Echoes from Cañon
Examples of Excellence
At the top of our examples of excellence this week are our 2014-15 DIBELS reading assessment results in the Cañon City School District, especially those of our kindergarten cohort. At the beginning of the year 37 percent of our incoming 5-year-olds were identified as well below benchmark in reading skills. By mid-year our primary grade teachers had lowered that total to 10%. By end of year the number stood at only 5%! No matter how you look this tells the story that CCSD kindergarten teachers and support staff are making tremendous strides toward the improvement of reading abilities for our youngest students. Including all students in grades K-3 during the 2014-15 school year the district lowered the percentage of students reading well below benchmark from 25% in August, 2014 to only 12% in May, 2015. This is great work!
Last Monday I met with I met with CCSD director of student services Dominic Carochi so he could teach me more about our online Atlas Rubicon curriculum platform and guides. I was quite impressed with the work that has already been accomplished in terms of organizing and aligning curriculum for Cañon City School District's teachers. However, both Nick and I also recognize this work is not yet fully user friendly for all teachers at all grade levels in all subject areas. During our meeting Mr. Carochi told me the district’s major effort has focused on the process of developing these curriculum tools, and what has been developed has not yet been put to full use by our instructional staff. I believe the establishment of a guaranteed and viable district curriculum will be key to making sure our children progress in their year to year learning at an appropriate rate, without major gaps in content. Making sure it is fully in place AND being faithfully taught by all teachers will be a great next step for us to take as a district.
On a final note regarding the past week, my wife Becky, my daughter Priscilla, and I had the pleasure of trekking to Downtown Pueblo on Monday evening to watch Cañon City High School's own Sawyer Versaw, a 2015 graduate, Brenna Angelo-Surber, an upcoming senior, Brianna Freda, a 2014 graduate, Chris Hudson, an upcoming sophomore, and Makenzie Konty, also an upcoming sophomore participating in the Pueblo Parks and Recreation Department's performance of Shrek the Musical. They played Shrek (Sawyer), Princess Fiona (Brenna), Gingy, the Sugarplum Fairy, and Blind Mouse (Brianna), Big Bad Wolf, Papa Ogre (Chris), and the Shoemaker's Elf (Makenzie). The performance was spectacular and Mr. Albrecht's years of influence was quite evident. I want to thank these young men and women for sharing their example of excellence with the entire region through this effort!
On a final note regarding the past week, my wife Becky, my daughter Priscilla, and I had the pleasure of trekking to Downtown Pueblo on Monday evening to watch Cañon City High School's own Sawyer Versaw, a 2015 graduate, Brenna Angelo-Surber, an upcoming senior, Brianna Freda, a 2014 graduate, Chris Hudson, an upcoming sophomore, and Makenzie Konty, also an upcoming sophomore participating in the Pueblo Parks and Recreation Department's performance of Shrek the Musical. They played Shrek (Sawyer), Princess Fiona (Brenna), Gingy, the Sugarplum Fairy, and Blind Mouse (Brianna), Big Bad Wolf, Papa Ogre (Chris), and the Shoemaker's Elf (Makenzie). The performance was spectacular and Mr. Albrecht's years of influence was quite evident. I want to thank these young men and women for sharing their example of excellence with the entire region through this effort!
The Focus of Our Work
I am excited that we will have a recommendation to the board of education for a new Teacher On Special Assignment at Cañon City Middle School for the coming year. We are suggesting Jesse Oliver, a native of Florence with experience administering a school for significantly at-risk students. We are hopeful Jesse will be hired by the board and anticipate he will do a fine job supporting new CCMS principal Tim Renn on student behavior issues and in evaluating and supporting classroom teachers.
I also remind everyone about important work completed in June regarding school attendance boundaries. During the spring of 2012, in the midst of funding cuts, a cost-saving recommendation approved by the CCSD board of education closed the Madison, Garden Park, and Skyline school sites. The Garden Park program was absorbed into CCHS and Skyline was re-opened as a larger version of the Madison program (now called Cañon Exploratory School). This meant all students being served in the old Skyline School were accepted to other schools on transfer. For the three school years since that attendance zone was closed Skyline students were accepted primarily in CES, Harrison, and Washington. A small number also attended Lincoln and McKinley.
