Examples of Excellence
As I have been settling in to the office at 101 North 14th Street I have had the pleasure of meeting the many great folks I’ll be working directly with.
One prime example of excellence I would like to point out this week is the work Paula Buser, our director of support services, is doing to pull together our district level nutrition, wellness, safety, and communication tasks. Her exact role in the Cañon City School District is still evolving and we have already met several times , in groups and individually, and all I can say is she is amazingly organized, professional, and extremely efficient about what she does. We are truly lucky to have her back in Cañon City Schools working on behalf of our staff and children.
One prime example of excellence I would like to point out this week is the work Paula Buser, our director of support services, is doing to pull together our district level nutrition, wellness, safety, and communication tasks. Her exact role in the Cañon City School District is still evolving and we have already met several times , in groups and individually, and all I can say is she is amazingly organized, professional, and extremely efficient about what she does. We are truly lucky to have her back in Cañon City Schools working on behalf of our staff and children.
I would also like to thank human resources director Misty Manchester this week for the wonderful job she has been doing attracting high quality candidates, screening them, and setting up interviews to fill key posts in the district during these summer months. She and her department have established a fantastic online application portal that makes it easy to post openings, collect applications, and quickly consider prospective employees. Misty works hard, often beyond regular office hours, and I am extremely pleased with the results her efforts have produced for us at this point in the summer.
Finally, I would like to offer a big thank you to technology department employee Elizabeth Gamache for all the work she has done setting me up to distribute this weekly communication via email, all she does to promote our district through social media, and the great work she has done setting up our online preregistration portal to assist parents and schools in registering children more efficiently. Parents of Cañon City students are encouraged to visit our website to access preregistration materials, complete them, and print them off before arriving at school to register their child.
Finally, I would like to offer a big thank you to technology department employee Elizabeth Gamache for all the work she has done setting me up to distribute this weekly communication via email, all she does to promote our district through social media, and the great work she has done setting up our online preregistration portal to assist parents and schools in registering children more efficiently. Parents of Cañon City students are encouraged to visit our website to access preregistration materials, complete them, and print them off before arriving at school to register their child.
The Focus of Our Work
Our major tasks for the next several weeks include comprehensively planning all back to work staff development events for the start of the school year. This year a major back to school emphasis will be placed on supporting teachers in their instruction of writing. We’ll also hold a back to school professional development fair once again to allow school district experts to share their experience and knowledge and to allow all teachers choice in the professional development they experience upon their return to the classroom.
Another major focus of our work right now has been intentionally building our board-superintendent relationship, including establishing work and communication norms, and working to clearly define the superintendent’s role in the district. Much of this work will be done at a board work session this coming Monday evening.
It is my belief the most challenging thing the district will do this summer will be to migrate our email and data storage capabilities to the Google Apps platform. District technology director Shaun Kohl and his department have been planning this process for the better part of a year and the end result, though a bit pricey at first, will be big savings in recurring costs to the district for many years to come in terms of cost for data storage space and annual subscription fees.
Another major focus of our work right now has been intentionally building our board-superintendent relationship, including establishing work and communication norms, and working to clearly define the superintendent’s role in the district. Much of this work will be done at a board work session this coming Monday evening.
It is my belief the most challenging thing the district will do this summer will be to migrate our email and data storage capabilities to the Google Apps platform. District technology director Shaun Kohl and his department have been planning this process for the better part of a year and the end result, though a bit pricey at first, will be big savings in recurring costs to the district for many years to come in terms of cost for data storage space and annual subscription fees.
Last Week
For the week of July 6th through 10th I worked on preparing communications to district staff about their eventual return to duties at the end of the summer, set up my office (for the most part), located and educated myself on negotiated certified and classified employee work agreements, met one-to-one with board members Shad Johnson, Mary-Kay Evans, and Mike Near, and worked with board-superintendent secretary Colleen Carroll on planning for a board-superintendent work session and our first July board meeting scheduled for Monday the 13th. I also had productive meetings with Paula Buser about student services personnel, our superintendent council of department directors, and I even attended my first area council of governmental organizations managers meeting.
