Echoes from Cañon
Examples of Excellence
Dominic Carochi has retired from his position as director of student services
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Kirsten Javernick is leaving her position as director of special services
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Michelle Zimmerlee and Jen Newton guide discussion about summer school
As the calendar rolled over to July the Cañon City School District lost the full time services of two key people in director of student services Dominic Carochi and director of special services Kirsten Javernick.
Nick Carochi has been an educator for 3 decades, serving CCSD as a both a teacher and administrator. For the past 4 years Mr. Carochi carried the torch of instructional leadership for the Cañon City School District. He oversaw transformational improvements that have taken place in McKinley Elementary School, guiding it from one-time Turnaround status to the point where it is becoming one of our highest performing elementary schools. He mentored principals and evaluated the progress of elementary, K-8, and middle schools. He developed a viable curriculum that includes many common benchmark assessments and on a shoestring budget worked diligently in support of securing high quality instructional materials for classroom teachers to use in teaching it. Thanks to his hard work and diligence he also secured a $900,000 early literacy grant to support the purchase of new reading instructional materials and to train the district's teachers in scientifically proven reading interventions.
Kirsten Javernick served CCSD as its Director of Special Services for the past five years. In doing so she developed outstanding relationships with regular classroom teachers, administrators, her instructional staff, and the parents of the children she served. Along the way she created and implemented an exceptional technology recycling program to benefit students by developing real life job skills. She also attracted and retained many excellent special education staff members and expanded the scope and quality of the district’s transition to adulthood program called Bridges.
On behalf of the Cañon City School District I want to offer my deepest thanks to both Nick and Kirsten for their service.
Another example of excellence in our district is the summer enrichment Splash program collaborative operated by the Pueblo Community College Fremont campus and Cañon City Schools. Coordinated by Adam Hartman, this year Splash offered 167 students from grades K-12 the opportunity to participate in one of ten two-week long academic, art, and physical enrichment programs. These courses are taught by highly talented CCSD staff members and a variety of local and statewide talent. In its 10th year, Splash is open to gifted and high achieving students in the RE-1, RE-2, and RE-3 school districts.
Finally this week I would like to thank CCSD teachers Jennifer Newton and Michelle Zimmerlee for the many hours of hard work they put in preparing for our first Lindamood-Bell Summer School Reading Academy. This program, which will take place at Lincoln School of Science and Technology, kicks off Monday July 11th and runs through Friday July 5th. This year 50 lucky elementary students will get to participate, as a cadre of teachers who have recently been trained in Lindamood-Bell’s Seeing Stars literacy intervention will be using the program to hone their skills, with support from our newly hired literacy coaches and our partners at Lindamood-Bell.
Nick Carochi has been an educator for 3 decades, serving CCSD as a both a teacher and administrator. For the past 4 years Mr. Carochi carried the torch of instructional leadership for the Cañon City School District. He oversaw transformational improvements that have taken place in McKinley Elementary School, guiding it from one-time Turnaround status to the point where it is becoming one of our highest performing elementary schools. He mentored principals and evaluated the progress of elementary, K-8, and middle schools. He developed a viable curriculum that includes many common benchmark assessments and on a shoestring budget worked diligently in support of securing high quality instructional materials for classroom teachers to use in teaching it. Thanks to his hard work and diligence he also secured a $900,000 early literacy grant to support the purchase of new reading instructional materials and to train the district's teachers in scientifically proven reading interventions.
Kirsten Javernick served CCSD as its Director of Special Services for the past five years. In doing so she developed outstanding relationships with regular classroom teachers, administrators, her instructional staff, and the parents of the children she served. Along the way she created and implemented an exceptional technology recycling program to benefit students by developing real life job skills. She also attracted and retained many excellent special education staff members and expanded the scope and quality of the district’s transition to adulthood program called Bridges.
On behalf of the Cañon City School District I want to offer my deepest thanks to both Nick and Kirsten for their service.
Another example of excellence in our district is the summer enrichment Splash program collaborative operated by the Pueblo Community College Fremont campus and Cañon City Schools. Coordinated by Adam Hartman, this year Splash offered 167 students from grades K-12 the opportunity to participate in one of ten two-week long academic, art, and physical enrichment programs. These courses are taught by highly talented CCSD staff members and a variety of local and statewide talent. In its 10th year, Splash is open to gifted and high achieving students in the RE-1, RE-2, and RE-3 school districts.
