Examples of Excellence
As I succeed Dr. Robin Gooldy as superintendent of schools here in Cañon City, Colorado I would like to kick off my weekly Examples of Excellence correspondence by thanking him for his outstanding service to the Fremont RE-1 School District for the past 11 years. From my perspective as newly appointed chief executive officer of schools, I have observed that Robin has long been a calming influence on our school district, has amassed an extremely talented and hard working central office staff, has empowered building leaders to explore and put into place their vision of educational excellence, has offered up a wide variety of choice options for parents and students when it comes to K-12 educational experiences, and has created an outstanding and respectful work relationship among all levels of employees, as well as the board of education. Thanks to Dr. Gooldy's influence there is very little wrong with the Fremont RE-1 School District and I promise to do my best to take the wonderful school system he has left for us and continue to improve it. As Dr. Gooldy rides off into retirement I would like to join the entire Cañon City community in thanking him for all his hard work on behalf of our children. He has truly been a prime example of excellence!
The Focus of Our Work
Since being hired as superintendent of schools back in March, I have worked hard to learn all I can from outgoing superintendent Gooldy. He and I have had many conversations and he was kind enough to allow me to participate in the 2015-16 school year budgeting processes and in hiring new principals for Harrison K-8 School and Cañon City Middle School. These efforts led to the hiring of Mr. John Pavlicek, most recently of Sargent Elementary School in the San Luis Valley of Colorado, and the recommendation of Mr. Timothy Renn, formerly of Greeley Schools, but most recently principal in the Huerfano School District in Walsenburg. It is my belief that through these processes, led by director of human resources Misty Manchester, the Cañon City School District has acquired two proven leaders who are poised to take their instructional staffs to yet higher levels of student opportunity and achievement. I hope the entire CCSD community will join me in welcoming them and making their transition an easy one.
One other major area of focus for the past month has been having a chance to develop a relationship with Cañon City High School principal Bret Meuli. In late June, Bret and I attended a Professional Learning Community meeting at the Colorado Department of Education centered around learning more about high school student capstone projects. Colorado's new graduation requirements, set to be implemented by the time this coming year's 7th grade class hits the 12th grade, will require capstone projects to be an option for some students to provide evidence they are ready to enter college or the workforce. I very much enjoyed engaging in this work with Mr. Meuli and look forward to learning more about what we can all do to provide such experiences for Cañon City High School students as we focus on the future.
Last Week
I began my official service to the Cañon City School District on Wednesday July 1st with an administrative staff meeting at 8 AM. These meetings take place on the first Wednesday of each month and serve the purpose of allowing department employees to communicate face to face about major initiatives being worked on. This meeting was dominated by members of the technology department who shared information about all the important upgrade work they are engaged in this summer. I very much enjoyed meeting everyone at this gathering, was drafted to lead the singing of Happy Birthday to director of support services Paula Buser, was forced to sign up to provide refreshments at a future meeting, learned not to trust the folks in the payroll department (as they apparently play far too many practical jokes), and offered a single contribution requesting as we move forward that one or two departments be required each month to offer celebrations about something great they observe going on in the school district.
I spent the rest of Wednesday setting work norms with superintendent/board secretary Colleen Carroll, and sorting through office items and communications left for me by Dr. Gooldy. I noticed the district was kind enough to re-carpet and paint the superintendent office before my arrival and want to thank Keri Peterson, accounting/payroll manager, for coming in during the last weekend in June to do so.
On Thursday morning I trekked to Harrison School on my bicycle to participate in assistant principal interviews along with newly hired principal John Pavlicek, board director Shad Johnson, and a handful of very dedicated Harrison staff members who were willing to give up precious summer break time to make this important decision. On my way to the interviews I quickly learned that even on an old cruiser bicycle one needs to slow down as they cross the 15th street dip, as I hit it hard and caused fresh coffee to rain all over my dapper summer work outfit. Fortunately our pool of candidates was not scared away by their potential future superintendent looking like he just completed a tough mudder run. The pool was full of strong contenders, and I believe Mr. Pavlicek will soon be offering a recommendation to the board of education to fill this key position with an excellent prospect.
On Thursday afternoon I connected with incoming Cañon City Middle School principal Timothy Renn at a local restaurant, took him through his new school with one of his sons, and continued working to set up my office.
Of course the administrative office was closed on Friday the 3rd of July in celebration of Independence Day.
I spent the rest of Wednesday setting work norms with superintendent/board secretary Colleen Carroll, and sorting through office items and communications left for me by Dr. Gooldy. I noticed the district was kind enough to re-carpet and paint the superintendent office before my arrival and want to thank Keri Peterson, accounting/payroll manager, for coming in during the last weekend in June to do so.
