Echoes from Cañon
Examples of Excellence
CCSD Truancy Prevention Coordinator Tonya Wolf
I would like to begin this week by thanking our Cañon City School District truancy prevention coordinator Tonya Wolf for the great work she has been doing in conjunction with building administrators and our district lawyer Rocco Meconi holding students accountable for coming to school and finding creative ways to support and encourage good attendance. Tonya has acquired several grants that allow us to create incentives for kids to attend school regularly and has gone the extra mile by actually diagnosing root causes for poor attendance and then seeking creative ways to address them. She communicates with local judges about student issues and is even setting up a teen court to address repetitive truancy issues. We all know poor school attendance is a primary risk factor leading to students dropping out and Tonya is simply doing amazing work keeping kids in school and on track to graduate.
On Monday evening director of student support services Paula Buser and director of special education Kirsten Javernick reported to the board of education about the key findings listed in report recently published about the unfortunate shooting that took place at Arapahoe High School in Littleton several years ago. Their goal was to highlight the key recommendations and to educate the board about how we as a district are addressing them. Recommendations included things like tracking student safety concerns over years and across schools, promoting anonymous reporting tip systems, creating information sharing agreements with local first responders, fully implementing valid threat and risk assessment processes, coordinating information sharing about threats and risks, continually revisiting and reassessing potential threats, putting in place positive supports for students
On Monday evening director of student support services Paula Buser and director of special education Kirsten Javernick reported to the board of education about the key findings listed in report recently published about the unfortunate shooting that took place at Arapahoe High School in Littleton several years ago. Their goal was to highlight the key recommendations and to educate the board about how we as a district are addressing them. Recommendations included things like tracking student safety concerns over years and across schools, promoting anonymous reporting tip systems, creating information sharing agreements with local first responders, fully implementing valid threat and risk assessment processes, coordinating information sharing about threats and risks, continually revisiting and reassessing potential threats, putting in place positive supports for students
Jamie Davis and Nancy Saionz share information with the board about the New Teacher Induction Program.
who are deemed a risk or threat, training key staff members on statutes related to school safety and violence, monitoring school climate through surveys of students, and creating a local culture of safety. We wanted the board to know that as a school district we have not yet mastered all of these recommendations. However, we are quite aware of each of them and we have put many structures in place to help us follow each recommendation.
Jamie Davis and Nancy Saionz presented information at our last board meeting on the district’s New Teacher Induction Program. They have worked together on this program for the past two years and have grown its effectiveness toward helping new teachers make positive connections with a local mentor. Research shows effectively run teacher indiction programs play a significant role in recruiting and retaining good teachers for our children. I want to take a moment to thank Jamie and Nancy for their wonderful work on this front!
Jamie Davis and Nancy Saionz presented information at our last board meeting on the district’s New Teacher Induction Program. They have worked together on this program for the past two years and have grown its effectiveness toward helping new teachers make positive connections with a local mentor. Research shows effectively run teacher indiction programs play a significant role in recruiting and retaining good teachers for our children. I want to take a moment to thank Jamie and Nancy for their wonderful work on this front!
The Focus of Our Work
Mayor Troutman addresses the school board in early February.
Last week I reported that director of finance Buddy Lambrecht, facilities manager Jeff Peterson and I would present information on a possible 1.3 million dollar BEST grant application to the board of education that would have repaired a significant amount of district roofing and increased the safety of a number of our school entryways. Approval of this grant application would have required the district to provide a roughly $420,000 cash match over two fiscal years to implement. Doing so would leave our capital reserve fund uncommitted balance at just under $350,000 by the June 2017. In the end the board was not comfortable allowing the facilities reserve fund balance to dip that low, so after much discussion and consideration a decision was made to pare the grant application back to include only about $800,000 in roofing, leaving us with a cash match requirement closer to $300,000 and an ending fund balance the board is willing to live with for now. I want everyone to understand how hard this decision was to make. Nobody wants to improve the safety of our school entries more than our board of education. However, in a world of extremely limited resources they had to make a decision for the short term and that one landed on shoring up as much roofing as we can right now. This decision leaves roughly 9.5 million dollars in identified significant capital improvement needs unaddressed. However, as stated last week, the Cañon City School District is still committed to conducting a thorough process to more clearly identify the condition and future needs of its schools in effort to build a comprehensive plan that can be submitted to the BEST Facilities Board next January, and a coinciding bond question for the community to consider in order to provide the required match.
