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
TechSTART's Brad Rowland shares his Civic Canopy experience with a videographer.
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Tonah Wagenseller from Valley-Wide Health Services explains her hoped for the Civic Canopy process.
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Four months ago a group of roughly 30 community leaders began meeting to address the Cañon City School District's desire to ensure we can attract and retain high-quality educators long into the future. This effort has been facilitated by Jack Becker and Kelli Pfaff of Civic Canopy and has focused on strategies we as a school district need support from our greater community to accomplish. On Thursday, June 6th we came together for a final whole group meeting during which we created action plans we'll soon execute aimed at leveraging our community's historic charm to attract dynamic and adventurous people to work in our innovative school system. It has been a pleasure to watch this process unfold and we are excited to take it to the next level by which we put our hopes and dreams into action. I want to thank all the folks who have participated in this process along the way, helping us live up to our core belief that we are future focused.
Our 4th Civic Canopy meeting took place in the Downtown Annex.
Our Future Focus
The first CCMS cement pour took place last Friday.
Our most intense administrative focus during the month of June has been finalizing our budget for the fiscal year that begins on July 1. When done right, such a process allows an organization to invest in its most important initiatives. Our key initiative this year has been our focus on attracting and retaining great people to work with our children, and so our key budgeting focus this year has been to pave the way to award work experience pay raises to all employees while also increasing our level of support for employee health benefits to where we can actually cover a basic individual plan. Our desire has been to achieve these compensation targets while also looking out for the fiscal health of the district, and so with the full support of Cañon City Education Association leaders, we are aiming to accomplish all of this while also budgeting to buy back a nearly $300,000 deficit we incurred two years ago, while also setting aside a roughly 1% contingency reserve to cover any unanticipated expenses or changes to pupil count. Our final fiscal year 2019-20 budget proposal will be presented to the Board of Education on Monday, June 24th, but thanks to diligent work by Director of Finance Buddy Lambrecht and his entire department, we feel we're on track to share a proposal that meets these requirements.
Bond Progress
The pace of construction on our new Washington facility and our upgraded Cañon City Middle School has really picked up. On the Washington site excavation has begun in preparation for footers and stem walls, and of course, we discovered another heater system fuel tank that will have to be removed. Also, last week the old asbestos-laden modular building that sat vacant for many years on the north side of the campus was demolished. Meanwhile, excavation at Cañon City Middle School has begun between the 1970's gymnasium and the old vocational building. This is in preparation to construct the new main entry/office facilities. Also, on Friday I witnessed the first cement pour where the new CCMS commons/8th grade classroom/life skills facility is being constructed. Finally, further north on 12th street work crews are focusing on site-work at our new grounds/computer recycling and service facility.
Last Week
The modular building at the north end of the campus was removed last week.
I began this week in Denver where I attended the annual Public Education-Business Coalition Superintendent Forum. I made it back in Cañon City on Monday in time for our annual Administrative Office Staff Cookout. During the rest of the week I worked on communicating about our next Board Member Development Academy opportunity, met with CCHS Principal Bill Summers about budget considerations, made a monthly appearance on KRLN's Morning Line, held a weekly Superintendent Advisory Council meeting, began planning our late July administrative team retreat, attended a CCEOE meeting, attended a citizen's group meeting about a proposed recreation center, attended a monthly Home Bi-Ed Board meeting, and prepared for and facilitated a Civic Canopy session. I also began budget revisions on this year's Federal Programs application and began entering information on next year's Federal Programs application.
This Week
The Cañon City High School ALP team presents their progress.
Monday will be filled with routine meetings, including a board work session and regular meeting. Tuesday is much of the same, except I'll also work on our federal programs application, and end the day at the new Valley-Wide facility ribbon cutting on Main Street. On Wednesday Cañon City High Schol hosts a statewide P-TECH grant gathering in the afternoon, after which I'll travel to Arvada to spend Thursday and Friday working with CCHS staff on a new Colorado Education Initiative Assessment for Learning Program project.
Thanks for listening once again!
George S. Welsh
Thanks for listening once again!
George S. Welsh
