Echoes from Cañon
Our Core Beliefs
1. We meet the social-emotional needs of all students, putting Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs before Bloom’s Taxonomy.
2. We believe learning growth matters most, requires risk-taking, and the work we do in our schools has the greatest impact on this.
3. We’re future-focused, believing the development of certain traits and skills will best prepare our students for ever-changing careers.
4. We emphasize what is good for kids over the needs and comfort of adults.
1. We meet the social-emotional needs of all students, putting Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs before Bloom’s Taxonomy.
2. We believe learning growth matters most, requires risk-taking, and the work we do in our schools has the greatest impact on this.
3. We’re future-focused, believing the development of certain traits and skills will best prepare our students for ever-changing careers.
4. We emphasize what is good for kids over the needs and comfort of adults.
Our Core Beliefs in Action
Bill Summers, Brad Rowland, and Chris Koehn are information about our partnership with TechSTART at a recent statewide P-TECH gathering.
On June 12th Cañon City High School hosted a statewide P-TECH networking meeting. While doing so, CCHS Principal Bill Summers took participants on a tour of his school's vocational, medical, and techn9ology program spaces. Also of note was that Brad Rowland from Microsoft and TechSTART, and Chris Koehn of Second 61 were on hand to present how Cañon City High School students are accessing local technology experts through intern and apprentice opportunties established at TechSTART.
We wish to thank our entire staff for showing kindness and quickly reacting to support to one of our new staff members. Thanks to quick communication last week, we were able to locate a suitable place for a new to Cañon City Schools special education instructor to live, within hours of reaching out to help. Tim Renn, our Director of Special Education expressed, "this little success story reminds me of why I love working in our district. Relationships and collaboration are valued heavily in our town and district and those values were on full display as many of you took a few moments away from your own schedules to give to help out another." One of our greatest challenges here in Cañon City Schools is to attract and retain high-quality staff. It is even harder to do so in the special education realm. Making it easier for folks from outside our community to find a place to live will go a long way toward making it easier to hire such folks. Thank you all!
At our June 10th Board of Education meeting, Deci Douroux from Lindamood-Bell was on hand to present results of this year's reading intervention effort. Deci reported that all participating schools showed solid gains in Symbol Imagery, Word Attack, Word Recognition, and Spelling, with all growing at or above the 50%th Percentile. Deci was also quite impressed that 100% of our intervention lesson pacing was accomplished by our own district Literacy Team. This shows we are building tremendous capacity. Though there is much to celebrate, of particular note in the date Deci shared is that Cañon Exploratory participants more than doubled their word recognition performance, Harrison participants doubled their word attack ability, and Lincoln and Washington students nearly doubled their ability to identify symbol imagery. Some of the most impressive data came out of McKinley Elementary where their intervention participants more than doubled in symbol imagery, word attack, and spelling, and tripled their word recognition ability. What a tremendous way to exhibit our core belief that student growth is what matters most!
We wish to thank our entire staff for showing kindness and quickly reacting to support to one of our new staff members. Thanks to quick communication last week, we were able to locate a suitable place for a new to Cañon City Schools special education instructor to live, within hours of reaching out to help. Tim Renn, our Director of Special Education expressed, "this little success story reminds me of why I love working in our district. Relationships and collaboration are valued heavily in our town and district and those values were on full display as many of you took a few moments away from your own schedules to give to help out another." One of our greatest challenges here in Cañon City Schools is to attract and retain high-quality staff. It is even harder to do so in the special education realm. Making it easier for folks from outside our community to find a place to live will go a long way toward making it easier to hire such folks. Thank you all!
