Echoes from Cañon
Our Core Beliefs
1. We meet the social-emotional needs of all students, putting Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs before Bloom’s Taxonomy.
2. We believe learning growth matters most, requires risk-taking, and the work we do in our schools has the greatest impact on this.
3. We’re future-focused, believing the development of certain traits and skills will best prepare our students for ever-changing careers.
4. We emphasize what is good for kids over the needs and comfort of adults.
1. We meet the social-emotional needs of all students, putting Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs before Bloom’s Taxonomy.
2. We believe learning growth matters most, requires risk-taking, and the work we do in our schools has the greatest impact on this.
3. We’re future-focused, believing the development of certain traits and skills will best prepare our students for ever-changing careers.
4. We emphasize what is good for kids over the needs and comfort of adults.
Our Core Beliefs in Action
Summer Reading Academy participants beg a construction worker to point the fire hose in their direction!
Last week 48 students began attending our annual Lindamood-Bell Summer Reading Academy. These students were identified by their teachers as needing a bit of extra assistance to boost their reading ability to grade level. All reports are that the program is going well, despite the many challenges posed by construction on the Washington site. Though the weather has been brutally hot, reading academy students still get some outdoor time, and I understand GE Johnson construction crews have been a bit of a help cooling kids down! Every Friday the program has a theme. Last week was Fabulous Prize Friday! A community member donated four tubs of beanie babies so, so teachers had plenty of incentives with which to treat participants.
Though summer is in full swing, last week a group of Cañon City High School students represented their student body at the Colorado Student Leadership Conference in Fort Collins. Scott Witkowsky reported the group was well behaved, learned a lot, and represented Cañon City quite well.
Though summer is in full swing, last week a group of Cañon City High School students represented their student body at the Colorado Student Leadership Conference in Fort Collins. Scott Witkowsky reported the group was well behaved, learned a lot, and represented Cañon City quite well.
Our Future Focus
Colorado Student Leadership participants from left to right: Mr. Witkowsky, Giovanni Ramirez, Alyssa Howard, Mackenzie Roberts, Laiken O'Rourke.
During our weekly SAC meeting, we participated in demonstrations of products we may choose to invest in to make use of Chromebooks to support comprehensive professional development at all staff levels, and we came to agreement on how we will communicate to 12-month employees how they'll get to use the 5 flex leave days they receive as a benefit of our new work calendar.
Speaking of our new calendar, we have created a shareable Google Calendar for anyone interested in subscribing to. This shows school start and end dates, traditional holidays and vacations, and of course which Friday's are early release and which ones are no school. You can access this opportunity at the following link if you go to the Echoes from Cañon web page:
https://calendar.google.com/calendar?cid=M203czdhOHZqNXJlMHBkOWMzNTkyNHBmamdAZ3JvdXAuY2FsZW5kYXIuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbQ
On Friday I participated in a special KRLN Morning Line program with folks from Solvista and Valley-Wide Health Services about our soon to open School-Based Health Center. A parent survey aimed at helping us design services is available at this link: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfsbJRYFn7JtbQIOZph7A7YYi_GzgJDYGt5do1KmiIJ80gbHQ/viewform
Speaking of our new calendar, we have created a shareable Google Calendar for anyone interested in subscribing to. This shows school start and end dates, traditional holidays and vacations, and of course which Friday's are early release and which ones are no school. You can access this opportunity at the following link if you go to the Echoes from Cañon web page:
https://calendar.google.com/calendar?cid=M203czdhOHZqNXJlMHBkOWMzNTkyNHBmamdAZ3JvdXAuY2FsZW5kYXIuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbQ
On Friday I participated in a special KRLN Morning Line program with folks from Solvista and Valley-Wide Health Services about our soon to open School-Based Health Center. A parent survey aimed at helping us design services is available at this link: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfsbJRYFn7JtbQIOZph7A7YYi_GzgJDYGt5do1KmiIJ80gbHQ/viewform
Override Progress
Unfortunately, this summer we've been experiencing major hurdles securing additional Chromebooks for staff and students. As is tradition, our order was placed during the first week of June after we adopted our preliminary budget, but due to problems with Intel's slow manufacturing of processors, all orders from almost all vendors across the country have been considerably delayed. Thus, it appears Chromebooks won't ship until August 20th. Cañon City Schools has been diligently working with its vendor to expedite the order. We want parents and staff to understand that, though we are quite ready to put these devices in the hands of middle school students and elementary staff, the distribution may be a bit delayed, even as late as early September.