As a result of this change the district redrew attendance lines in June (2015). In doing so basic requirements included that boundary changes would not overcrowd or under populate any one school, the transfer of students from one school to another would be minimized, and transportation needs and safety of all students would be given utmost consideration. In the end K-5 students who once attended Skyline were assigned to Washington and Harrison Schools with Washington Street serving as the dividing line. All students south of Washington Street are now assigned to Washington School while students north of that are assigned to Harrison.
For 6th-8th grade students the Cañon City Middle School boundary was also moved to Washington Street, with all students north of Washington assigned to Harrison School. Students south of Washington Street continue to have Cañon City Middle School as their home school. This change was made to ensure students attending Harrison School in elementary grades would still be able to do so during middle school.
These new boundaries take effect with the beginning of the 2015-16 school year. Students whose newly assigned school is different from their original school are grandfathered in if parents choose this. They have the option to continue until completion of the highest grade at that school.
No additional bus routes had to be recommended as a result of these changes. However, some families whose children once rode a bus to school will discover they are now located in a walking zone, thus bus service will no longer be offered. We anticipate handling a small number of bus requests through the district's Conditional Rider process.
One additional reminder to parents: Cañon City School District prides itself on the choices it offers families when it comes to schooling. If you feel a specific program is right for your child, you are encouraged to learn more about it and to pursue enrolling your child.
On another note, the CCSD board of education will meet this Monday at 5:30 PM to tackle a very routine agenda including making simple 2014-15 budget amendments, considering a recommendation to slightly raise adult cafeteria meal prices as suggested by the standard CDE meal pricing formula, and hiring/assigning a slew of instructional paraprofessionals, our new CCMS TOSA, a new high school math teacher, and a new executive secretary for student services. Prior to the meeting we will have a short work session aimed at taking the agreed upon role of the superintendent of schools and turning it into a full blown superintendent evaluation process.
I also remind everyone about important work completed in June regarding school attendance boundaries. During the spring of 2012, in the midst of funding cuts, a cost-saving recommendation approved by the CCSD board of education closed the Madison, Garden Park, and Skyline school sites. The Garden Park program was absorbed into CCHS and Skyline was re-opened as a larger version of the Madison program (now called Cañon Exploratory School). This meant all students being served in the old Skyline School were accepted to other schools on transfer. For the three school years since that attendance zone was closed Skyline students were accepted primarily in CES, Harrison, and Washington. A small number also attended Lincoln and McKinley.
As a result of this change the district redrew attendance lines in June (2015). In doing so basic requirements included that boundary changes would not overcrowd or under populate any one school, the transfer of students from one school to another would be minimized, and transportation needs and safety of all students would be given utmost consideration. In the end K-5 students who once attended Skyline were assigned to Washington and Harrison Schools with Washington Street serving as the dividing line. All students south of Washington Street are now assigned to Washington School while students north of that are assigned to Harrison.
For 6th-8th grade students the Cañon City Middle School boundary was also moved to Washington Street, with all students north of Washington assigned to Harrison School. Students south of Washington Street continue to have Cañon City Middle School as their home school. This change was made to ensure students attending Harrison School in elementary grades would still be able to do so during middle school.
These new boundaries take effect with the beginning of the 2015-16 school year. Students whose newly assigned school is different from their original school are grandfathered in if parents choose this. They have the option to continue until completion of the highest grade at that school.
No additional bus routes had to be recommended as a result of these changes. However, some families whose children once rode a bus to school will discover they are now located in a walking zone, thus bus service will no longer be offered. We anticipate handling a small number of bus requests through the district's Conditional Rider process.
One additional reminder to parents: Cañon City School District prides itself on the choices it offers families when it comes to schooling. If you feel a specific program is right for your child, you are encouraged to learn more about it and to pursue enrolling your child.
