Echoes from Cañon
Examples of Excellence
Mountain View students celebrated the 100th day of school by dressing up.
Mountain View Core Knowledge School just completed its 21st year of operation. Established to offer parents a greater level of academic choice for their children, more opportunities for school and community involvement, and a focus on curriculum fundamentals, MVCKS once again achieved a Performance accreditation rating, the highest a single school can earn in Colorado. Most impressively, MVCKS grade K-5 students are exhibiting 60th percentile or greater growth on all state administered assessments. Meanwhile, MVCKS middle-school students achieved 63rd percentile growth in English Language Arts.
Highlights from the 2016-17 school year include the school's participation in the statewide model Moneywiswer financial literacy program, class projects that supported care packages for military service members, donations to support the Fremont County Humane Society, and as always, a slew of class music and drama performances displaying the unique talents of students and made available to the entire community.
Despite a legacy of success, the MVCKS staff, led by school principal/director Karen Sartori, is making several significant changes in the coming year. The school will move to a 4-day attendance week, and with the support of CCSD Title II funding, plans to implement the Capturing Kids Hearts culture program. Also, after a year-long exploration, a new math curriculum will be implemented for students.
Highlights from the 2016-17 school year include the school's participation in the statewide model Moneywiswer financial literacy program, class projects that supported care packages for military service members, donations to support the Fremont County Humane Society, and as always, a slew of class music and drama performances displaying the unique talents of students and made available to the entire community.
Despite a legacy of success, the MVCKS staff, led by school principal/director Karen Sartori, is making several significant changes in the coming year. The school will move to a 4-day attendance week, and with the support of CCSD Title II funding, plans to implement the Capturing Kids Hearts culture program. Also, after a year-long exploration, a new math curriculum will be implemented for students.
An annual tradition at Mountain View is to welcome children back by giving them the red carpet treatment.
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An annual medieval history unit culminates with the building and labeling of replica castles.
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In the past few weeks, we received notification the Colorado Department of Education awarded our region (including the RE-2 and RE-3 school districts) roughly $450,000 per year for 3 years to hire six additional school health professionals (nurses, mental health counselors, and nurse technicians) to serve students. These grant dollars come out of the pool of funds set aside each year in Colorado from marijuana tax revenues.
Prior to this announcement, we also received notification our two-year Colorado Health Foundation grant application for $660,000 was approved. This grant will support our entire region's student health and wellness initiatives as well as help us to purchase curriculum, training, and staff to effectively teach student growth and development concepts at all grade levels.
Prior to this announcement, we also received notification our two-year Colorado Health Foundation grant application for $660,000 was approved. This grant will support our entire region's student health and wellness initiatives as well as help us to purchase curriculum, training, and staff to effectively teach student growth and development concepts at all grade levels.
The Focus of Our Work
A key area of focus this summer has been exploring more viable long-term solutions to our facilities deficiencies at Cañon City Middle School. Readers may recall we submitted a Building Excellent Schools Today grant application this spring with a proposal to replace structurally failing Washington Elementary and to build a new CCMS while hoping to repurpose the 1925 section of the facility. Feedback received on our failed grant application indicates we were not given the award as a result of concerns surrounding our current plan for CCMS. Thus, we are pricing a variety of solutions, including a possible short term Bandaid approach, while also considering a major remodel or actual replacement of the 1925 core while continuing to make use of some of the more modern spaces on the campus. The board hopes to arrive at a viable path forward in the next month.
On Thursday I met with director of instruction Adam Hartman, director of technology Shaun Kohl, Harrison principal Marne Autobee, Harrison assistant principal Garrett Olguin, CCMS principal Tim Renn, and middle school technology instructors Melanie Smith and Tanna Miles about upgrading the curriculum and devices in our middle school Synergy Labs. This is becoming a necessity as we upgrade computers to the Windows 10 operating system because believe it or not, many of our curriculum modules still run on Windows 98. The goal of our meeting was to build support for addressing the issue. Our next step will be to agree on new modules to purchase in consort with high school staff to ensure we are preparing students for their pathways programs.
On Thursday I met with director of instruction Adam Hartman, director of technology Shaun Kohl, Harrison principal Marne Autobee, Harrison assistant principal Garrett Olguin, CCMS principal Tim Renn, and middle school technology instructors Melanie Smith and Tanna Miles about upgrading the curriculum and devices in our middle school Synergy Labs. This is becoming a necessity as we upgrade computers to the Windows 10 operating system because believe it or not, many of our curriculum modules still run on Windows 98. The goal of our meeting was to build support for addressing the issue. Our next step will be to agree on new modules to purchase in consort with high school staff to ensure we are preparing students for their pathways programs.
Last Week
I started a short work week on Wednesday, continuing to plug away at our federal programs grant application. On Thursday I attended a middle school technology curriculum meeting and a regional Positive Youth Development program training discussion. I spent Friday in the office catching up on communication items and finalizing work on our federal programs application.
This Week
I'll start my week in Denver on Monday morning, but will be back to Cañon in time for our board work session and meeting. On Tuesday we have our monthly touching base meeting with CCPD and we'll hold a Superintendent's Advisory Council meeting. I'll also attend an informational meeting about the Tiger Open Pathways program later in the day, and then a Building Bridges for Quality Cañon City Schools meeting in the evening. On Wednesday we have a whole day scheduled for a district technology visioning meeting. Our goal will be to codify our vision, select and cost out devices to put in student's hands, and build action plans for doing so. On Thursday I'll meet with a new employee about their role in the district, and I'll meet with Mountain View Core Knowledge School leaders about their budget. On Friday I'll meet with Harrison's new administrative team to further orient them on their role in the district, and then I'll meet with Harrison 1st and 2nd-grade teachers about their plans for the beginning of the school year.
Thanks for listening once again.
George S. Welsh
Thanks for listening once again.
George S. Welsh