At last Monday’s work session I met with the entire board to wrap up our annual superintendent evaluation process. I must say that in all of my 30 years in education I never experienced such a thorough, yet fair process aimed at guiding me in the improvement of my service to a school district. In the end I was left with clear guidance on things the board would like me to continue doing, as well as some things they would like me to do differently. At our meeting later that evening the board renewed my contract through the end of June 2018, allowing my family and me to feel a bit of stability as I continue to tackle the important work of guiding the school district.
On Wednesday I had a meeting with Mayor Preston Troutman and Councilmember Ashley Smith. This was a result of a presentation Mayor Troutman made to the board of education in early February about a desire to collaborate with the school district. During the session we shared commitments to establish a mayor/council member of the month shadowing program in an effort to develop young leaders at our high school and to help them understand more clearly how local government works. We also committed to find ways our high school students can become involved long term in city council driven committees to help them gain better understanding of such processes and to engage them in thinking about the future of our community. Each expressed how they would like to take time at monthly council meetings to honor excellence displayed by programs within the school system. We also discussed other ways the schools may collaborate with the city and have committed to exploring these opportunities in the future.
At last Monday’s work session I met with the entire board to wrap up our annual superintendent evaluation process. I must say that in all of my 30 years in education I never experienced such a thorough, yet fair process aimed at guiding me in the improvement of my service to a school district. In the end I was left with clear guidance on things the board would like me to continue doing, as well as some things they would like me to do differently. At our meeting later that evening the board renewed my contract through the end of June 2018, allowing my family and me to feel a bit of stability as I continue to tackle the important work of guiding the school district.
On Wednesday I had a meeting with Mayor Preston Troutman and Councilmember Ashley Smith. This was a result of a presentation Mayor Troutman made to the board of education in early February about a desire to collaborate with the school district. During the session we shared commitments to establish a mayor/council member of the month shadowing program in an effort to develop young leaders at our high school and to help them understand more clearly how local government works. We also committed to find ways our high school students can become involved long term in city council driven committees to help them gain better understanding of such processes and to engage them in thinking about the future of our community. Each expressed how they would like to take time at monthly council meetings to honor excellence displayed by programs within the school system. We also discussed other ways the schools may collaborate with the city and have committed to exploring these opportunities in the future.
Last Week
Mayor Troutman facilitates discussion with Senator Grantham and Representative Wilson at last Saturday's legislative hour.
Last Monday I participated in review of language arts curriculum items and spent a lot of time writing BEST grant question answers. I ended the day at our board work session where we worked on our capital reserve budget, and then at our second February board meeting. I had several principal evaluation meetings during the week, attended a Leadership Team meeting on Tuesday, and we officially submitted our BEST grant to CDE on Friday. I also presented how to use our evaluation calculator to McKinley and Washington staff and ended my week by attending the CASB Legislative Conference in Denver on Thursday and Friday with board secretary Mark-Kay Evans, and then attending the monthly Legislative Hour at the Fremont County Commissioners Board Room on Saturday.
This Week
Board secretary Mary-Kay Evans and I looked in on the start up of work at the Colorado House of Representatives chamber on Friday morning.
On Monday I have a series of meetings, a principal evaluation, and a Facilities Corp meeting. On Tuesday I’ll attend my monthly radio interview at KRLN, a superintendent advisory council meeting, and will meet with DHS staff about keeping family custody disputes off campuses. On Wednesday I will go to the Colorado Association of School Boards regional day at the capitol with several of our board members. On Thursday I’ll train gifted and talented education staff on the use of our evaluation calculator, will meet with high school staff and a CDE regional ICAP specialist about our Counselor Corps Grant application, and will attend another mid-year principal evaluation session. On Friday I’ll be in Denver again at the Colorado Education Initiative Healthy Schools Champion Award event where folks from Lincoln School of Science and Technology will be honored for outstanding work.
Thanks for listening once again. Have a wonderful week!
George S. Welsh
Thanks for listening once again. Have a wonderful week!
George S. Welsh