Cañon City thrives through adventurous spirit, dynamic people, innovative schools, and historic charm.
Echoes from Cañon
Our Mission
The Cañon City School District is future-focused, providing innovative educational opportunities to successfully prepare all students to meet any challenge they may face.
The Cañon City School District is future-focused, providing innovative educational opportunities to successfully prepare all students to meet any challenge they may face.
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
Sharon Whitney donate $1,000 to CCMS's vocational trades class!
Recently, Cañon City Middle School has been the recipient of several generous donations. The CCMS athletic program recently received $1,000 from McClasland Glass. This will be used to update athletic equipment. Also, a grandparent of CCMS students, Sharon Whitney, donated $1,000 to support the school's burgeoning vocational trades program taught by Shannon Daly.
On the grant acquisition front, we officially submitted our Youth Connections grant application to Caring For Colorado last Friday. This will bring us $60,000 in resources to plan improved programs to support the mental health, well-being, and resiliency of adolescents by strengthening our ability to promote school culture and climate that meets the social, emotional, and academic needs of students. Assuming we have a successful planning process, Cañon City Schools will then have access to up to an additional $200,000 per year to create learning environments that are psychologically safe and relationship rich, particularly for students who experience the greatest barriers to connection, to build a multi-tiered system of supports and hone our response to intervention processes for students, and even staff, who are struggling, to empower diverse student voice and authentic student-adult partnerships, and to ensure families are actively engaged in the design and implementation of each school's social-emotional vision. In short, this work will greatly increase our ability to live up to our first core belief!
On Thursday the Colorado Supreme Court will be in session at Cañon City High School. This is part of a regional outreach program aimed at educating students about the workings of Colorado's Judicial Branch of government. As part of this process, CCHS social studies students will get an opportunity to meet the justices and observe a hearing.
On the grant acquisition front, we officially submitted our Youth Connections grant application to Caring For Colorado last Friday. This will bring us $60,000 in resources to plan improved programs to support the mental health, well-being, and resiliency of adolescents by strengthening our ability to promote school culture and climate that meets the social, emotional, and academic needs of students. Assuming we have a successful planning process, Cañon City Schools will then have access to up to an additional $200,000 per year to create learning environments that are psychologically safe and relationship rich, particularly for students who experience the greatest barriers to connection, to build a multi-tiered system of supports and hone our response to intervention processes for students, and even staff, who are struggling, to empower diverse student voice and authentic student-adult partnerships, and to ensure families are actively engaged in the design and implementation of each school's social-emotional vision. In short, this work will greatly increase our ability to live up to our first core belief!
On Thursday the Colorado Supreme Court will be in session at Cañon City High School. This is part of a regional outreach program aimed at educating students about the workings of Colorado's Judicial Branch of government. As part of this process, CCHS social studies students will get an opportunity to meet the justices and observe a hearing.
Our Future Focus
The District Compass Committee met last Wednesday.
We received word last week that the Gates Family Foundation has offered Cañon City High School a seed grant that would support and incentivize teachers toward becoming qualified to instruct more college-level courses on the CCHS campus. We believe this will be in the neighborhood of $50,000. This is one exciting result of the Rural Funders meeting at which Principal Bill Summers presented several weeks ago. This is a fine example of our district having a future focus and valuing growth. Though we already lead the state in per-student college credits earned for a high school, we are seeking ways to make such opportunities even more available.
We had another productive Compass Committee meeting last Wednesday. As a reminder, Compass is our new hub committee aimed at collaboratively guiding continuous instructional improvement. At the meeting, we reviewed school-level performance data and made school accreditation rating recommendations to be considered by the Board of Education. We'll hold our next meeting on Wednesday, October 13th during which we'll work to finalize the rubric we'll use to review the improvement progress of schools on an annual basis.
At our Superintendent Advisory Council meeting last week we discussed the management of digital school records, a unique Washington Elementary online fundraiser, and ways to address our continuing substitute challenges, especially as related to special education. At our Leadership meeting that same afternoon, we reviewed our draft Bullying Prevention policy, had a functional lockdown drill follow-up conversation, encouraged principals to submit names of classified staff we can certify as emergency substitutes, and introduced our new embedded DHS school resource liaison to principals.
We had another productive Compass Committee meeting last Wednesday. As a reminder, Compass is our new hub committee aimed at collaboratively guiding continuous instructional improvement. At the meeting, we reviewed school-level performance data and made school accreditation rating recommendations to be considered by the Board of Education. We'll hold our next meeting on Wednesday, October 13th during which we'll work to finalize the rubric we'll use to review the improvement progress of schools on an annual basis.
