Echoes From Cañon
Our Mission and Core Beliefs
The Cañon City School District is future-focused, providing innovative educational opportunities to successfully prepare all students to meet any challenge they may face.
1. We meet the social-emotional needs of all students, putting Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs before Bloom’s Taxonomy.
2. We believe learning growth matters most, requires risk-taking, and the work we do in our schools has the greatest impact on this.
3. We’re future-focused, believing the development of certain traits and skills will best prepare our students for ever-changing careers.
4. We emphasize what is good for kids over the needs and comfort of adults.
The Cañon City School District is future-focused, providing innovative educational opportunities to successfully prepare all students to meet any challenge they may face.
1. We meet the social-emotional needs of all students, putting Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs before Bloom’s Taxonomy.
2. We believe learning growth matters most, requires risk-taking, and the work we do in our schools has the greatest impact on this.
3. We’re future-focused, believing the development of certain traits and skills will best prepare our students for ever-changing careers.
4. We emphasize what is good for kids over the needs and comfort of adults.
Our Core Beliefs in Action
Jaden Bell re-stocked the entire Harrison Food Pantry
I wish to thank Cañon City High School senior Jaden Bell for exemplifying our first core belief, "we meet the social-emotional needs of all students, putting Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs before Bloom’s Taxonomy." Jaden recently completed her graduation capstone, and the result greatly benefited the food pantry at Harrison School. Jaden's effort was not only judged by her CCHS Capstone Advisor, but also by Harrison staff members James Krumm and Lorraine King, who have been co-facilitators of the Harrison food pantry. During Jaden's field experience she gathered data about the number of students, adults, and families served, as well as families newly benefitting from the pantry due to COVID-19's impact on their household. Jaden then took it upon herself to solicit donations and last week she and her father dropped off enough food to restock all the shelves!
Our Future Focus
The Cañon City Fremont RE-1, Florence-Penrose Fremont RE-3, and Cotopaxi Fremont RE-3 school districts have been hard at work for several months developing a $1.6 million Colorado Response, Innovation, and Student Equity (RISE) Grant. This opportunity arose due to available federal CARES Act dollars related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
As far back as last January, the three Fremont County school districts saw an opportunity to address inequities across our region and began seeking ways to share resources and programming, enabling students to participate in a greater variety of learning opportunities than they might otherwise.
We believe by working collaboratively, our region can achieve outstanding educational outcomes for all students. Our collaborative includes the three Fremont County school districts, Pueblo Community College, and a number of valued regional business partners.
As a group, our hope is to leverage each other’s resources and talent to amplify the impact of RISE dollars to accomplish the following:
· Expand access to Cañon City’s first rural P-TECH program in Colorado to all Fremont County school district students.
· Ensure every high school student in Fremont County has the opportunity to participate in a highly developed intern and apprentice program that includes more than 110 regional business partners.
· Ensure every Fremont County student has access to the same Early College, Advanced Placement, and Industry Certification programs.
· Guarantee every Fremont County student who might learn better through an alternative/exploratory course of study has access to do so.
· Expand equity in learning opportunities across the county in ways we have yet to imagine.
We'll submit our grant in the coming week and we expect to learn if it has been funded by early January.
As far back as last January, the three Fremont County school districts saw an opportunity to address inequities across our region and began seeking ways to share resources and programming, enabling students to participate in a greater variety of learning opportunities than they might otherwise.
We believe by working collaboratively, our region can achieve outstanding educational outcomes for all students. Our collaborative includes the three Fremont County school districts, Pueblo Community College, and a number of valued regional business partners.
As a group, our hope is to leverage each other’s resources and talent to amplify the impact of RISE dollars to accomplish the following:
· Expand access to Cañon City’s first rural P-TECH program in Colorado to all Fremont County school district students.
· Ensure every high school student in Fremont County has the opportunity to participate in a highly developed intern and apprentice program that includes more than 110 regional business partners.
· Ensure every Fremont County student has access to the same Early College, Advanced Placement, and Industry Certification programs.
· Guarantee every Fremont County student who might learn better through an alternative/exploratory course of study has access to do so.