On another note, the CCSD board of education will meet this Monday at 5:30 PM to tackle a very routine agenda including making simple 2014-15 budget amendments, considering a recommendation to slightly raise adult cafeteria meal prices as suggested by the standard CDE meal pricing formula, and hiring/assigning a slew of instructional paraprofessionals, our new CCMS TOSA, a new high school math teacher, and a new executive secretary for student services. Prior to the meeting we will have a short work session aimed at taking the agreed upon role of the superintendent of schools and turning it into a full blown superintendent evaluation process.
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Finally, last week the Colorado Department of Education released 2014-15 CMAS science and social studies test results for 4th, 5th, 7th, and 8th graders and, though the Cañon City School District has not yet performed above state average in any of these tested areas, our 4th graders at Lincoln Elementary School posted a whopping 13 percent increase in social studies over 2014 results, 5th graders at Washington, Lincoln, McKinley and Cañon Exploratory posted strong increases in 5th grade science, and CCMS 8th graders had an 8 percent gain over their prior year science results. As a district CCSD showed improvement in all tested areas with an overall 4 point increase in 4th grade social studies, a 5 point increase in 5th grade science, a 1 point increase in 7th grade social studies, and a 1 point increase in 8th grade science.
Last Week
During the week of July 20th through July 24th I met with representatives of Goal Academy, our director of student services Dominic Carochi, folks who are helping us out with our migration to Google Apps, my superintendent advisory council of directors, and several parents of CCSD children.
Other things I did this past week included meeting with Harrison principal John Pavlicek and a family about an apparent bullying situation, meeting with director of finance Buddy Lambrecht about our facilities corporations, meeting with director of student services Paula Buser about the number of required annual fire drills and ways we might lower our workmen's comp insurance costs, meeting with Washington Elementary head custodian Jason Jones about a custodial training concept, meeting with board director Shad Johnson about the model we might establish for a superintendent evaluation process, meeting with transportation staff about our new bus routes, and meeting individually in half hour sessions with 11 of our administrative office staff members.
Other things I did this past week included meeting with Harrison principal John Pavlicek and a family about an apparent bullying situation, meeting with director of finance Buddy Lambrecht about our facilities corporations, meeting with director of student services Paula Buser about the number of required annual fire drills and ways we might lower our workmen's comp insurance costs, meeting with Washington Elementary head custodian Jason Jones about a custodial training concept, meeting with board director Shad Johnson about the model we might establish for a superintendent evaluation process, meeting with transportation staff about our new bus routes, and meeting individually in half hour sessions with 11 of our administrative office staff members.
This Week
On Monday we'll hold back to school training for building secretaries. I also have meetings scheduled on Monday with Carrie Canterbury of the Cañon City Daily Record and Cañon City Fire Chief Slaughenhaupt. On Monday evening I will meet with board president Mike Near, attend the board of education work session, and end my evening with our regular 2nd July board meeting. On Tuesday I meet with our superintendent council of advisors before heading off to the annual Colorado Association of School Executives convention with ten other CCSD administrators. We'll be engaged in this work from Wednesday through mid day Friday. While at the convention we'll especially appreciate having dedicated time to get to know one-another, attending general and breakout sessions aimed at inspiring and motivating us in our work, and gaining more tools to work with in our effort to improve student achievement.
The Way I See It
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Only three weeks into my new job and I am well on my way toward my goal of meeting individually with every CCSD administrative office staff member. While in such sessions a question I have asked each employee is, "What do you think is the best thing about Cañon City Schools?" The resounding answer I have received is, "It's the people!" Everyone I have met has shared with me just how the people they work with are not only highly focused on doing their job for the district, but are there to fully support them in work tasks,and beyond, if the need ever arises. I have observed many organizations the size of the Cañon City Schools administrative team building silos of separation between departments and job duties, who then struggle to communicate and work well together as a team. This is clearly not happening in CCSD. Before retiring Dr. Gooldy provided the district with a wonderfully hard working administrative staff that simply gets the fact that people work for each other, not just for their organization. I will meet with the rest of my team to learn about their backgrounds and their hopes for the district. I can tell you already that I get to work with a truly a special group of people on a day to day basis!
George S. Welsh
George S. Welsh
