Echoes from Cañon
Examples of Excellence
CCHS Students prepared a Public Policy Presentation for the BOE.
At our Board of Education meeting on Monday Cañon City High School Seniors William Bauchem, Brandon Elbert, Rochella Lamborn, and Alyssa Lopez shared their public policy presentation titled “Hungry for More.” This focused on reducing school cafeteria plate waste by extending the amount of time students have to eat. The presentation was well researched, the students fielded many questions, and the Board was certainly given some food for thought around school meal time policy.
Also, at our BOE meeting Brian VanIwarden and Toni Pierce presented the work they are doing in the Fremont Regional Wellness program. Brian and Toni manage our Creating Healthy Schools and School Health Professionals grants. They promote, support, and help create wellness initiatives within our county schools and the entire community. They also allocate resources to schools for professional development, wellness curriculum, and school programs that integrate with board approved policies. Brian and Toni also organize and guide our school wellness advisory teams and the regional wellness advisory team, and they perform assessments, advocacy, grant writing, and evaluations related to all our school and regional wellness programs. How lucky we are to have these fine educators working on behalf of all the children in Fremont County!
This week a shout-out goes to Harrison Art Teacher Heidi Hubinger for all the work she has done coordinating this year’s Student Art Show at City Hall. The installation can be seen during regular business hours through March 1st. I encourage readers to stop by to view a variety of elementary, middle, and high school installations in this unique setting.
There are many amazing pieces on display, including the Rainbow Chandelier, inspired by glass artist Dale Chihuly. There are also Canon City-themed, large-scale paintings, and collages created specifically for the City Hall space. Thank you, for all your hard work Heidi!
Also, at our BOE meeting Brian VanIwarden and Toni Pierce presented the work they are doing in the Fremont Regional Wellness program. Brian and Toni manage our Creating Healthy Schools and School Health Professionals grants. They promote, support, and help create wellness initiatives within our county schools and the entire community. They also allocate resources to schools for professional development, wellness curriculum, and school programs that integrate with board approved policies. Brian and Toni also organize and guide our school wellness advisory teams and the regional wellness advisory team, and they perform assessments, advocacy, grant writing, and evaluations related to all our school and regional wellness programs. How lucky we are to have these fine educators working on behalf of all the children in Fremont County!
This week a shout-out goes to Harrison Art Teacher Heidi Hubinger for all the work she has done coordinating this year’s Student Art Show at City Hall. The installation can be seen during regular business hours through March 1st. I encourage readers to stop by to view a variety of elementary, middle, and high school installations in this unique setting.
There are many amazing pieces on display, including the Rainbow Chandelier, inspired by glass artist Dale Chihuly. There are also Canon City-themed, large-scale paintings, and collages created specifically for the City Hall space. Thank you, for all your hard work Heidi!
Stop by City Hall to see the Cañon City Student Art Installation.
The Focus of Our Work
Brian VanIwarden and Toni Pierce present Fremont Regional Wellness Program progress to the BOE.
On Tuesday we held an Instructional Leader Professional Learning Community. Our goal was to consider engaging an organization to support our effort to offer more rigorous, relevant, and engaging instruction at all levels aimed at arming our children with the skills they’ll need to navigate unknown future career options. At the end of the session was we realized we have to do a lot more work on our end to clarify our vision and to be sure we can communicate with staff why we should invest our time and resources toward such an effort.
At our meeting on Monday evening our Board approved a mid-year budget adjustment as a result of changes to state equalization due to increases in local property values, actual pupil count, and additional revenues we'll receive this fiscal year thanks to our voter approved override.
At our meeting on Monday evening our Board approved a mid-year budget adjustment as a result of changes to state equalization due to increases in local property values, actual pupil count, and additional revenues we'll receive this fiscal year thanks to our voter approved override.
Director of Instruction Adam Hartman guides the work of our Instructional Leader Professional Learning Community.
Newly budgeted expenditures include $26,000 for staff training and PD, and $61,000 to purchase Chromebooks and associated equipment in preparation of our one-to-one device initiative that will kick off at the high school next fall. This enables us to train all high school staff before student get their devices. These costs will be covered by override revenues.
We also budgeted for increased Early College expenditures due to higher than anticipated participation by Cañon City High School students in dual enrollment Pueblo Community College courses. These additional expenditures will pretty much be offset by rebates we receive from PCC for offering these courses on our campus.