· Expand equity in learning opportunities across the county in ways we have yet to imagine.
We'll submit our grant in the coming week and we expect to learn if it has been funded by early January.
Applying Our Traits and Skills
Karli Weatherill and MacKenzie Claflin
There's no better way for our students to display the extent to which they've developed the traits and skill we have focused on than through the capstone development and evaluation process.
This month, the Cañon City High School staff has been hard at work evaluating all senior capstone projects. From my vantage point, several have stood out. Jaden Bell's project that benefitted the Harrison School food pantry is one example. At the end of this installment, readers will also learn about two projects benefitting the Cañon City Parks and Recreation District.
One of the most fascinating capstone projects was completed by Karli Weatherill and MacKenzie Claflin. Their topic was the importance of protecting solitary bees. Interestingly, their work already caught the attention of Leesa Carter-Jones, President & CEO of the Captain Planet Foundation based in Atlanta, GA. CPF is an international nonprofit with a mission to work collaboratively to engage and empower young people to be problem-solvers for the planet. It is my understanding Leesa hopes to feature Karli and MacKenzie's project through her foundation's work.
This month, the Cañon City High School staff has been hard at work evaluating all senior capstone projects. From my vantage point, several have stood out. Jaden Bell's project that benefitted the Harrison School food pantry is one example. At the end of this installment, readers will also learn about two projects benefitting the Cañon City Parks and Recreation District.
One of the most fascinating capstone projects was completed by Karli Weatherill and MacKenzie Claflin. Their topic was the importance of protecting solitary bees. Interestingly, their work already caught the attention of Leesa Carter-Jones, President & CEO of the Captain Planet Foundation based in Atlanta, GA. CPF is an international nonprofit with a mission to work collaboratively to engage and empower young people to be problem-solvers for the planet. It is my understanding Leesa hopes to feature Karli and MacKenzie's project through her foundation's work.
Looking Ahead
We're all looking forward to Christmas Break. Prior to that, I'll participate in another Fremont County Education Collaborative planning meeting, a superintendent meeting with Governor Polis, a regular Board of Education meeting and work session, and Facilities Corp and CCEOE meetings. Later in the week, I'll attend a virtual Early Childhood Leadership Commission meeting, and I'll end the week with a virtual administrative office staff holiday party. Though school will continue until the end of the day on December 22nd, I'm not scheduled to work from Monday, December 21st through Monday, January 4th.
Other Voices
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Trevor Branam, Jordan Ovnicek, Liam Monroe, and Casey Horne were honored by the Recreation District Board for their Capstones
Last week I received this wonderful communication from the Cañon City Area Recreation and Park District:
"We wanted to let you know the Cañon City Area Recreation and Park District Board of Directors recognized two groups for their Capstone Projects last night at the December Board Meeting. They were for Riverwalk BINGO and the Junior Tiger Band Camp.
The four students were wonderful. We can’t tell you how excited we were to work with them and look forward to working with additional students in the future.
The Recreation District Board is thrilled and the students represented CCHS well.
We thank Trevor Branam and Jordan Ovnicek for their work on Riverwalk BINGO and Liam Monroe and Casey Horne for conducting the Junior Tiger Band Camp."
I'd like to thank the Recreation district for being such supportive partners for our students, and I thank you all for listening once again.
Please stay safe, have a wonderful winter holiday season, and I'll be in touch in the new year!
George S. Welsh
"We wanted to let you know the Cañon City Area Recreation and Park District Board of Directors recognized two groups for their Capstone Projects last night at the December Board Meeting. They were for Riverwalk BINGO and the Junior Tiger Band Camp.
The four students were wonderful. We can’t tell you how excited we were to work with them and look forward to working with additional students in the future.
The Recreation District Board is thrilled and the students represented CCHS well.
We thank Trevor Branam and Jordan Ovnicek for their work on Riverwalk BINGO and Liam Monroe and Casey Horne for conducting the Junior Tiger Band Camp."
I'd like to thank the Recreation district for being such supportive partners for our students, and I thank you all for listening once again.
Please stay safe, have a wonderful winter holiday season, and I'll be in touch in the new year!
George S. Welsh
