Great Things Going On
I would like to begin this week by offering a gigantic thank you to Betty Casanova, our director of finance. While many of us were enjoying our week-long Thanksgiving break, Betty work through the day on Sunday and Monday of last week to ensure payroll would be completed for all Center Schools employees. During this time span she also continued to answer questions from our auditors, who are currently in the process of completing our annual financial review. Betty, I have often told you I have never known anyone who works as hard as you to get things right. I truly appreciate all you do for the staff and students of Center Schools.
On Tuesday Center High School principal Kevin Jones and Center High School Building Leadership Team representative Mark Jones will make the trek to Denver to attend the Colorado Department of Education’s annual awards ceremony. They will be on hand to represent Center High School as it receives a sixth straight Center of Educational Excellence award! These awards are only given to schools in Colorado that have a greater than 75% at-risk student population (as determined by free or reduced lunch count). In order to earn the award a school must exhibit academic growth above the 55th percentile in all statewide tested areas. To receive just one of these awards, a school must accomplish this level of growth for three straight years. To receive six awards in a row, the school would have been growing at the 55th percentile or higher for nine straight years! Center High School has done exactly this. There are people in our community, some on our board of education, who claim like we are doing a poor job preparing our children for a successful future. I know there isn’t a staff member in the district who doesn’t feel we can still do better. However, accomplishing this recognition for six straight years tells quite a different story than they are sharing. Center High School and the Center School District are truly on the right track. Congratulations once again to the students and staff members of Center High School!
On Tuesday Center High School principal Kevin Jones and Center High School Building Leadership Team representative Mark Jones will make the trek to Denver to attend the Colorado Department of Education’s annual awards ceremony. They will be on hand to represent Center High School as it receives a sixth straight Center of Educational Excellence award! These awards are only given to schools in Colorado that have a greater than 75% at-risk student population (as determined by free or reduced lunch count). In order to earn the award a school must exhibit academic growth above the 55th percentile in all statewide tested areas. To receive just one of these awards, a school must accomplish this level of growth for three straight years. To receive six awards in a row, the school would have been growing at the 55th percentile or higher for nine straight years! Center High School has done exactly this. There are people in our community, some on our board of education, who claim like we are doing a poor job preparing our children for a successful future. I know there isn’t a staff member in the district who doesn’t feel we can still do better. However, accomplishing this recognition for six straight years tells quite a different story than they are sharing. Center High School and the Center School District are truly on the right track. Congratulations once again to the students and staff members of Center High School!
Speaking of CHS, one of the things I focused on during the Thanksgiving break was to complete an application process for an Opportunity Schools award on behalf of Center High School. This award has been established by the University of Colorado at Boulder and the National Education Policy Center and is aimed at identifying high schools around the country that demonstrate an ability to close opportunity gaps for at-risk populations, prepare them for a bright future despite a lack of financial resources, community wealth. The targeted areas of importance for this award are as follows: Creating and maintaining positive school culture, broadening and enriching the school curriculum, providing more time for expanded learning opportunities, ending disparities in learning opportunities created by tracking students, using a variety of assessments to quickly respond to student needs, reassessing student discipline policies, supporting teachers as professionals, providing adequate resources for safe and well maintained learning environments, addressing key student health issues, building on the strengths of language minority students, and expanding access to libraries and the internet. The due date for submission for this award was December 1st. We got our nomination in on Sunday, November 30th. I understand we will find out in a couple of months if we qualify as a finalist for this honor, but either way it was worth putting into words all the great things CHS is doing.
On a final note, I want to wish good luck to Mr. Schoenfelder and his cadre of 10 runners who have qualified for and will be attending the national junior Olympics cross country meet this weekend. I’ll report on their effort in next week’s edition.
On a final note, I want to wish good luck to Mr. Schoenfelder and his cadre of 10 runners who have qualified for and will be attending the national junior Olympics cross country meet this weekend. I’ll report on their effort in next week’s edition.
Big Things We Are Working On
I have been told completed recall petitions have been turned in to the Saguache County Clerk by two different advocacy groups in the Center Schools community. During the week before Thanksgiving a group of citizens who call themselves The Committee for Truth and Transparency turned in nearly 500 signatures each, asking the community to recall current school board directors James Sanchez and Phil Varoz. A few days later a group heads by James Sanchez submitted completed petitions asking to also recall board directors Yuridia Cendejas and Richard Barela. I have not yet heard how many signatures were collected by this group.
