Echoes from Cañon
Examples of Excellence
We are excited that our ECHO and Family Center Early Childhood Council has been selected to receive a LAUNCH Together Community Planning Grant from the Rose Community Foundation for $55,000.
I want to thank the many Cañon City School District students and staff members who made this year’s Christmas parade such a great event. I know many folks put in lots of hours outside work to prepare floats and various programs to participate and your presence made the event a success!
I want to thank the many Cañon City School District students and staff members who made this year’s Christmas parade such a great event. I know many folks put in lots of hours outside work to prepare floats and various programs to participate and your presence made the event a success!
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I would like to take a moment to congratulate the Cañon City Police Department for being selected once again as a national award winner for outstanding participation in the annual Night Out Against Crime. Cañon City and the CCPD was recognized out of 16,728 participating communities nationwide, and was one of only 161 departments to win this award, the only one in Colorado to do so!
I also want to thank Jamie Davis and Nancy Saionz for the outstanding work they have been doing guiding our new teachers through their Induction program. I had the opportunity to observe this process this past week and am extremely pleased with the tools being offered to support our instructors. Thanks!
I also want to thank Jamie Davis and Nancy Saionz for the outstanding work they have been doing guiding our new teachers through their Induction program. I had the opportunity to observe this process this past week and am extremely pleased with the tools being offered to support our instructors. Thanks!
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Finally, the Cañon City School district had quite a presence at this year’s Colorado Association of School Boards annual convention this past weekend. On Friday at noon, Todd Albrecht’s Encore students wowed roughly 1,000 convention attendees with their outstanding performance on the Broadmoor International Center stage. Later that afternoon board Vice-President Lloyd Harwood and I participated in a well attended panel presentation about student sexting, and right after that, in front of a full breakout session, our entire board of education presented the process we followed this fall to create a tailor made superintendent evaluation for our district. If that were not enough, five Cañon City High School student leaders participated in the student leadership conference being held at the same time and our board had an outstanding engagement session with them on Saturday morning, picking their brains about what is working well in our district and what we might do to improve learning opportunities for all children.
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The Focus of Our Work
The focus of our instructional effort this week will center on creating a final draft of our evaluation calculator to be used by teachers to create models by which they can incorporate student achievement outcomes in their annual performance evaluations. Our Evaluation Council will begin this work on Monday evening, and our building instructional leaders will complete it on Tuesday afternoon.
On another front, I was notified the police investigation into the recent Cañon City High School sexting incident is complete, so this week I will meet with Police Chief Paul Schultz and District Attorney Thom LeDoux to review those results and will work with CCHS administrators to make decisions related to whether or not any students will receive consequences for activity related to this that took place at school or during school activities. Additionally, Senator Kevin Grantham has asked us to host a Town Hall meeting about this issue; we will open the CCSD board room to the community this Friday December 11th at 3:30 PM. Senator Grantham hopes to hear from community members about how we can ensure future incidents can be avoided, and how the legislature might support improved education and updated legislation in relation to this.
On another front, I was notified the police investigation into the recent Cañon City High School sexting incident is complete, so this week I will meet with Police Chief Paul Schultz and District Attorney Thom LeDoux to review those results and will work with CCHS administrators to make decisions related to whether or not any students will receive consequences for activity related to this that took place at school or during school activities. Additionally, Senator Kevin Grantham has asked us to host a Town Hall meeting about this issue; we will open the CCSD board room to the community this Friday December 11th at 3:30 PM. Senator Grantham hopes to hear from community members about how we can ensure future incidents can be avoided, and how the legislature might support improved education and updated legislation in relation to this.
Last Week
Last Monday I worked on District Accountability items and had a board work session to prepare for Colorado Association of School Boards convention presentations. On Tuesday morning I had my monthly KRLN radio interview, a Superintendent Advisory Council meeting, and visited McKinley, CCHS, and Harrison schools. On Wednesday morning we had our monthly Central Office Staff meeting, I took part in classroom walkthroughs at CCMS, and in the afternoon I spent time at a Google Apps training and a New Teacher Induction session. I attended the Colorado Association of School Boards annual convention in Springs from Thursday through Saturday. Time spent there included sessions to learn about budgeting and system leadership, keynote gatherings and a speech by Governor Hickenlooper, engaging with our student leaders who were in attendance, and presenting sessions with our board members about sexting and superintendent evaluation.
