In November 2015 the Cañon City Schools Board of Education consisted of Kristyn Econome, Mary Kay Evans, Larry Oddo,, Lloyd Harwood, and Shad Johnson.

Echoes from Cañon

In the coming weeks, I’ll culminate my effort to transparently communicate the happenings of the Cañon City School District through Echoes from Cañon with four final installments outlining the state of the school district as I move to the shadows, allowing Adam Hartman to become the chief executive face of the district beginning on January 1st.

The Challenges We Faced

When I accepted the role from Mike Near, Larry Oddo, Lloyd Harwood, Mary Kay Evans, and Shad Johnson in March 2015, the most significant needs of the district were its financial position as a result of Great Recession budget cuts, its ability to honor the work experience of loyal employees, its desire to maintain good relationships with employee groups, the overall quality of building level leadership and classroom instruction, the condition of facilities, and work left undone related to the Cañon City High School 2020 Vision Plan. 

I settled into my role as CCSD Superintendent of Schools in the fall of 2015.

Defining My Role

By December 2015 the CCSD Board of Education was already sharing its newly created Superintendent Evaluation Process with other Colorado school districts.

I arrived after an 18 year run as superintendent of schools in Center, Colorado, quickly discovering the roles had similarities and differences.  Thus, my first task was to engage the Board to define my expectations and to establish a means by which they could offer actionable feedback to me on an annual basis.  The result was the establishment of the most comprehensive and relevant superintendent evaluation process in rural Colorado, one that has since been adopted by more than a dozen school districts.

With my role defined, I then took a seek to understand approach, supporting work in areas where good focus had already been given.  These included solidifying our safety practices and procedures, supporting improved instruction by implementing Colorado’s new teacher evaluation process and clarifying best instructional practices, supporting the development of school leaders, and updating facility plans.

Focus on School Safety

When I arrived in Cañon City, Paula Buser was already hard at work planning safety improvements. 

Fortunately, Paula Buser had recently been hired Director of Student Support Services, so I simply supported her effort to develop standardized crisis response protocols, operate safety committees, and establish and practice uniform emergency procedures. Along the way we obtained funds to construct secure entires at each building, establish school security positions, expand our School Resource Officer program, clearly identify each campus visitor, and conduct background checks at each school site. It’s my opinion, thanks to Paula’s leadership and tenacity, that Cañon City Schools is THE most prepared rural school district in Colorado should an emergency arise. We should be proud of this!

By August 2018 safer entries had been installed on all schools and Paula Buser was implementing other great safety ideas. 

Focus on Improved Instruction

Some of my first efforts in the district centered on supporting Misty Manchester in codifying teacher evaluation processes, and supporting Dominic Carochi's work to improve classroom instruction.

Regarding instruction, I immediately worked with Director of Human Resources Misty Manchester to finalize our teacher evaluation procedures and create an evaluation calculator to implement the new state requirement to incorporate measures of student learning into each teacher’s evaluation. I also supported Director of Curriculum and Assessment Dominic Carochi, and then Assistant Superintendent of Schools Adam Hartman to codify our pillars of instruction, establish a monthly Instructional Leader Professional Learning Community, and secure and implement a Colorado Early Literacy Grant.

These initiatives, as well as passage of our Mill Override in November 2017, allowed us to update most curricular materials with electronic versions and put in place a one-to-one device program for students. The timing of this was quite fortunate considering how the worldwide COVID pandemic created an immediate necessity to shift to digitally based instruction.  

To support improved instruction, I also required periodic instructional walkthroughs by principals as part of the teacher evaluation process, as well as annual Instructional Program Reviews of schools that have since evolved into a tremendous way to measure progress being made toward our district vision, mission, core beliefs, and profile of a graduate.  I’ll delve deeper into these topics in the next few weeks. 

In the summer of 2016 Adam Hartman filled the Curriculum and Instruction position vacated by Mr. Carochi following his retirement.

Focus on Improved Facilities

These images serve as a reminder of some of the structural and environments issues that plagued the CCMS and Washington buildings before a bond was approved and BEST grants were secured.

Finally, by the summer of 2017 I guided the Board of Education through a process to determine a path forward regarding school facility improvement in an attempt to secure funding from the Building Excellent Schools Today program to support them.  Though many ideas were considered, we finally landed on a plan to upgrade aspects of Cañon Exploratory School, Cañon City High School, Harrison K-8, McKinley Elementary, and Lincoln School of Science and Technology, while completely replacing the Washington Elementary facility on its current site and significantly upgrading Cañon City Middle School.  Thanks to passage of an $18 million bond that even paid the leftover balance of the Mountain View Core Knowledge School construction loan, the Cañon City School District has been able to conduct over $70 million in building improvements, $52 million of that paid for by the Building Excellent Schools Today program.

The results can be seen when you enter every school, especially the one at 9th and College and the other between 12th and 14th Streets on Main. 

Of this we should also be very proud and extremely appreciative!

​Thanks for listening once again, and for allowing me to come along on this journey with each of you!

​George S. Welsh