As I understand things, Saguache County Clerk and Recorder Carla Gomez has 15 days to review the petition signatures to determine which, if any, of these board members will face a recall election in the next several months. If there are enough signatures to possibly recall even just one of these board directors the Center School District will be faced with a slate of decisions to make regarding how best to operate this upcoming election. I'll be doing my best to keep the community up-to-date on what is going on with this as things progress.
As I understand things, Saguache County Clerk and Recorder Carla Gomez has 15 days to review the petition signatures to determine which, if any, of these board members will face a recall election in the next several months. If there are enough signatures to possibly recall even just one of these board directors the Center School District will be faced with a slate of decisions to make regarding how best to operate this upcoming election. I'll be doing my best to keep the community up-to-date on what is going on with this as things progress.
The Past Week
During the past week I spent some time in Tucson, Arizona with my daughter Anne. However, while there I also worked on November payroll items and responded to questions by our financial auditors. Another big task I addressed was writing the narrative for the Center High School Opportunity School nomination. It was nice to be away from work, and it was nice to spend time with my family. I hope each of you have an opportunity to do the same during your Thanksgiving week!
On Tuesday afternoon I had the opportunity to attend a virtual meeting with our old friend Ben Kern, a former Center High School teacher who is now a PhD candidate at the University of Illinois. Despite teaching graduate level classes and working on a doctoral dissertation, Ben is also working on ways to instruct teachers about the importance of incorporating movement activities into regular classroom instruction.
On Tuesday afternoon I had the opportunity to attend a virtual meeting with our old friend Ben Kern, a former Center High School teacher who is now a PhD candidate at the University of Illinois. Despite teaching graduate level classes and working on a doctoral dissertation, Ben is also working on ways to instruct teachers about the importance of incorporating movement activities into regular classroom instruction.
The Week Ahead
I will be completing a lot of general school district paperwork on Monday. On Tuesday I will be doing a Denver and back trip to attend the state awards ceremony and an afternoon meeting with CDE school turnaround personnel.
On Wednesday I have an important student discipline meeting.
Thursday through Sunday I will be attending the Colorado Association of School Boards annual conference in Colorado Springs. While there I will attend a Colorado Association of Senior School Administrators board meeting, I will help to present a session on Colorado’s Rural Education Council, and I will drop in on our Center High School student leaders who will be attending the conference.
Extra Points
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One of the more enjoyable things I got to do while on my trip to Arizona for Thanksgiving break was to attend the annual University of Arizona - Arizona State rivalry football game. I am an Arizona graduate and it was just wonderful to see the Wildcats, under the guidance of Coach Rich Rodriguez, pull out a victory that sends them to the Pac 12 conference championship game this Friday against the Oregon Ducks in San Jose.
This particular college rivalry is a great one, and it was fun to be at a game of such importance. U of A and ASU fans do a great job of playing it up big each year, talking a lot of smack, but always respecting the outcome. Having had the opportunity to sit next to some Sun Devil fans (Scum Devils we like to call them) during the game, I was impressed by the way they cheered hard for their team and how they were quite congratulatory at the end. Competition, be it in athletics or other realms, can often bring out the best in people. I like when it does.
I'm not sure how the Wildcats will do this week against the Ducks, but you can bet I will be wearing my red, white, and blue as often as possible as the big game approaches.
Thanks for listening once again, have a great week, and don't forget to Bear Down!
George
This particular college rivalry is a great one, and it was fun to be at a game of such importance. U of A and ASU fans do a great job of playing it up big each year, talking a lot of smack, but always respecting the outcome. Having had the opportunity to sit next to some Sun Devil fans (Scum Devils we like to call them) during the game, I was impressed by the way they cheered hard for their team and how they were quite congratulatory at the end. Competition, be it in athletics or other realms, can often bring out the best in people. I like when it does.
I'm not sure how the Wildcats will do this week against the Ducks, but you can bet I will be wearing my red, white, and blue as often as possible as the big game approaches.
Thanks for listening once again, have a great week, and don't forget to Bear Down!
George