We also had minor changes in Other Anticipated Revenues, will be increasing our rate of pay for certified substitutes due to Colorado minimum wage changes and a desire to attract more high-quality substitutes, we had to increase Other Expenditures related to election costs and to purchase Malware for technology devices, and we increased special education expenditures by $87,000 due to an increase in high need students attending the district.
We also budgeted for increased Early College expenditures due to higher than anticipated participation by Cañon City High School students in dual enrollment Pueblo Community College courses. These additional expenditures will pretty much be offset by rebates we receive from PCC for offering these courses on our campus.
We also had minor changes in Other Anticipated Revenues, will be increasing our rate of pay for certified substitutes due to Colorado minimum wage changes and a desire to attract more high-quality substitutes, we had to increase Other Expenditures related to election costs and to purchase Malware for technology devices, and we increased special education expenditures by $87,000 due to an increase in high need students attending the district.
Override Progress
Members of the CCHS Tech Deployment Committee question a Littleton High School teacher about use of Chromebooks in a science class.
On Thursday members of the CCHS Technology Deployment Committee visited Littleton High School to learn how they prepared for a one-to-one Chromebook initiative begun two years ago. More than anything else, I would say we learned our plan to put devices in place this fall is on the right trajectory. We also learned a few things related to device protection and instructional support processes that could save us quite a bit of money.
On another front, Director of Technology Shaun Kohl reports that staff Chromebooks should arrive at the district by February 6th. These will be put in the hands of teachers as soon as possible to begin professional development processes.
On another front, Director of Technology Shaun Kohl reports that staff Chromebooks should arrive at the district by February 6th. These will be put in the hands of teachers as soon as possible to begin professional development processes.
Bond Progress
Last week we chose three Design-Build firms as finalists to partner in upgrading five of our schools and to possibly build two brand new ones. These are Bryan-MOA, GE Johnson-RTA and Klein-CRP. Our greatest hope entering this process was there would be interest by high quality organizations. Based on the proposals I reviewed, we certainly accomplished this. Next up will be facilities walkthroughs by our finalists on Tuesday January 30th, and then on-site interviews on Tuesday February 6th. Also, on Tuesday of this week Operations Director Jeff Peterson and I will be taking our CDE Capital Construction Regional Representative Anna Fitzer and her new department director on a tour of Cañon City Middle School to highlight structural, safety, and security issues in the building.
Last Week
Chris Mayberry from Lindamood-Bell and Independent Consultant Melissa Busolo meet with our Literacy Team.
Last week I conducted performance reviews of six of our Directors. Director of Instruction Adam Hartman and I met alone with Chris Mayberry from Lindamood-Bell early in the week, and again with Chris, Literacy Consultant Melissa Busolo, and our Literacy Coaches on Friday afternoon. We conducted a SAC meeting and held an instructional leader PLC on Tuesday. Wednesday was our deadline for accepting design-build team submittals, so we reviewed proposals that afternoon and narrowed our pool to three finalists, who were notified of their status on Friday. On Thursday I travelled to Littleton High School with members of the Cañon City High School Technology Deployment Committee to learn how they went about setting up their one-to-one Chromebook initiative.
This Week
On Monday I’ll finish Director evaluations, communicate to principals about mid-year building review preparations, and take our CDE Capital Construction Regional Representative Anna Fitzer and her new department director on a tour of Cañon City Middle School to highlight structural, safety, and security issues in the building. On Tuesday we’ll take our three Design-Build finalists on site walks of all district facilities. On Wednesday I’ll hold a central office staff meeting, an operations staff meeting, and we’ll play host to visitors from the Fountain-Fort Carson School District who want to learn more about our Lindamood-Bell reading intervention processes. I’ll attend the Colorado Association of School Executives Winter conference on Thursday and Friday.
Did You Know
At Monday's meeting, and as part of Colorado's Board of Education Appreciation Month celebrations, Mary-Kay Evans, Kristyn Econome, Larry Oddo, Lloyd Harwood, and Shad Johnson were honored for their accomplishments as a team.
These include the following:
Thank you Mary-Kay, Kristyn, Larry, Lloyd, and Shad for your hard work and your focus on achieving excellence for our children!
Thanks for listening once again!