This Week
During the week of July 13th through 17th I have meetings scheduled with Kristi Elliot, our district wellness coordinator (to plan for a possible first day of staff speaker-presenter) Dr. Lana Carter, the dean of the Pueblo Community College Fremont Campus, Kelly Albrecht, our certified employee association president, our superintendent council of directors, and both Steve Clifton (Fremont County Department of Human Services director) and Rhonda Roberts, (superintendent of the Fremont RE-2 School District).
Of course we have a board work session and meeting this Monday. At the work session we will discuss some possible student services department job reclassifications related to nutritional services and our wellness coordinator and, as stated above, the board and I will work to set operational norms and discuss my overall role in the district. During the board meeting we will hire and assign duties to a number of employees, approve end of June expenditures, and begin the process for conducting this fall's board of education election.
Of course we have a board work session and meeting this Monday. At the work session we will discuss some possible student services department job reclassifications related to nutritional services and our wellness coordinator and, as stated above, the board and I will work to set operational norms and discuss my overall role in the district. During the board meeting we will hire and assign duties to a number of employees, approve end of June expenditures, and begin the process for conducting this fall's board of education election.
The Way I See It
Though I am only two weeks into my work life in Cañon City I must say I have truly enjoyed the comraderie and positive atmosphere that exists in the district administration building. Last week board-superintendent secretary Colleen Carroll gently pulled me aside and mentioned there was a bit of an “unwritten rule” that a certain parking space is always left open by the admin building staff for the superintendent of schools. One of the attractions for my relocation to Cañon City was to continue to commute to and from work on my old cruiser bicycle. Thus, I have sort of claimed my very own bicycle parking spot right at the front of the administration building where I can lean it along the outer wall of the building for protection from the sun, and lately, rain. Because of this I decided a cool thing for the new superintendent to do might be to find a way to pass his automobile parking space along to a deserving person on staff. Writing my first issue of Echoes from Cañon last week provided me just the opportunity to do so, as I quickly realized I didn’t know how to produce the appropriate tilde symbol above the N every time I typed Cañon City on my district assigned Dell computer. I spread the word throughout the office that the first person who could show me could claim the parking space, and in no time a heated contest struck up among the staff. One by one folks charged into my office claiming they had discovered the solution. However, it wasn’t until director of technology Shaun Kohl wandered in, hit control-alt- shift-tilde (all at once) and then the N, that a winner could be declared. However, at that very moment, Colleen Carroll yelled from her office that she could establish a rule in Microsoft Word whereby every time a person types the word Canon, the tilde symbol would appear over the N automatically. So there I was, one week into my new job already left with the most important decision I might have to make ever. Who do I give the parking space to, Shaun or Colleen?
After some careful thought I felt the attraction of simply having to type the word Canon and have the ñ automatically show up was quite elegant and much easier on my fingers. In a last ditch effort to secure the parking spot Shaun announced he could "extend the new rule to every single computer in the district."
Colleen has really been enjoying her new parking accouterments while also renaming Shaun "Charlie" (as in Sorry Charlie). In the mean time I provided Shaun with quite the Star Wars memorabilia consolation prize. However, there has been no word yet from Mr. Kohl as to whether or not the new Cañon rule will soon go into effect on all district computers. I guess we'll just let him focus on upgrading servers, upgrading wireless access points, and completing the migration of our email system to Google Apps for now.
George S. Welsh
After some careful thought I felt the attraction of simply having to type the word Canon and have the ñ automatically show up was quite elegant and much easier on my fingers. In a last ditch effort to secure the parking spot Shaun announced he could "extend the new rule to every single computer in the district."
Colleen has really been enjoying her new parking accouterments while also renaming Shaun "Charlie" (as in Sorry Charlie). In the mean time I provided Shaun with quite the Star Wars memorabilia consolation prize. However, there has been no word yet from Mr. Kohl as to whether or not the new Cañon rule will soon go into effect on all district computers. I guess we'll just let him focus on upgrading servers, upgrading wireless access points, and completing the migration of our email system to Google Apps for now.
George S. Welsh