Echoes from Cañon
Examples of Excellence
Our combined middle school softball team won the triple-county league championship for the second year in a row.
Congratulations are once again due our middle school female athletes. Two weeks ago our combined middle school softball team won their second straight Tri-County League championship! The team consisted of students from Cañon City Middle School, Cañon Exploratory School, Harrison K-8, and Mountain View Core Knowledge School participants. Congratulations to all these young ladies and coaches Joe Mascarenas and Tonia Freehling!
I’m also pleased to announce that a recent fire inspection at Harrison K-8 revealed not one single violation! This was accomplished thanks to the efforts of all Harrison staff, and especially Head Custodian Pam Randelman. As everyone knows, Pam takes a lot of pride in her work and she and her staff have kept the Harrison building looking brand new for more than 10 years.
A few weeks ago Cañon City High School Principal Bill Summers and Regional Intern and Apprentice Coordinator Lisa Tedesko learned they have been asked to present information on Cañon City’s student internship program at next October’s National Conference on rural Education in Denver. Congratulations to each, and thank you for continually representing our district so well!
Finally, last week Cañon City High School Business Education Teacher Eric House announced his students earned 36 tech industry licenses through our programs this year. In the process, Yumi Sakamoto earned a perfect score on her Microsoft Excel exam, Coleman Henderson set the school record for his Adobe illustrator result, and Lorin Tedesko became only the 9th student at CCHS to pass an exam at the expert level. In our first full implementation of QuickBooks instruction, 8 of our students earn their license. Overall, one certification was earned in Adobe Flash, 3 in Adobe Illustrator, 9 in Adobe Photoshop, 8 in Microsoft Word (including 1 expert), 6 in Microsoft Excel, and 8 in Quickbooks. Outstanding!
I’m also pleased to announce that a recent fire inspection at Harrison K-8 revealed not one single violation! This was accomplished thanks to the efforts of all Harrison staff, and especially Head Custodian Pam Randelman. As everyone knows, Pam takes a lot of pride in her work and she and her staff have kept the Harrison building looking brand new for more than 10 years.
A few weeks ago Cañon City High School Principal Bill Summers and Regional Intern and Apprentice Coordinator Lisa Tedesko learned they have been asked to present information on Cañon City’s student internship program at next October’s National Conference on rural Education in Denver. Congratulations to each, and thank you for continually representing our district so well!
Finally, last week Cañon City High School Business Education Teacher Eric House announced his students earned 36 tech industry licenses through our programs this year. In the process, Yumi Sakamoto earned a perfect score on her Microsoft Excel exam, Coleman Henderson set the school record for his Adobe illustrator result, and Lorin Tedesko became only the 9th student at CCHS to pass an exam at the expert level. In our first full implementation of QuickBooks instruction, 8 of our students earn their license. Overall, one certification was earned in Adobe Flash, 3 in Adobe Illustrator, 9 in Adobe Photoshop, 8 in Microsoft Word (including 1 expert), 6 in Microsoft Excel, and 8 in Quickbooks. Outstanding!
The Focus of Our Work
Director of Finance Buddy Lambrecht presents information about our preliminary 2018-19 budget.
Last week Director of Instruction Adam Hartman compiled year end data related to our Year 2 Early Literacy Grant effort. The ELG requires a district meet one of three instructional goals as a district. Cañon City Schools met two of the three this year!
On Tuesday evening, Director of Finance Buddy Lambrecht presented aspects of our 2018-19 fiscal year budget. Key to this included tracking additions to our fund balance, where new state revenues will be invested, how much could be made available for employee compensation increases, and where operations override dollars will be expended.
We wrapped up the 2017-18 school year last week with a series of elementary and middle school continuation and high school graduation ceremonies. It began last Monday when our partners at Pueblo Community College put on a wonderful ceremony for our Cañon City High School Gateway to College graduates, and it ended on Thursday evening with a beautiful Cañon City High School graduation ceremony at Citizens’ Field.