At our June 10th Board of Education meeting, Deci Douroux from Lindamood-Bell was on hand to present results of this year's reading intervention effort. Deci reported that all participating schools showed solid gains in Symbol Imagery, Word Attack, Word Recognition, and Spelling, with all growing at or above the 50%th Percentile. Deci was also quite impressed that 100% of our intervention lesson pacing was accomplished by our own district Literacy Team. This shows we are building tremendous capacity. Though there is much to celebrate, of particular note in the date Deci shared is that Cañon Exploratory participants more than doubled their word recognition performance, Harrison participants doubled their word attack ability, and Lincoln and Washington students nearly doubled their ability to identify symbol imagery. Some of the most impressive data came out of McKinley Elementary where their intervention participants more than doubled in symbol imagery, word attack, and spelling, and tripled their word recognition ability. What a tremendous way to exhibit our core belief that student growth is what matters most!
Our Future Focus
New Teacher Support Coach Jamie Davis reports the progress of her program to the Board of Education.
Deci Douroux acknowledged the work of our literacy team.
Also at our June 10th Board of Education meeting, New Teacher Support Coach Jamie Davis reported on the impact of this year's induction program had on our new and probationary teachers. Happily, Jamie reported 86% of our brand new teachers in the past three years are continuing to work in the district and are achieving effective evaluation ratings. Having surveyed induction program participants, 97% of respondents said they felt it is informative and relevant, 100% said it has helped them to understand the district's culture, 100% said the program promotes reflective practice, and 93% felt it has improved their own instructional practice. Just as exciting, when surveyed about our teacher mentors, 100% of our induction candidates said their mentors made them feel welcome, and 100% said their mentors were available when they needed them. For a school district like ours working hard to attract and retain great people to work with its kids, this is all wonderful news.
Bond Progress
A lot of work is being done underground to ensure the new Washington school has a strong foundation.
On the construction front, it could hardly have been a more difficult week for us. First, we discovered another abandoned fuel tank, this time at Washington Elementary. This will negatively impact our contingency fund on that project. Worse than that, we continue to experience soil problems on the Washington site. Tests were done two weeks ago after a digging and compacting effort was made, and they came back bad. Our Design-Build team has since been exploring several solutions, including using a liner technique that can result in building support bridges over bad areas of concern. Please keep in mind that the reason we are building a new Washington school is because of soil settling problems on the site. We are fully committed to addressing them one way or another before we come out of the ground, as it is our intent the new school building be useful long into the future.
The footprint of the new CCMS academic wing/commons is starting top emerge.
Meanwhile, at the Cañon City Middle School site we, unfortunately, discovered an asbestos-insulated steam line running between the boiler room behind the original gym and the old vocational building. This area is being excavated to construct our new CCMS administration complex and school-based health center. As a result of this, all digging has stopped for until a plan for abatement of this material is approved at the state level.
On a positive note, all work is proceeding as scheduled on our new grounds facility/technology recycling support building to the west of Cañon City High School. Plumbing and electrical work is being finished on the inside, and site work including sidewalks and driveways are starting to emerge around the facility. We are hopeful to occupy this site at the beginning of August.
Finally, our Design=Build team met this week to make decisions regarding our alternates list for the Cañon City Middle School project. In doing so, w decided to move forward on replacing the 1925 tile roof on the main structure with a new underlay and a metal shingle roof designed to replicate the original look. We also committed to moving forward on improvements to the existing utility tunnel along the southeast side of the 1925 structure that borders Main Street. Another key decision we made was to go with a 20-year warranty roof covering product, which is standard for such construction, as opposed to a 25-year warranty product. This decision will save us $100,000, with the long term prospect being we may need to address a few minor roofing repairs after 20 years that is highly unlikely amount to this much cost. Finally, we made it clear to the team we continue our strong commitment to purchasing telescoping auditorium seating for the new commons/stage area. However, we won't have to make a final decision on this until October.
On a positive note, all work is proceeding as scheduled on our new grounds facility/technology recycling support building to the west of Cañon City High School. Plumbing and electrical work is being finished on the inside, and site work including sidewalks and driveways are starting to emerge around the facility. We are hopeful to occupy this site at the beginning of August.
