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
Dorothy Day (center) has been participating in our Civic Canopy work.
Congratulations are due ECHO and Family Center Early Childhood Council Project Coordinator Dorothy Day upon being accepted into the Buell Early Childhood Leadership Program! Dorothy competed with upwards of 80 applicants, of which only 20 were chosen. This is an amazing honor for her, and a wonderful opportunity for our Early Childhood Council, as Dorothy will receive outstanding training on how to coordinate early childhood education programs!
Based on a recent review of the Colorado Children's Immunization Coalition's annual school district immunization report card, Cañon City School District Nurse Patricia Sallie and her entire team of health technicians deserve some major kudos! Thanks to their effort the Cañon City School District is deemed a Low Risk of Outbreak district, with greater than 95% of students verifying vaccination for Measles, Mumps, Rubella, Whooping Cough, Diptheria, and Polio, and 94% having received Chickenpox vaccines. Why is this important? High rates of vaccination support public health emergency response efforts, prevent absenteeism, and of course the spread of life-threatening disease. If you would like to learn more about this or compare Cañon City Schools to others in the state, simply go to childrensimmunization.org
Based on a recent review of the Colorado Children's Immunization Coalition's annual school district immunization report card, Cañon City School District Nurse Patricia Sallie and her entire team of health technicians deserve some major kudos! Thanks to their effort the Cañon City School District is deemed a Low Risk of Outbreak district, with greater than 95% of students verifying vaccination for Measles, Mumps, Rubella, Whooping Cough, Diptheria, and Polio, and 94% having received Chickenpox vaccines. Why is this important? High rates of vaccination support public health emergency response efforts, prevent absenteeism, and of course the spread of life-threatening disease. If you would like to learn more about this or compare Cañon City Schools to others in the state, simply go to childrensimmunization.org
Our Future Focus
On Thursday, March 14th we held our second of four Civic Canopy visioning sessions during which more than thirty key communicators and civic leaders worked to finalize a purpose statement before identifying data to be tracked to determine if we are indeed achieving our purpose. Despite the gigantic snowstorm in the Denver area the day before, Kelli Pfaff and Jack Becker from Civic Canopy made the trek to Cañon to support our work. As a reminder, we're engaging in this work to address the Cañon City School District's desire to continue to attract and retain high-quality educators to work with our children. However, participants recognize this as an opportunity to do the same for other local organizations, and as a potential economic spark for the community. Our most up to date draft of our purpose statement is, "the people of Cañon City thrive because of adventurous lifestyles, dynamic culture, innovative schools, and historic charm." We'll continue our work collecting data in the next several weeks and we look forward to our third gathering on Thursday April 25th.
Kelli Pfaff from Civic Canopy guides small group discussion about data we might access to measure outcomes.
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Board member Robin Reeser leads a data discussion while Civic Canopy's Jack Becker looks on.
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Speaking of attracting and retaining high-quality staff, Director of Human Resources Misty Manchester and her HR team has been hard at work attending regional educator fairs for the purpose of doing just this. During Spring Break she and Cañon City Education Association President Shannon Daly were in Colorado Springs recruiting new teachers at the UCCS Education Employment Fair.
Override Progress
Misty Manchester and Shannon Daly were out recruiting new educators during Spring Break.
Before Spring Break Assitant Superintendent of Schools Adam Hartman, Director of Technology Shaun Kohl, Cañon City High School Principal Bill Summers and I met to put in place a student-driven Chromebook repair program as early as next school year. We discussed what this might look like and how it can be phased in, and we then cleared the path to post a position opening by making sure we have salary dollars available in our mill override budget. The program will offer A+ certification opportunties to student participants that they can use to secure future employment, and with our goal to put a Chromebook in the hands of every grade K-12 child by the end of the 2020-21 school year, such services will be an absolute necessity. If my readers know anyone who has a college degree and fairly strong technical troubleshooting skills who might be interested in leading such a program, have them check out our job site at applitrack.com/canon/onlineapp/default.aspx
Bond Progress
Groundbreaking takes place on March 29, 2019 at 2 PM!
We encourage the entire community to attend our groundbreaking ceremony for the Cañon City Middle School New Addition-Historic Renovation project that has already begun. It is scheduled for Friday, March 29, 2019, in what will once have been our CCMS West parking lot. We encourage attendees to arrive around 1:30 PM because parking will be a bit limited. Our plan is to begin the ceremony at approximately 2 PM, with completion in time for the release of the CCMS student body from school at approximately 2:30 PM.
Last Week
Since the district was on Spring Break last week I spent a little time working at the office and at home. My major tasks included completing Cañon City Middle School and Washington Elementary site review reports, organizing a phone conference about potential mill levy equalization legislation, catching up on office correspondence, working on director evaluation paperwork, touching base with Stacie Kwitek from Fremont County DHS, discussing with directors how we might better access Medicaid funding to support provision of student services, finalizing next year's bus transportation plan, and planning on how we'll support elementary teachers when their kids get Chromebook devices during the 2020-21 school year. I ended my week by attending the regional legislative hour on Saturday.
This Week
Architects, constructors and city planners discuss the CCMS construction project.
I'll kick off my week in Lori Coppa's classroom at Cañon City High School attending a special lesson about the effective use of social media. I'll then move to a Design-Build team meeting where we'll finalize the Cañon City Middle School construction schedule, before meeting with classified association leaders to prepare for upcoming master agreement negotiations. I'll end Monday with a board work session, during which we'll engage our CASB Student leaders, followed by a regular board meeting. On Tuesday I have a Superintendent Advisory Council meeting, a Facilities Corporation Board meeting, and I'll attend a community meeting about the possibilities of building a recreation center. On Wednesday we'll be on-site at Lincoln School of Science and Technology to conduct an instructional program evaluation. Along with catching up on office work on Thursday, I'll also get an opportunity to work with Cañon City High School HomeBiEd students on scholarship applications. Later that afternoon we'll hold our next Technology Visioning Committee meeting, this time at the TechStart facility downtown. Keeping on the technology visioning theme, the better part of my day on Friday will be spent at a regional Technology Sector meeting at Tech Start. However, I'll make it back down Main Street in time to see the Cañon City Middle School groundbreaking ceremony at around 2 PM!
Other Voices
In November 2018, Cañon City High School student Kinsey Larsen was invited to Los Angeles, along with dancers from all over the country, to perform in a video Public Service Announcement about self-perception called "Starts with Us: Ignite Kindness from Within." The PSA explores the importance of self-perception, expressing that we must first love ourselves to make an impact on the world. We may complain about all the things we want to be changed, but we must remember that true change starts with us.
What a wonderful message, and what incredible talent. Congratulations Kinsey! It's my understanding you hope to eventually become a professional dancer and choreographer. It looks to me like you are well on your way!
You can see this PSA at the following link: https://youtu.be/EL49zudX1EA
Thanks for listening once again!
George S. Welsh
What a wonderful message, and what incredible talent. Congratulations Kinsey! It's my understanding you hope to eventually become a professional dancer and choreographer. It looks to me like you are well on your way!
You can see this PSA at the following link: https://youtu.be/EL49zudX1EA
Thanks for listening once again!
George S. Welsh