On Tuesday evening, Director of Finance Buddy Lambrecht presented aspects of our 2018-19 fiscal year budget. Key to this included tracking additions to our fund balance, where new state revenues will be invested, how much could be made available for employee compensation increases, and where operations override dollars will be expended.
We wrapped up the 2017-18 school year last week with a series of elementary and middle school continuation and high school graduation ceremonies. It began last Monday when our partners at Pueblo Community College put on a wonderful ceremony for our Cañon City High School Gateway to College graduates, and it ended on Thursday evening with a beautiful Cañon City High School graduation ceremony at Citizens’ Field.
Override Progress
Kudos to Pam Randelman and the whole Harrison crew for passing their fire inspection with no violations.
The most significant work we did this week related to our override was following through on our promise to apply an extra $350,000 to staff raises over and above any new money we would be able to allocate from new state revenue. This will have the following impact on the compensation of our staff.
On the certified front, all teachers will start with a 3.5% increase in their salary. From there, each will get a basic experience step worth 2%, some will get an additional make-up step worth 2% (a buy-back from 6 years of step freezes during the recession), and some others will get a second make-up step worth 2%. In a nutshell, all teachers get a minimum 5.5% pay increase, while some will receive a 7.5% increase, and a few others will receive a 9.5% raise.
This accomplishes our goal of making up all certified experience steps that were frozen from 2010 through 2015.
If that sounded complicated, classified employee raises were even more so. We began by sweeping instructional employees up from the 2018 Colorado minimum wage of $10.20 per hour to just above the 2019 Colorado minimum wage, to $11.22 per hour. This impacts every person on that salary schedule from step A to step E. Each step is a 2% raise, and so some of these folks are being awarded 4 steps (an 8% raise), some 3 (a 6% raise), some 2 (a 4% raise), and some 1 (a 2% raise). All of these employees will get an additional 8% raise next year when we must bring our minimum wage up to $12.00 per hour by January 1, 2020 as required by Colorado law.
All other classified employees will recieve a 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, or 14% increase depending on how many make-up steps they are owed from when they were frozen during the recession. Thus, if we owe an employee 2 make-up steps they’ll be awarded one base step (a 2% increase) and two additional (2% plus 2% more) for a total of a 6% increase. If we owe them 6 make-up steps they get one base step (2%) plus an additional 12% raise (6 make-up steps valued at 2% each) for a total 14% salary increase.
In the end, the average raise for employees in the Cañon City School District will be in the neighborhood of 6.5%, which is wonderful on its own. However, depending on each person's time in their position and when they began their employment in the district, this could be significantly higher.
This result would not have been possible without the extra dollars made available through our community's approval of our operations override.
On the certified front, all teachers will start with a 3.5% increase in their salary. From there, each will get a basic experience step worth 2%, some will get an additional make-up step worth 2% (a buy-back from 6 years of step freezes during the recession), and some others will get a second make-up step worth 2%. In a nutshell, all teachers get a minimum 5.5% pay increase, while some will receive a 7.5% increase, and a few others will receive a 9.5% raise.
This accomplishes our goal of making up all certified experience steps that were frozen from 2010 through 2015.
If that sounded complicated, classified employee raises were even more so. We began by sweeping instructional employees up from the 2018 Colorado minimum wage of $10.20 per hour to just above the 2019 Colorado minimum wage, to $11.22 per hour. This impacts every person on that salary schedule from step A to step E. Each step is a 2% raise, and so some of these folks are being awarded 4 steps (an 8% raise), some 3 (a 6% raise), some 2 (a 4% raise), and some 1 (a 2% raise). All of these employees will get an additional 8% raise next year when we must bring our minimum wage up to $12.00 per hour by January 1, 2020 as required by Colorado law.
All other classified employees will recieve a 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, or 14% increase depending on how many make-up steps they are owed from when they were frozen during the recession. Thus, if we owe an employee 2 make-up steps they’ll be awarded one base step (a 2% increase) and two additional (2% plus 2% more) for a total of a 6% increase. If we owe them 6 make-up steps they get one base step (2%) plus an additional 12% raise (6 make-up steps valued at 2% each) for a total 14% salary increase.