Bond Progess
CCMS gym locker rooms have been completely gutted.
A lot of progress is being made behind walls at the CCMS construction site. The 1980 gym locker room is pretty much gutted, awaiting a complete re-do. Roofing work continues on this structure as well. The 1925 auditorium/gymnasium complex is nearing readiness for demolition, with parts of the old boiler chimney already removed. Footings and stem walls are being formed and poured on the west site while some areas even show plumbing stub outs already installed. Concrete slabs are soon to follow. As part of this project, the new district grounds shop is nearing completion with electrical and plumbing work continuing indoors and fresh asphalt and cement starting to cover many outdoor surfaces.
Work at Washington Elementary has accelerated, with excavation and groundwork compaction continuing in some areas, footings being framed and poured nearly every day, and stem walls being poured close on their heels. A small amount of plumbing stub outs have even already been installed around the recently constructed grease trap.
On one other summer construction front, our operations crew is also preparing to lay additional cement in the student drop off lane at CCHS.
Work at Washington Elementary has accelerated, with excavation and groundwork compaction continuing in some areas, footings being framed and poured nearly every day, and stem walls being poured close on their heels. A small amount of plumbing stub outs have even already been installed around the recently constructed grease trap.
On one other summer construction front, our operations crew is also preparing to lay additional cement in the student drop off lane at CCHS.
Last Week
Last week I published another installment of Echoes, finalized an important employee evaluation, revises our annual all staff back to work letter, conducted a Superintendent Advisory Council meeting, attended a monthly regional Manager's meeting, attended Raynette Douglas' funeral, attended a showing of Hello Dolly in Pueblo, and shared information about our School-Based Health Center on KRLN's Morning Line. I also conducted a lot of electronic communication related to the upcoming school year.
This Week
This week we hold back to school orientation for all school office staff and administrators. We also have another cohort of teachers in for a week-long Lindamood-Bell reading intervention training. I'll write another issue of Echoes, tour CCHS with the Cañon City Police Department in preparation for our mid-August functional lockdown drill, and attend a board meeting and work session, during which we'll do a CCMS construction walkthrough. On Tuesday we have a Social Emotional Learning program meeting, a weekly SAC meeting, and I have an appointment to meet with Andy Stine, Director of the State Capital Construction program. On Wednesday and Thursday, I'll be in Breckenridge at the CASE conference. I'm taking Friday off to attend to family matters.
Other Voices
Director of Student Support Services Paula Buser would like to share this information regarding parking and drop off around the Washington Elementary school site in light of school and road construction.
Dear Reading Academy and Kids Club Parents,
Due to road work by Fremont Sanitation District, we will have a new drop off and pick up pattern for parents at Washington School beginning Monday, July 22nd.
There will be 2 options:
1) Drop off and pick up on 10th Sreet, south of College Avenue. We will have a crossing guard in an orange vest to ensure your child safely crosses the crosswalk on College just west of 10th Street.
2) Drop off and pick up at the current Kids Club entrance on College Ave. between 10th Street and 9th Street. Parents are permitted to proceed through the road closed sign to drop off and pick up their child. U-turns are permitted on College if the 9th and College intersection is closed.
Please see the enclosed map for a visual of the areas described above.
Thank you for your patience and we will continue to communicate with you over the coming days and weeks.
Thanks for listening again!
George S. Welsh
Dear Reading Academy and Kids Club Parents,
Due to road work by Fremont Sanitation District, we will have a new drop off and pick up pattern for parents at Washington School beginning Monday, July 22nd.
There will be 2 options:
1) Drop off and pick up on 10th Sreet, south of College Avenue. We will have a crossing guard in an orange vest to ensure your child safely crosses the crosswalk on College just west of 10th Street.
2) Drop off and pick up at the current Kids Club entrance on College Ave. between 10th Street and 9th Street. Parents are permitted to proceed through the road closed sign to drop off and pick up their child. U-turns are permitted on College if the 9th and College intersection is closed.
Please see the enclosed map for a visual of the areas described above.
Thank you for your patience and we will continue to communicate with you over the coming days and weeks.
Thanks for listening again!
George S. Welsh