Finally, our Design=Build team met this week to make decisions regarding our alternates list for the Cañon City Middle School project. In doing so, w decided to move forward on replacing the 1925 tile roof on the main structure with a new underlay and a metal shingle roof designed to replicate the original look. We also committed to moving forward on improvements to the existing utility tunnel along the southeast side of the 1925 structure that borders Main Street. Another key decision we made was to go with a 20-year warranty roof covering product, which is standard for such construction, as opposed to a 25-year warranty product. This decision will save us $100,000, with the long term prospect being we may need to address a few minor roofing repairs after 20 years that is highly unlikely amount to this much cost. Finally, we made it clear to the team we continue our strong commitment to purchasing telescoping auditorium seating for the new commons/stage area. However, we won't have to make a final decision on this until October.
The Prior Two Weeks
Lindamood-Bell's Deci Douroux honored our literacy team.
During the past two weeks, I attended many routine meetings and events, including a board work session and regular meeting, the new Valley-Wide facility ribbon cutting on Main Street, a statewide P-TECH grant gathering, a Colorado Education Initiative Assessment for Learning Program project gathering, a Communities That Care key-leader meeting, and a Department of Human Services FIOG Meeting. During this time my main task goal has been to prepare our annual federal programs for submission to the Colorado Department of Education. I'm pleased to say this is complete and I plan to submit it after the Board of Education reviews it at their June 24th Work Session.
This Week
This week my plans include establishing next steps for our recent Civic Canopy work, attending a board work session and meeting, holding a Superintendent Advisory Council meeting, attending a Facilities Corporation Meeting, and traveling to Denver to attend an Early Childhood Leadership Commission meeting. On Friday my day will be dedicated to attending a regional Technology Sector gathering here in Cañon. I also plan to make visits to our construction sites, and I have actually blocked off a bit of time to organize my digital work files and finalize principal evaluations in the CDE evaluation system.
Other Voices
Board President Larry Oddo presents at our last New Board Member Development Academy.
This November three Cañon City School District board of education seats will be open for election. The Colorado Association of School Boards has excellent resources available for anyone interested in seeking a board seat. You can access them at this link: https://www.casb.org/Domain/112
As part of its future focus, the current Board of Education of Cañon City Schools will hold a Board Candidate Development Academy for all persons interested in being candidates.
We invite all child-focused community members interested in serving on the board to participate in this Academy to learn more about the role of a board of education member and about the current trajectory of the school district itself.
Participants will engage with current board members to learn about best practices in school district governance, recent significant board actions, the board's view of the current state of the district, how education finance works, and long-term instructional program improvement efforts currently underway. Participants will also have the opportunity to learn the ins and outs of running in a board election.
The Academy will take place on Thursday, August 1, 2019, from 5 PM to 8 PM in the Cañon City School District Board Room at 101 North 14th Street in Cañon City. We'll provide dinner for all participants.
Those interested in participating are asked to contact Board/Superintendent Secretary Colleen Carroll before July 15, 2019, by email at colleen.carroll@canoncityschools.org or by phone at 719-276-5700.
Thanks for listening once again!
George S. Welsh
As part of its future focus, the current Board of Education of Cañon City Schools will hold a Board Candidate Development Academy for all persons interested in being candidates.
We invite all child-focused community members interested in serving on the board to participate in this Academy to learn more about the role of a board of education member and about the current trajectory of the school district itself.
Participants will engage with current board members to learn about best practices in school district governance, recent significant board actions, the board's view of the current state of the district, how education finance works, and long-term instructional program improvement efforts currently underway. Participants will also have the opportunity to learn the ins and outs of running in a board election.
The Academy will take place on Thursday, August 1, 2019, from 5 PM to 8 PM in the Cañon City School District Board Room at 101 North 14th Street in Cañon City. We'll provide dinner for all participants.
Those interested in participating are asked to contact Board/Superintendent Secretary Colleen Carroll before July 15, 2019, by email at colleen.carroll@canoncityschools.org or by phone at 719-276-5700.
Thanks for listening once again!
George S. Welsh