This Week
On Monday I’ll meet with Harrison principal John Pavlicek, and prepare for and attend an Evaluation Council meeting. On Tuesday I meet with our Chief of Police and District Attorney, my Superintendent Advisory Council, and our District Leadership Team. On Wednesday I hope to spend time in Lincoln Elementary and Cañon Exploratory, while also meeting with Pueblo Community College staff about applying for a P-Tech grant, and the Cañon City High School Cañon 20-20 committee. On Thursday I have a CCEOE meeting and I also hope to spend time at McKinley Elementary and Mountain View Core Knowledge. On Friday I will spend the morning in Fort Carson at the Pikes Peak Area Superintendent Association meeting, returning to Cañon City by 3:30 PM for a town hall meeting with Senator Kevin Grantham about teen sexting. I will end my week on Friday evening at our classified staff member Christmas party.
There are many opportunities this month to get into the holiday spirit by seeing our students perform seasonal favorites. I encourage you to attend one of these upcoming Winter Concerts!
December 8th: Lincoln Elementary grade 4 and 5 Choir at 6 PM
December 10th: Lincoln Elementary Band at 6 PM
December 10th: Harrison K-8 5th Grade Music at 7 PM
December 10th: CCMS Band at 6 PM
December 10th: Washington 3rd Grade Music at 7 PM
December 15th: CES Kindergarten Performance at 6:30 PM
December 15th: Harrison K-8 3rd and 4th Music at 7 PM
December 15th: McKinley 2nd Grade Music at 6 PM
December 16th: CES Montessori Perfromance at 7 PM
. . . and don't forget the annual CCHS Fine Art of Christmas performances at 7 PM on December 14th and 15th.
There are many opportunities this month to get into the holiday spirit by seeing our students perform seasonal favorites. I encourage you to attend one of these upcoming Winter Concerts!
December 8th: Lincoln Elementary grade 4 and 5 Choir at 6 PM
December 10th: Lincoln Elementary Band at 6 PM
December 10th: Harrison K-8 5th Grade Music at 7 PM
December 10th: CCMS Band at 6 PM
December 10th: Washington 3rd Grade Music at 7 PM
December 15th: CES Kindergarten Performance at 6:30 PM
December 15th: Harrison K-8 3rd and 4th Music at 7 PM
December 15th: McKinley 2nd Grade Music at 6 PM
December 16th: CES Montessori Perfromance at 7 PM
. . . and don't forget the annual CCHS Fine Art of Christmas performances at 7 PM on December 14th and 15th.
The Way I See It
This week Congress passed an overhaul of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, better known to most of us as No Child Left Behind. The new Act removes the former prescribed goals and punishments, and allows states and school districts to set their own goals, to decide how to rate schools, and to decide what to do with those that consistently underperform.
The bill retains annual testing requirements in math and reading. Schools must also continue to report the results by students' race, income and disability status.
After months of compromise and negotiation, the bill earned nearly unanimous approval from a conference committee of House and Senate members, and is expected to be passed by the Senate next week. A White House official said that President Obama plans to sign it when it reaches his desk.
States are still required to use test scores and other academic measures to rate schools, but can include other components such as student surveys. The bill also specifically prevents the federal government from requiring that states evaluate teachers at all, much less use test scores to rate them, and says the Department of Education cannot dictate any specific academic standards to states.
What does this mean to us? Colorado will now have the opportunity to freely adopt its own instructional standards, and to create ways in which it can measure the progress of schools and districts. My hope is that we will continue to strive to have the best educated children in the country, while creating accreditation models on actual student outcomes related to college and career readiness and opportunities offered to students.
Thanks for listening once again!
George S. Welsh
The bill retains annual testing requirements in math and reading. Schools must also continue to report the results by students' race, income and disability status.
After months of compromise and negotiation, the bill earned nearly unanimous approval from a conference committee of House and Senate members, and is expected to be passed by the Senate next week. A White House official said that President Obama plans to sign it when it reaches his desk.
States are still required to use test scores and other academic measures to rate schools, but can include other components such as student surveys. The bill also specifically prevents the federal government from requiring that states evaluate teachers at all, much less use test scores to rate them, and says the Department of Education cannot dictate any specific academic standards to states.
What does this mean to us? Colorado will now have the opportunity to freely adopt its own instructional standards, and to create ways in which it can measure the progress of schools and districts. My hope is that we will continue to strive to have the best educated children in the country, while creating accreditation models on actual student outcomes related to college and career readiness and opportunities offered to students.
Thanks for listening once again!
George S. Welsh
