Echoes from Cañon
Examples of Excellence
I would like to begin this week by congratulating former GATE director, and current director of instruction, Adam Hartman who applied for and received a GATE universal screening grant. He has secured these funds on an annual basis for several years and having them helps us to identify and serve additional gifted students.
I also want to take a moment to thank webmaster Elizabeth Ganache for the outstanding work she has done transitioning our websites to a new platform, and for throughly modernizing our online appearance. I know this was tedious and stressful work, but she has done a wonderful job getting us up and running just in time for a new school year.
Finally, I would like to thank new CCHS head custodian Jason Jones for the excellent work he and is crew are doing preparing the building for a new school year. I would especially like to thank him for how hard he is working communicating the weekly custodial tasks and accomplishments to his crew and to school and district administrators.
I also want to take a moment to thank webmaster Elizabeth Ganache for the outstanding work she has done transitioning our websites to a new platform, and for throughly modernizing our online appearance. I know this was tedious and stressful work, but she has done a wonderful job getting us up and running just in time for a new school year.
Finally, I would like to thank new CCHS head custodian Jason Jones for the excellent work he and is crew are doing preparing the building for a new school year. I would especially like to thank him for how hard he is working communicating the weekly custodial tasks and accomplishments to his crew and to school and district administrators.
The Focus of Our Work
We just finished week two off our four week summer reading academy and I am hearing many tales of our student participants growing by leaps and bounds, and our teachers becoming more and more comfortable delivering the Lindmood-Bell Seeing Stars intervention.
This Monday at 5:30 PM our board of education will begin a process to gather information and opinions to inform decisions soon to be made regarding the future utilization of facilities in the Cañon City School District. Last year as we worked to build a comprehensive Building Excellent Schools Today facilities grant application to support upgrading buildings, we realized our under-utilization of available facilities would cause us not to be awarded a large scale grant. As a result we significantly scaled back our application to where we only applied for roughly 1 million dollars in assistance to re-roof some parts of our buildings. Fortunately, we were awarded that grant.
I know many have heard that during this grant development process we also became aware of some structural issues that need to be addressed at Washington Elementary School. The cost for fixing these, and then getting the entire building up to code (as would be required after such structural work) could be quite significant. Because of this the board of education is initiating a process to clearly and transparently outline all of our current facilities issues, with hopes of engaging as many stakeholders as possible in planning a viable long term solution for the entire district. At our board meeting on Monday July 25th I will present to the board information on all the buildings we have in use, their general condition, upgrades needed , and the current extent of use (operating capacity). I will also focus on the upgrade needs of the Washington building, including anticipated costs to get it up to code. I will also spend some time explaining the Building Excellent Schools Today grant application process, the grant program's priorities, and the potential the district has in tapping this funding resource in a significant fashion. I will end my presentation by listing a number of options the district might consider as it moves forward, while also answering any follow-up questions the board and community may have. This presentation is not intended to lead to an immediate decision about facilities by the board of education. However, I am hoping it will kick off a deep discussion process and open opportunities for the board to formally engage the community about any viable solutions it might support. I encourage interested community members to attend. However, I promise to continually report to the community our progress as options are explored and decisions are eventually made.
This Monday at 5:30 PM our board of education will begin a process to gather information and opinions to inform decisions soon to be made regarding the future utilization of facilities in the Cañon City School District. Last year as we worked to build a comprehensive Building Excellent Schools Today facilities grant application to support upgrading buildings, we realized our under-utilization of available facilities would cause us not to be awarded a large scale grant. As a result we significantly scaled back our application to where we only applied for roughly 1 million dollars in assistance to re-roof some parts of our buildings. Fortunately, we were awarded that grant.
I know many have heard that during this grant development process we also became aware of some structural issues that need to be addressed at Washington Elementary School. The cost for fixing these, and then getting the entire building up to code (as would be required after such structural work) could be quite significant. Because of this the board of education is initiating a process to clearly and transparently outline all of our current facilities issues, with hopes of engaging as many stakeholders as possible in planning a viable long term solution for the entire district. At our board meeting on Monday July 25th I will present to the board information on all the buildings we have in use, their general condition, upgrades needed , and the current extent of use (operating capacity). I will also focus on the upgrade needs of the Washington building, including anticipated costs to get it up to code. I will also spend some time explaining the Building Excellent Schools Today grant application process, the grant program's priorities, and the potential the district has in tapping this funding resource in a significant fashion. I will end my presentation by listing a number of options the district might consider as it moves forward, while also answering any follow-up questions the board and community may have. This presentation is not intended to lead to an immediate decision about facilities by the board of education. However, I am hoping it will kick off a deep discussion process and open opportunities for the board to formally engage the community about any viable solutions it might support. I encourage interested community members to attend. However, I promise to continually report to the community our progress as options are explored and decisions are eventually made.
The Last Two Weeks
I spent the better part of the last two weeks on a family vacation. However, I did work on policy revisions with board-superintendent secretary Colleen Carroll, attended to routine communication week each day, work with Bret Meuli on some grant compliance tasks, and stayed in close ouch with our folks operating our summer reading academy.
The Week Ahead
On Monday we’ll begin back to school training with key people from our school buildings, I’ll work on finalizing my facilities presentation for the board, I’ll meet with board president Larry Oddo over lunch, I’ll attend an elementary principal meeting about our Early Literacy Grant, and I’ll attend a board work session and regular meeting. On Tuesday I have a meeting with Fremont County Department of Human Services director Steve Clifton. I also have a SAC meeting, a meeting with community partners, and a summer reading academy PLC I will be attending. On Wednesday I will be working on grant compliance, preparing for our all staff back to school event, and I will travel to Breckenridge to attend part of the Colorado Association of School Executives annual conference. I’ll remain in Breckenridge on Thursday but return to Cañon that evening. The only things I have on my calendar for Friday so far are a breakfast meeting with board director Shad Johnson and a meeting with director of special services Lynnette Steinhoff.
Thanks for listening once again!
George S. Welsh
Thanks for listening once again!
George S. Welsh