Echoes from Cañon
Examples of Excellence
Finance Manager Keri Peterson
I want to begin this week by taking a moment to thank district finance manager Keri Peterson for outstanding work done building new classified salary schedules that support our negotiations goals. This was no small task and she did an outstanding job.
Last week we received exciting news about progress made at several of our schools as a result of our Early Literacy Grant implementation efforts. Because of this work our severe reading deficiency student population at McKinley elementary was reduced by 22 percent!
Washington Elementary students who participated in Lindamood-Bell interventions advanced from an average 21st percentile to 44th percentile in their ability to decode symbol Imagery. Additionally, each student served is now within the normal range in their word attack and word recognition abilities and their spelling skills, all of which helped increase their reading comprehension to grade level!
Last week we received exciting news about progress made at several of our schools as a result of our Early Literacy Grant implementation efforts. Because of this work our severe reading deficiency student population at McKinley elementary was reduced by 22 percent!
Washington Elementary students who participated in Lindamood-Bell interventions advanced from an average 21st percentile to 44th percentile in their ability to decode symbol Imagery. Additionally, each student served is now within the normal range in their word attack and word recognition abilities and their spelling skills, all of which helped increase their reading comprehension to grade level!
Casey Bursha is our Human Resources Department Secretary.
Cañon Exploratory School Lindamood-Bell participants advanced from the 7th percentile to the 30th percentile in spelling. Meanwhile, their symbol imagery advanced from the 15th to the 44th percentile. This helped advance their word attack, word recognition, and comprehension to a grade level reading range!
I also want to share my appreciation for human resources secretary Casey Bursha and the fine effort she put in last week preparing for large group interviews of Harrison School principal candidates. This was a gigantic task and Casey handled it all in stride.
Finally, at Monday’s board of education meeting, three Cañon City High School seniors shared their public policy class presentation about research on school start times. In doing so, Jacob Ahrenholtz, Sierra Londenberg, and Cassidy Phillips have caused the district to consider seriously the daily start time for high school in the future. The information they presented was the result of research for an assignment in Chris Newton’s American Government class.
I also want to share my appreciation for human resources secretary Casey Bursha and the fine effort she put in last week preparing for large group interviews of Harrison School principal candidates. This was a gigantic task and Casey handled it all in stride.
Finally, at Monday’s board of education meeting, three Cañon City High School seniors shared their public policy class presentation about research on school start times. In doing so, Jacob Ahrenholtz, Sierra Londenberg, and Cassidy Phillips have caused the district to consider seriously the daily start time for high school in the future. The information they presented was the result of research for an assignment in Chris Newton’s American Government class.
CCHS seniors Jacob Ahrenholtz, Sierra Londenberg, and Cassidy Phillips present a policy proposal to the board of education about high school start times.
The Focus of Our Work
On May 17th and 18th the BEST Board considers over $600 million in grant proposals.
Two weeks ago we were notified our application for a multi-school facilities upgrade grant, with a total cost of almost 8 million dollars, was recommended for award by the Building Excellent Schools Today board. Unfortunately, our application for a two new school grant totaling more than 40 million dollars, was not approved. To execute the multi-school repair grant we will need to ask the community to approve a small bond. While exploring this process we’ll continue working on solutions to address our facilities needs at Washington Elementary and Cañon City Middle School.
During the month of May, Cañon City Education Support Professional Association and representatives from the school district met to negotiate contract issues and salary rates. After several meetings, the team arrived at decisions related to making the grievance process more understandable, addressing inconsistencies in how violations of bus behavior policies are addressed at each school, and allowing classified employees an additional day of annual leave for every ten years of service. New salary schedules were developed that offer equal monetary experience steps for employees. This will make it easier for us to offer experience steps on an annual basis, as well as additional catch up steps. Other compensation matters we addressed included allowing staff to increase their pay up to three times during their career based on completion of additional approved training, and ensuring all classified employees will be paid their current hourly rate whenever they conduct in-school duties.
During the past month we also met with Cañon City Education Association representatives to negotiate salary. Last Tuesday evening, a tentative agreement was made to increase the base salary by a small percentage, award a step to all returning employees, and to award an additional catch up step to all teachers who are still owed one. One other item we negotiated is allowing the school district to offer up to 10 experience steps when hiring new certified employees.
Something worth mentioning: last year our certified staff members, after achieving their salary increase goals, left some dollars on the table that supported classified pay increases. In turn this year, after achieving their salary increase goals, our classified staff members were able to support our certified salary increase.
Finally, preparing students for a future in the real world is what we do, and we had the pleasure of holding two graduation ceremonies during the past week awarding diplomas to students we believe are ready.
During the month of May, Cañon City Education Support Professional Association and representatives from the school district met to negotiate contract issues and salary rates. After several meetings, the team arrived at decisions related to making the grievance process more understandable, addressing inconsistencies in how violations of bus behavior policies are addressed at each school, and allowing classified employees an additional day of annual leave for every ten years of service. New salary schedules were developed that offer equal monetary experience steps for employees. This will make it easier for us to offer experience steps on an annual basis, as well as additional catch up steps. Other compensation matters we addressed included allowing staff to increase their pay up to three times during their career based on completion of additional approved training, and ensuring all classified employees will be paid their current hourly rate whenever they conduct in-school duties.
During the past month we also met with Cañon City Education Association representatives to negotiate salary. Last Tuesday evening, a tentative agreement was made to increase the base salary by a small percentage, award a step to all returning employees, and to award an additional catch up step to all teachers who are still owed one. One other item we negotiated is allowing the school district to offer up to 10 experience steps when hiring new certified employees.
Something worth mentioning: last year our certified staff members, after achieving their salary increase goals, left some dollars on the table that supported classified pay increases. In turn this year, after achieving their salary increase goals, our classified staff members were able to support our certified salary increase.
Finally, preparing students for a future in the real world is what we do, and we had the pleasure of holding two graduation ceremonies during the past week awarding diplomas to students we believe are ready.
The Cañon City High School graduation ceremony took place on May 25th in the evening at Citizen's Stadium.
The Past Two Weeks
During the past two weeks I attended a CDE regional federal programs application training, a building leaders PLC session, a special education parent connection meeting, a monthly meeting with Fremont County DHS director Steve Clifton, a Building Excellent Schools Today board meeting, the Cañon City High School student/employer fair, a CCHS student policy presentation about school start times, a district accountability committee meeting, the Harrison spring choir concert, participated in interviews to select a new Cañon City High School assistant principal, participated in the screening and interview processes for selecting a new Harrison K-8 building leader, participated in Gateway to College and CCHS graduation ceremonies, attended a board work session and meeting, and lost an intense dance off to a very talented Cañon City High School senior.
The Gateway to College graduation ceremony took place on Monday May 22nd in Pueblo. Cañon City graduates receive a CCSD diploma, and most earned around 20 college credits while in high school
The Coming Weeks
In the next few weeks I’ll focus on a lot of routine end of school year work, attend a Building Bridges for quality Cañon City Schools meeting, attend a CASB legislative wrap up session, meet with DHS and regional university personnel about attracting, training and retaining social workers to our region, appear on KRLN’s Morning Line, explore the possibility of writing a P-Tech grant in conjunction with Pueblo Community College personnel, and attend a number of routine monthly meetings.
Thanks for listening once again!
George S. Welsh
Thanks for listening once again!
George S. Welsh