In the end, the average raise for employees in the Cañon City School District will be in the neighborhood of 6.5%, which is wonderful on its own. However, depending on each person's time in their position and when they began their employment in the district, this could be significantly higher.
This result would not have been possible without the extra dollars made available through our community's approval of our operations override.
Bond Progress
CCHS Gateway to College graduates received their diplomas at a ceremony in Pueblo last Monday.
On Tuesday, May 29th the second phase of our multi-facility improvement project kicks off when asbestos abatement crews set up to remove windows at CCHS, Lincoln, and McKinley. The GE Johnson construction company has already installed a work trailer for their employee, Florence resident Paul Kosek, who will be our project superintendent. I'm told window removal and installation should begin by the end of the week.
As part of our water line replacement projects at Lincoln and McKinley, classroom cabinetry will be removed and replaced. This work will begin in the next to weeks and it will include running new electrical circuits and repiping the water system.
Other work about to begin includes installing a new ADA compliant restroom at CCHS and a more secure main entry system at Harrison School. My understanding is the work on Harrison's entry will begin during the week of June 2nd.
Regarding the two big school projects that were just approved for BEST funding, design meetings will start the week of July 9th. This process should take about two months and it is key to our Design-Build team being able to procure materials ahead of construction. We anticipate actually starting work on each site by June 2019 with a target of each school being ready for use by August of 2020.
As part of our water line replacement projects at Lincoln and McKinley, classroom cabinetry will be removed and replaced. This work will begin in the next to weeks and it will include running new electrical circuits and repiping the water system.
Other work about to begin includes installing a new ADA compliant restroom at CCHS and a more secure main entry system at Harrison School. My understanding is the work on Harrison's entry will begin during the week of June 2nd.
Regarding the two big school projects that were just approved for BEST funding, design meetings will start the week of July 9th. This process should take about two months and it is key to our Design-Build team being able to procure materials ahead of construction. We anticipate actually starting work on each site by June 2019 with a target of each school being ready for use by August of 2020.
Last Week
The CCHS Class of 2018 executes the traditional tassel exchange.
On Monday I spent the better part of my day in salary negotiations with certified staff. That evening I went to Pueblo with Lloyd Harwood, Shad Johnson, and Kristyn Econome to hand out diplomas to Cañon City Gateway to College graduates. On Tuesday I attended SAC and Design-Build Team meetings, as well as a special board meeting where we reviewed our preliminary budget, and then a District Accountability Committee meeting where we reviewed our academic improvement plan for 2018-19. Wednesday and Thursday were filled with year-end correspondence and the CCHS graduation ceremony. On Friday I worked on construction and budget-related items.
This Week
My plans for this week were derailed a bit because of a family emergency I need to address in Austin, Texas. As a result, I may be out for the entire week.
Extra Point
Cañon City High School Principal Bill Summers serves on the Governor's Education Leadership Council. Mr. Summers has been asked to share a survey with his community, aimed at offering input to the state level as to the condition of education in Colorado The survey is only 7 questions long and it is my hope that as a reader you might take a moment to inform the folks in Denver what you think about our education system?
The Education Leadership Council (ELC) is a nonpartisan, multi-stakeholder council, created by Governor Hickenlooper. The Council seeks to develop a unified, nonpartisan blueprint for our state’s education system, from early childhood through the workforce readiness.
Citizen input will feed directly into the work of the ELC and responses will remain anonymous. You can access the survey at this link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/TheStateofEducation
Thanks for listening once again!
George S. Welsh
The Education Leadership Council (ELC) is a nonpartisan, multi-stakeholder council, created by Governor Hickenlooper. The Council seeks to develop a unified, nonpartisan blueprint for our state’s education system, from early childhood through the workforce readiness.
Citizen input will feed directly into the work of the ELC and responses will remain anonymous. You can access the survey at this link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/TheStateofEducation
Thanks for listening once again!
George S. Welsh
