Echoes from Cañon
Examples of Excellence

The end of each school year brings about many personnel changes. A gigantic hole that will be difficult for this district to fill has been created by the retirement of Cañon Exploratory School principal Beth Gaffney. Mrs. Gaffney, a Cañon City High School graduate, has been an educator in our district since she began teaching at Washington Elementary School in 1987. She has served as a grade level teacher, an instructor in our GATE program, and oversaw the transition of our exploratory learning model from the old Madison campus to the Skyline facility that is now known as Cañon Exploratory School. Beth’s vision for education, and her ability to connect with students, parents and staff members, will be a tremendous loss to this district. I want to thank you, Beth for your service on behalf of our children.

Thursday I had my first opportunity to meet the Cañon City Schools Literacy Dream Team! Thanks to our $900,000 Early Literacy Grant, newly hired district literacy coordinator Gina Gallegos has been hard at work conducting team building activities and a book study with K-5 literacy coaches Kelli Jones, Jessica Bray, Lacey Ledoux, Shelly Stringari, and Jessica Stevens. The team already identified 50 lucky elementary students who will participate in our first summer school reading academy in July. They have a ton of work to do between now and then, including receiving extended professional development in our new core literacy program, and being trained in Lindamood-Bell Visualizing and Verbalizing, and Seeing Stars interventions. I can’t tell you how excited I am about this effort and the benefit all children, especially our most struggling readers, will receive as a result.
I believe I miscommunicated information last week about our recent health care professionals grant submission. Last week we actually received information stating this grant has been recommended for funding if we are willing to make some required changes. This is exciting because the grant will support the implementation of an integrated K-12 health curriculum, as well as the purchase of additional counseling and health care personnel. I want to thank regional wellness coordinator Kristi Elliott, as well as district nurse Patricia Sallie for their effort on this front, and I look forward to seeing the changes they make so we can receive funding.
I believe I miscommunicated information last week about our recent health care professionals grant submission. Last week we actually received information stating this grant has been recommended for funding if we are willing to make some required changes. This is exciting because the grant will support the implementation of an integrated K-12 health curriculum, as well as the purchase of additional counseling and health care personnel. I want to thank regional wellness coordinator Kristi Elliott, as well as district nurse Patricia Sallie for their effort on this front, and I look forward to seeing the changes they make so we can receive funding.
The Focus of Our Work

Though summer is here there is plenty to do around our schools and the district office. Principals and building secretarial staff are closing out the school year and preparing buildings for summer maintenance. Facilities manager Jeff Peterson and his crew are already hard at work preparing spaces for summer school and the upcoming academic year, and nutrition services manager Heather Williams and her team are already kicking off our summer meal program.
A major task right now is creating the process by which retiring director of student services Dominic Carochi will be replaced. This position has been posted for anyone interested to apply. In doing so my Superintendent’s Advisory Council has also taken a look at the tasks each department oversees and has redistributed some of this work. It is my desire to transition our director of student services department to a director of instruction model, one in which the main task is to provide personnel with curriculum, instructional resources, professional development, and student achievement outcome data for the purpose of improving classroom level instruction. To accomplish this we are shifting some responsibilities my way, and some among other departments. Those going my way will include supervision of elementary and middle school programs (to go along with my current role in overseeing the high school), conducting school and district Unified Improvement Planning and accreditation processes, and eventually performing annual duties related to our federal programs grant application and budgeting processes. We have also shifted a significant amount of work toward director of student support services Paula Buser, including overseeing student registration processes, transfer and boundary waiver approvals, supervision of health services, and supervision of services related to non special education at-risk students (as a result of truancy or misbehavior). I want to thank Paula for her willingness to take on such tasks as assigned.
Near term large projects include wrapping up all year-end principal evaluations, completing end of year director evaluations, and conducting a lot of work updating district policies and revising our labeling system to match with the style the Colorado Association of School Boards utilizes.
On one other front, our board of education has decided to conduct a series of community-staff engagement sessions for the purpose of opening lines of direct communication, building trust through listening, conducting a district re-visioning process, and soliciting advice on how best to address pressing facilities matters. Moving forward, these sessions will be conducted on a quarterly basis, and everyone is invited to attend. Our first such session, to be facilitated by Randy Black form the Colorado Association of School Boards, takes place on Monday June 27th beginning at 5:30 PM in the district board room.
A major task right now is creating the process by which retiring director of student services Dominic Carochi will be replaced. This position has been posted for anyone interested to apply. In doing so my Superintendent’s Advisory Council has also taken a look at the tasks each department oversees and has redistributed some of this work. It is my desire to transition our director of student services department to a director of instruction model, one in which the main task is to provide personnel with curriculum, instructional resources, professional development, and student achievement outcome data for the purpose of improving classroom level instruction. To accomplish this we are shifting some responsibilities my way, and some among other departments. Those going my way will include supervision of elementary and middle school programs (to go along with my current role in overseeing the high school), conducting school and district Unified Improvement Planning and accreditation processes, and eventually performing annual duties related to our federal programs grant application and budgeting processes. We have also shifted a significant amount of work toward director of student support services Paula Buser, including overseeing student registration processes, transfer and boundary waiver approvals, supervision of health services, and supervision of services related to non special education at-risk students (as a result of truancy or misbehavior). I want to thank Paula for her willingness to take on such tasks as assigned.
Near term large projects include wrapping up all year-end principal evaluations, completing end of year director evaluations, and conducting a lot of work updating district policies and revising our labeling system to match with the style the Colorado Association of School Boards utilizes.
On one other front, our board of education has decided to conduct a series of community-staff engagement sessions for the purpose of opening lines of direct communication, building trust through listening, conducting a district re-visioning process, and soliciting advice on how best to address pressing facilities matters. Moving forward, these sessions will be conducted on a quarterly basis, and everyone is invited to attend. Our first such session, to be facilitated by Randy Black form the Colorado Association of School Boards, takes place on Monday June 27th beginning at 5:30 PM in the district board room.
Last Week

On Tuesday I attended BSERT and SAC meetings, met with several parents and potential employees, and discussed possible technology purchases with Lincoln School of Science and Technology principal Tammy DeWolfe and director of finance Buddy Lambrecht. On Wednesday I caught up on paperwork, worked on teacher evaluation processes, and spent some time in schools observing last day festivities. On Thursday I met with RE-2 superintendent Rhonda Roberts, reviewed revised salary schedules with the finance department, and compiled CCHS Pathways Survey results for new principal Bill Summers. On Friday I met with new CCHS principal Summers, and then with GATE Director Adam Hartman before taking the afternoon off to head to the San Luis Valley to coordinate the 9th annual Center Beginner Triathlon.
This Week
On Monday I will deal with some year end personnel matters and work on updating and finalizing teacher and principal evaluations. I’ll be on KRLN radio’s Morning Line on Tuesday at 8:30 AM, will then hold a SAC meeting, meet with outgoing CCHS principal Bret Meuli, and attend an evening Cañon 2020 task force meeting. Wednesday starts with a monthly touching base meeting with Cañon City School District Classified Employees Association leaders Cindy Kline and Cloyce Mann and director of human resources Misty Manchester. I also have a CCEOE board meeting that morning, and a work session related to our lighting performance contract. On Thursday we will be meeting to plan this fall’s back to school events, and I’ll attend the Fremont County Monthly Manager’s Meeting. I am taking Friday as a personal day to spend with my family and the many buckets of paint I am dealing with on a daily basis in my new residence.
Thanks for listening once again!
George S. Welsh
Thanks for listening once again!
George S. Welsh