George S. Welsh
These include the following:
- Advancing student success by engaging students, staff, and constituents in district leadership, school program design, and facilities master planning.
- Engaging in a long-term strategic planning process to develop a career pathways model high school. Though this work began back in 2012, in fall 2017 Cañon City High School 9th graders entered a school guided by a student-created vision developed by and for students. This includes a freshman base camp offering wider choice in education, instruction more relevant to career exploration, the ability to meet Colorado's revised high school graduation requirements, and with an opportunity to graduate with an endorsement in one of four career clusters. Students will also benefit from the more than 80 school/business partnerships created to allow them to participate in a paid internship/ apprenticeship before graduating
- Faced with replacing a respected, long-term superintendent of schools, in spring 2015 the board of education engaged staff and community, and developed a comprehensive process to land an experienced leader who possesses the skill set needed to continue work already begun and guide the district toward higher student achievement outcomes. More than 200 people were involved in the search process.
- Faced with financial cuts resulting from the Great Recession, along with aging facilities, this board engaged citizens and business leaders to develop a facilities master plan to effectively use buildings while also expanding choice in educational programming. Along the way, the Building Excellent Schools Today grant program has been leveraged to support this work. The result is an up to date facilities plan the Cañon City Schools community voted to approve in November 2017 that will significantly upgrade five schools, replace two, pay off a charter facility loan, and place all district facilities on a strong foundation for the next decade.
- Improving academic outcomes as evidenced by Colorado's District Performance Framework. This board has guided CCSD from Priority Improvement status (15 points below full accreditation and on the state accreditation clock in 2011) to full Accredited status for the past two years. Improvement is also evidenced in the district's composite growth percentile, once mired below the 45th in each tested area but now above the 52nd in both English Language Arts and Math.
- The Cañon City School District accomplished all this despite receiving only 95% of average per-pupil funding. However, in November 2017 this board's vision secured voter approval of a mill-levy override to assist in hiring and retaining excellent staff, infuse instructional technology into every classroom, update learning resources, expand preschool education opportunities, and maintain facilities.
- This board has also displayed excellence and consistency in response to challenges or issues the community has faced by expertly navigating an extremely challenging student sexting incident that garnered international interest in the fall of 2015. It did this by holding to established communications norms, exhibiting transparency, presenting a unified front, and by always keeping the safety, privacy, and well-being of children at the forefront. As a result, the board set the foundation on which the community could move beyond the crisis in a common-sense way, encouraging a national discussion about digital citizenship, issues surrounding hidden apps, student access to electronic devices, parental monitoring of children, and legal consequences for underage sexting. The board has since presented its experience to numerous audiences about how it managed the crisis, guided the development of programs being used around the state to educate parents about teen sexting, and played a key role in the updating of legal consequences for teen sexting in Colorado.
- This board has also demonstrated leadership at the community, state and national level. Upon hiring a new superintendent of schools in spring 2015 the board immediately established superintendent/board operating norms, outlined a comprehensive list of roles the superintendent is expected to fill, and developed and implemented a model superintendent evaluation process. Many Colorado boards of education have been so impressed with this work they have adopted it for use in their own systems.
- This board also leverages relationships established with key legislators. In doing so, it has steadfastly advocated legislation to benefit rural school systems and the Building Excellent Schools Today program, while also encouraging adoption of common sense laws related to teen sexting.
- This board uses sound reasoning and strong ethics in its decision-making process. It's handling of financial cuts in a manner where people were placed first is a prime example. It is also being done through the cultivation of a model board-certified and classified association relationship. And it is done in a way in which decisions are always made based on what will most benefit children.
- This board continuously develops its members, individually and as a team, by participating in state and regional education think tanks (such as CEI's SpaceLab, and CEI and CDE annual summits), attending and participating in CASB regional, legislative, and annual state events, by enrolling students in the CASB Student Leadership Strand and constantly engaging them in school improvement efforts, and by presenting breakout sessions and even keynoting such prestigious events as the CEI Summit, CASB annual conventions, and the CASB Fall Delegate Assembly.
- Of most importance, through the establishment of agreed-upon operations norms, this board takes pride in holding each other accountable for exhibiting excellent board behavior.
Thank you Mary-Kay, Kristyn, Larry, Lloyd, and Shad for your hard work and your focus on achieving excellence for our children!
Thanks for listening once again!
George S. Welsh