Finally this week I would like to thank CCSD teachers Jennifer Newton and Michelle Zimmerlee for the many hours of hard work they put in preparing for our first Lindamood-Bell Summer School Reading Academy. This program, which will take place at Lincoln School of Science and Technology, kicks off Monday July 11th and runs through Friday July 5th. This year 50 lucky elementary students will get to participate, as a cadre of teachers who have recently been trained in Lindamood-Bell’s Seeing Stars literacy intervention will be using the program to hone their skills, with support from our newly hired literacy coaches and our partners at Lindamood-Bell.
The Focus of Our Work
Randy Black from CASB guides our recent board-community engagement session
On Monday June 27th the Cañon City Schools board of education conducted a public engagement session during which participants addressed questions regarding what they view to be the strengths, challenges, and opportunities of the school district. Strengths mentioned included the many top notch performing arts, technology education, and vocational programs offered, advanced learning opportunities available to gifted and talented and advanced students, and the great people who work for and support the district. Key challenges identified included needing to upgrade facilities, to provide more opportunities for all students to use instructional technology, and the general monetary resources available to the district. Opportunities participants hope the district will leverage include taking advantage of ideas and energy being offered by new district leaders, further developing and leveraging community partnerships, utilizing the state's Building Excellent Schools Today grant process, and offering more student choice and relevance in their learning. Participants felt the most important thing we can do as a district is to establish a clear and comprehensive vision that leverages many potential community partnerships, offers more student choice and relevance in their education, and is deeply meaningful to our current generation of district patrons. As a follow-up the board has asked me to engage with key community groups to learn more about their hopes and dreams for our school system, and to use that information to develop an updated district vision and mission that can be discussed at future engagement sessions.
During the week of June 27 to July 1 25 teachers, literacy coaches, principals, and even a board member spent time learning from Lindamood-Bell trainers how to intervene with students to support improved reading outcomes related to decoding and comprehension issues. This was done in preparation for our first Lindamood-Bell Summer Reading Academy that takes place from July 11th to August 5th.
On July 1st the Cañon City School District administration office welcomed new director of instruction Adam Hartman and new director of special services Lynnette Steinhoff to work. Adam is filling a somewhat revised role once occupied by Dominic Carochi, while Lynnette will do her best to fill the shoes of Kirsten Javernick. Both come to us with tremendous skill and experience and i very much look forward to working with each on behalf of providing increased learning opportunities for our students.
During the week of June 27 to July 1 25 teachers, literacy coaches, principals, and even a board member spent time learning from Lindamood-Bell trainers how to intervene with students to support improved reading outcomes related to decoding and comprehension issues. This was done in preparation for our first Lindamood-Bell Summer Reading Academy that takes place from July 11th to August 5th.
On July 1st the Cañon City School District administration office welcomed new director of instruction Adam Hartman and new director of special services Lynnette Steinhoff to work. Adam is filling a somewhat revised role once occupied by Dominic Carochi, while Lynnette will do her best to fill the shoes of Kirsten Javernick. Both come to us with tremendous skill and experience and i very much look forward to working with each on behalf of providing increased learning opportunities for our students.
adam hartman is our new Director of Instruction
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Lynnette Steinhoff is our new Director of Special Services
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The Past Two Weeks
From June 21st though July 1st I continued working on my summer to do list. I also participated in Lindamood-Bell Seeing Stars training on June 27th and 28th, as well as Professional Learning Community training on July 1st. Unfortunately, because of a personal matter, I missed Visualizing and Verbalizing training on June 29th and 30th. However, I will get another opportunity to learn this content in early August.
The Coming Weeks
One of the highlights of this year's Splash program was when Broadway Camp participants put on a "broadway Our Way" performance for the community!
Between July 5th and July 22nd I will participate in a monthly meeting with the Cañon City Police department, conduct regular SAC meetings, meet individually with board members Kristyn Econome and Lloyd Harwood, work with district literacy coordinator Gina Gallegos to plan out some principal Professional Learning Community sessions for the fall, present school safety information at the CADO conference in Steamboat Springs, and take time off for a quick family vacation.
July 1st marked my 1 year work anniversary in Cañon City Schools and I must say I have learned a lot in the past 12 months, including the fact that our system has the human capacity and talent to be the best school district in the state of Colorado. I thank the board of education for giving me the opportunity to guide Cañon City Schools and I look forward to another year of helping to make this a reality.
Thanks for listening once again!
George S. Welsh
July 1st marked my 1 year work anniversary in Cañon City Schools and I must say I have learned a lot in the past 12 months, including the fact that our system has the human capacity and talent to be the best school district in the state of Colorado. I thank the board of education for giving me the opportunity to guide Cañon City Schools and I look forward to another year of helping to make this a reality.
Thanks for listening once again!
George S. Welsh