he had additional concerns that we had not yet addressed. The concerns Varoz itemized at this time included making sure all participants have access to counseling services, making sure all participants get exercise breaks, making sure participants get tutorial services, limiting the amount of time participants can be placed in the program, holding weekly conferences with the parents of students placed in the program, letting participants go to the cafeteria to eat their meals, and that the board should be appraised about students placed in the program on a monthly basis.
At our August board of education meeting the administration presented information to the entire board about the progress each individual alternative to expulsion student made following their placement in the program during the last 5 years, then presented to them a draft copy of a newly written administrative policy that codified the practices and addressed most of the concerns Varoz voiced about the program. At the end of our presentation on the policy language we asked for additional feedback should the program not yet meet the desires of all board members. At that time board member Yuri Cendejas asked us to make sure we develop a signature sheet for parents to sign so we can verify their understanding of the program requirements. Varoz said he was "going to be busy for the next three weeks" and did not know if he would have time to offer up any additional suggestions. At our regular October meeting each board member had an opportunity to offer additional suggestions to improve the program. None were offered.
Though the program has already been significantly changed and improved, Channel 7 News, after being contacted by Varoz about the issue, ran what I view to be a one sided story that placed the school district in a negative light. A major aspect of the story is an outright assumption that isolating students from each other for weeks at a time, after they have caused so much trouble in school that they should be expelled for a year, will lead to psychological damage of the child. I haven't done enough research to know if this is true. However, as per our policy change I would like to remind everyone we no longer close children in quite rooms as part of the program.
A last point I would like to offer is that this whole policy discussion about our Alternative to Expulsion program could have actually happened this way if we didn't have a dysfunctional board: A parent could have voiced their concern about the program to one of our board members. That board member could have contacted me about the concern. The board member and I could have visited the program together with the parent and had a discussion about the appropriateness of doors on the quiet rooms and trying to supervise the program with a part time person. We could have addressed these and perhaps many other issues or concerns that very day, and then entered into respectful and thoughtful dialogue with the rest of the board as to how we might make changes to the program or if it is even appropriate to maintain it.
Instead of this potentially productive avenue I was completely left out of the investigation, the post investigation report went to the police and not me or the rest of the board members, follow up letters of concern about the program were distributed throughout the community, a TV news channel was contacted about the concerns (possibly before I ever was), and multiple letters were sent to the State Board of Education (all without knowledge of me and the majority of the board members).
It is my opinion that this is perfect behavior to exhibit as a board member if your actual goal is to deeply embarrass the school district, its majority board, and its superintendent, as opposed to making sure kids are being educated in a safe environment and being treated fairly.
As a bit of a follow up, though I asked Varoz for additional feedback regarding the wording of our updated policy at our September meeting, he still has not offered suggestions for additional changes to me. However, I am completely aware that he hand delivered letters to the editors of the Valley Courier and Center Post Dispatch two days after our October 14th meeting asking for more changes to be made to the policy, and reiterating my need to resign. In my opinion Varoz' actions reflect poor boardsmanship. He had a captive audience of more than a hundred community members on the night of October 14th and could have reiterated his concerns about the program and offered up suggestions to further improve the policy.
It is my belief that improving the policy (which indeed needed to be improved) has not been his real goal. I think discrediting the district and its employees is really his goal.
A final comparison I would like to make is this. When I was in grade school, spanking kids with a wooden paddle was common practice in the realm of school discipline. I got spanked several times. I have spoken to people here in Center who say they were actually spanked by Phil Varoz when he was an administrator in the district. I don't know when the policy allowing spanking ended in Center, but I can pretty much guarantee it was at least a conversation that included the superintendent and all board members. It was probably not initiated by a call to a Denver news channel, the local police department, and letters written to the state board of education.
Our establishment of this Alternative to Expulsion program has been for the sole purpose of solving a problem we had in our community at the time with what to do with kids who would likely be expelled out of school for a year, unsupervised at home, and falling through the cracks. The program has not been perfect. However, I think it has worked better than the alternative. We have made it better. We can still make it better. I just resent that district administrators, the majority of the board of education, and I were never treated like adult professionals during the process.
Thanks for listening once again and have a great week!
George