On Thursday morning I trekked to Harrison School on my bicycle to participate in assistant principal interviews along with newly hired principal John Pavlicek, board director Shad Johnson, and a handful of very dedicated Harrison staff members who were willing to give up precious summer break time to make this important decision. On my way to the interviews I quickly learned that even on an old cruiser bicycle one needs to slow down as they cross the 15th street dip, as I hit it hard and caused fresh coffee to rain all over my dapper summer work outfit. Fortunately our pool of candidates was not scared away by their potential future superintendent looking like he just completed a tough mudder run. The pool was full of strong contenders, and I believe Mr. Pavlicek will soon be offering a recommendation to the board of education to fill this key position with an excellent prospect.
On Thursday afternoon I connected with incoming Cañon City Middle School principal Timothy Renn at a local restaurant, took him through his new school with one of his sons, and continued working to set up my office.
Of course the administrative office was closed on Friday the 3rd of July in celebration of Independence Day.
This Week
For the week of July 6th through 10th my calendar is filled with to do items related to communicating to district staff about their return to work at the end of the summer, physically setting up my office, working with director of technology Shaun Kohl to set up my many job-related devices, educating myself about negotiated certified and classified employee work agreements, scheduling one-to-one meetings with individual school board members and classified and certified association leaders, and planning for a board-superintendent work session scheduled for Monday July 13th that will focus on our operational norms, the specific roles the board expects me to fill in the district, and how the board might measure my effectiveness in doing so. I will only work through Thursday this week as I have a long standing family commitment in Arizona to attend the wedding of my nephew Ryan Graham over the weekend.
The Way I See It
As I work to fulfill my new duties as Cañon City's superintendent of schools I have tried to create a blueprint by which I will transition into my work. Keeping in mind that the mission of the school district is to develop compassionate, responsible, independent, and productive citizens through a quality education for students, provided in a safe environment for students and staff, by mid-December I hope to accomplish the following things:
I will work to build a collaborative relationship with the board of education by engaging with them to review the vision, mission, and core beliefs of the district to make sure I fully understand the direction they would like to take its schools, by reviewing the superintendent of schools job duties and process for evaluation to make sure I clearly understand my job expectations, how my progress will be measured, and how I will receive useful feedback to improve my performance for the benefit of the district and its students, and by meeting individually with each board member several times to establish a productive personal relationship and to learn about his or her hopes, dreams, aspirations, and goals for the district.
I will work to focus on effective, transparent communication by establishing and executing a plan for consistently communicating district priorities and efforts to achieve them to board members, parents, staff members, and community members, on a weekly basis through email, a blog, the Daily Record, radio, and social media. By also meeting with and picking the brains of all current administrators, directors, and teacher and staff leaders for the purpose of developing a positive work relationship, finding out what each person's job responsibilities are, learning what each person thinks is going well in the district, and asking what they would like to see improve in the district. By regularly attending local business and service organization meetings for the purpose of familiarizing myself with key communicators in the business sector and seeking ways to continue to leverage these resources for the benefit of the district's children. By introducing myself to local legislators, public officials, and higher education leaders for the purpose of developing relationships and continuing to seek ways for the district to work with each entity for the benefit of kids. Finally, by familiarizing myself with the resources available to the district through regional BOCES, superintendent councils, and lobbying organizations to develop a network of advocacy and support for completing my work tasks in the district.
I will work to focus on student achievement by reviewing all currently available data with the board of education and administrative team for the purpose of better understanding the areas in which the district would like to target instructional improvement efforts, and by reviewing the district unified improvement plan to gain a better understanding of what I must make sure is being implemented to achieve such improvements. I will also learn about the district curriculum under the tutelage of director of student services Dominic Carochi to ensure it is aligned with state standards and is actually being taught with fidelity in our schools. i will also conduct periodic instructional walks in each school for the purpose of observing the quality of classroom instruction and supporting principals in offering constructive feedback to help teachers continually improve their craft. Finally, I will schedule extensive informal time to meet with students, staff members, and parents for the purpose of familiarizing myself with each unique school community, their needs, and their aspirations.
I hope everyone can see my promise is to simply listen, support, and learn for my first six months of work so I can be more knowledgeable when it comes to future improvement planning come spring of 2016.
I can't express just how excited I am to have this opportunity to work with the Cañon City school community. I encourage each of you to check back here every week so I can share the progress we are making toward attaining our vision of providing each child with the opportunity of Learning for Life!
George S. Welsh