Echoes from Cañon
Examples of Excellence
Drenda Manning and her staff guided McKinley Elementary from a Turnaround to a Performance accreditation rating!
McKinley Elementary School, under the guidance of Principal Drenda Manning, wrapped up a great year during which its accreditation rating advanced from Priority Improvement (and on the state's accreditation concern radar) to Performing (the highest rating an individual school can achieve in Colorado). Considering the school had been struggling for several years, spending time in the Turnaround and Priority Improvement categories, this is truly wonderful news!
An academic highlight leading to this amazing improvement was a strong school-wide math intervention process resulting in whopping 65th percentile growth in the subject for Wildcat students identified as living in poverty!
An academic highlight leading to this amazing improvement was a strong school-wide math intervention process resulting in whopping 65th percentile growth in the subject for Wildcat students identified as living in poverty!
Experienced and talented teachers like Cheri Roberts have led to improved outcomes.
Every bit as exciting, McKinley's academic growth in Language Arts came closer to the 50th percentile than at any time in the past. Based on our observation of the school's implementation of our Early Literacy Grant, and as evidenced through strong STAR and DIBELS benchmark results, we will not be surprised to see growth in this area jump well above state average growth.
Among McKinley's many strengths include a highly trained and experienced staff, its key location on the East end of Lincoln Park, its rural school feel, and its generational clientele resulting in an outstanding level of parent involvement. All this plays out in well-attended parent engagement events such as monthly Wildcat Cafe luncheons where students and parents honor those who provide important services within the community.
Unfortunately, Mrs. Manning has decided to move on. However, the Wildcats have secured the services of experienced principal Scott Morton to lead them into the future. It also just so happens Mr. Morton's wife was a McKinley Wildcat. I understand she and Scott look forward to the day their beautiful newborn daughter gets to don the Wildcat red and black. Generational indeed!
Among McKinley's many strengths include a highly trained and experienced staff, its key location on the East end of Lincoln Park, its rural school feel, and its generational clientele resulting in an outstanding level of parent involvement. All this plays out in well-attended parent engagement events such as monthly Wildcat Cafe luncheons where students and parents honor those who provide important services within the community.
Unfortunately, Mrs. Manning has decided to move on. However, the Wildcats have secured the services of experienced principal Scott Morton to lead them into the future. It also just so happens Mr. Morton's wife was a McKinley Wildcat. I understand she and Scott look forward to the day their beautiful newborn daughter gets to don the Wildcat red and black. Generational indeed!
Last year the Wildcat Grill honored first responders.
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2016-17 was the first year McKinley achieved a performance rating!
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New Principal Scott Morton moved from Cañon Exploratory School to McKinley, and Kelly Albrecht replaced him at CES.
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The Focus of Our Work
On Friday director of operations Jeff Peterson presented important department information to all administrators.
On Tuesday I attended an encouraging meeting about the possibility of submitting a Colorado Department of Education P-Tech grant to create an organized collaboration between Cañon City High School, Pueblo Community College, and the Fremont Economic Development Corporation aimed at preparing students in grades 10 through 14 for Science Technology, Engineering, and Math careers. Wait a minute! 14th grade? This simply means the program would extend through the end of a student's Sophomore year in college, at no cost to the student. CCHS Principal Bill Summers, director of instruction Adam Hartman, and representatives from PCC, FEDC, the Workforce Center and Tech-Start were present as well. As of now, we’re moving toward a proposal that would enhance our STEM pathway at CCHS and Mr. Summers has committed our brand new high school technical writing students to actually produce the grant. What a great real life experience that will be! Our goal is to secure 50 local business partners who have STEM based jobs and to engage 40 to 50 students in the program by the beginning of the 2018-19 school year if we are able to secure the grant.
Director of instruction Adam Hartman and director of technology Shaun Kohl have been working with CCMS and Harrison K-8 instructional leaders to upgrade their Synergy labs in grades 6-8. These modules offer middle school students the opportunity to work on technology and engineering based projects. We desperately need to upgrade them because many of are so old they actually still operate on Windows XP, which is no longer a serviceable computer platform. We have been in the mode of pricing these upgrades, and are learning we just may not be able to afford such an upgrade. However, we'll first put our requirements out for bid before making a final decision as to how to proceed for the coming school year.
Though it is only the third week of July, we are deep in the midst of back to school preparations. Last Friday we held an all day administrator retreat, and this Monday we are engaging all principals, secretaries, and office staff in organized professional development activities and information sharing.
Our pace of preparation for the arrival children will speed up in August, as we hold on-site student registration from the 1st through the 3rd, new teacher orientation from the 9th through the 14th, our traditional all staff gathering on the 15th, and teacher professional development/classroom preparation time from the 16th through the 18th. Our first day of students is Monday, August 21st.
Director of instruction Adam Hartman and director of technology Shaun Kohl have been working with CCMS and Harrison K-8 instructional leaders to upgrade their Synergy labs in grades 6-8. These modules offer middle school students the opportunity to work on technology and engineering based projects. We desperately need to upgrade them because many of are so old they actually still operate on Windows XP, which is no longer a serviceable computer platform. We have been in the mode of pricing these upgrades, and are learning we just may not be able to afford such an upgrade. However, we'll first put our requirements out for bid before making a final decision as to how to proceed for the coming school year.
Though it is only the third week of July, we are deep in the midst of back to school preparations. Last Friday we held an all day administrator retreat, and this Monday we are engaging all principals, secretaries, and office staff in organized professional development activities and information sharing.
Our pace of preparation for the arrival children will speed up in August, as we hold on-site student registration from the 1st through the 3rd, new teacher orientation from the 9th through the 14th, our traditional all staff gathering on the 15th, and teacher professional development/classroom preparation time from the 16th through the 18th. Our first day of students is Monday, August 21st.
Last Week
Last week I finalized a draft of our technology vision plan, attended a city council meeting to communicate what we intend to do with our ballot questions, met with the new Harrison administrative team about general leadership and communication expectations, continued work on our ballot language and Cañon City Middle School facilities plan, attended a P-Tech Grant meeting, finalized the agenda for our all-staff back to school meeting, and participated in an all-day administrator professional development retreat at the district administration office.
This Week
On an annual basis we update the areas of responsibility for each department director.
Amazingly, my work calendar is still quite open for this week. I have a board meeting and work session on Monday. On Tuesday Superintendent's Advisory Council and a meeting to develop a payroll deduction volunteer form for our employees who choose to support the work of the Cañon City Educational Organization for Excellence. My Wednesday schedule is still open! On Thursday we have to notify the county of our intent to hold an election. On Friday I have a monthly touching base meeting scheduled with director of instruction Adam Hartman.
My to-do list for the week includes communicating our updated department duties matrix to staff members, preparing an all-staff gathering presentation, writing a back to school article for the Daily Record, organizing building and district UIP action plans, updating our teacher evaluation calculator to include PSAT and SAT options for high school staff, and filing end of year evaluation information.
Thanks for listening once again. Have a great week!
George S. Welsh
My to-do list for the week includes communicating our updated department duties matrix to staff members, preparing an all-staff gathering presentation, writing a back to school article for the Daily Record, organizing building and district UIP action plans, updating our teacher evaluation calculator to include PSAT and SAT options for high school staff, and filing end of year evaluation information.
Thanks for listening once again. Have a great week!
George S. Welsh