At our Superintendent Advisory Council meeting last week we discussed the management of digital school records, a unique Washington Elementary online fundraiser, and ways to address our continuing substitute challenges, especially as related to special education. At our Leadership meeting that same afternoon, we reviewed our draft Bullying Prevention policy, had a functional lockdown drill follow-up conversation, encouraged principals to submit names of classified staff we can certify as emergency substitutes, and introduced our new embedded DHS school resource liaison to principals.
Our Focus on Safety
Harrison staff debrief on fire drill procedures with Cañon City first responders.
Last week the Cañon City Fire District helped Harrison students celebrate Fire Prevention Week. They did so by assisting with a routine school-wide fire drill. However, they also provided fire truck rides for students and performed a puppet show!
Bond Progress
Harrison property under consideration for a solar garden.
Our Board of Education has been tackling a complex project related to construction at Washington Elementary and Cañon City Middle School. This is the removal and relocation of solar panels located on each school's roof. Cañon City Schools is in year 10 of a 20-year lease agreement, so the reinstallation of these panels is of great importance to our overall financial outlook. At a work session held last week, the board gave administration permission to develop a plan to move these panels to an open field site behind Harrison School and to possibly even add to that solar array to fully power the Harrison facility. Key to this proposal will be finding the best time to relocate the panels so as to limit the impact of such costs. Thus, our construction partners at RLH Engineering have been engaged to limit this expense. Related to this is a proposal by our solar power partners at Ameresco and Clean Capital to lease some currently unused land by Harrison School to develop a large scale solar garden. This concept is only in a preliminary stage, but the successful result could allow Cañon City Schools to capture as much as $2 million in lease income over the next 20 years while allowing the property to revert back to the district at the end.
Cañon City Middle School students and teachers are now "test-driving" some furniture being considered for purchase as part of that project.
Residents may have also noticed the crane is no longer on the CCMS work site. It has been relocated to Washington Elementary where it ill begin erecting steel for that new building.
Rumors are circulating about asbestos being relocated to some property near Harrison School. Readers might recall that near the end of summer we struck an asbestos insulated pipe at the Cañon City Middle School construction site. This item put in motion a nearly $300,000 state agency supervised abatement response that included locating and removing all material spilled at the construction site, as well as circling back and analyzing material removed from the site prior to the actual discovery of the pipe. So around this time, visitors to the Harrison material site would have noticed several mounds of dirt covered in plastic. We did this as a precautionary measure, even though it was not required by the supervising agency. Our primary focus at the time of the asbestos discovery on the CCMS site was to resume construction as soon as possible, and so once abatement at the construction site was complete, our abatement team proceeded to the Harrison storage site, inspected that material, declared it safe, and moved it to another location.
Cañon City Middle School students and teachers are now "test-driving" some furniture being considered for purchase as part of that project.
Residents may have also noticed the crane is no longer on the CCMS work site. It has been relocated to Washington Elementary where it ill begin erecting steel for that new building.
Rumors are circulating about asbestos being relocated to some property near Harrison School. Readers might recall that near the end of summer we struck an asbestos insulated pipe at the Cañon City Middle School construction site. This item put in motion a nearly $300,000 state agency supervised abatement response that included locating and removing all material spilled at the construction site, as well as circling back and analyzing material removed from the site prior to the actual discovery of the pipe. So around this time, visitors to the Harrison material site would have noticed several mounds of dirt covered in plastic. We did this as a precautionary measure, even though it was not required by the supervising agency. Our primary focus at the time of the asbestos discovery on the CCMS site was to resume construction as soon as possible, and so once abatement at the construction site was complete, our abatement team proceeded to the Harrison storage site, inspected that material, declared it safe, and moved it to another location.
CCMS students are "test driving" new furniture.
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The Harrison materials storage area.
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Last Week
The District Leadership Committee met last Tuesday afternoon.
On Monday I published another installment of Echoes, met with board members Shad Johnson and Robin Reeser about this year's Colorado Association of School Boards (CASB) legislative resolutions, held an expulsion hearing, then attended the annual CASB Region 6 meeting in Pueblo. On Tuesday I touched base with Director of Student Support Services Paula Buser, and then with the Cañon City Police Department. I then attended a Superintendent Advisory Council meeting, a solar panel relocation troubleshooting meeting, facilitate a District Leadership Team meeting, and trekked to Pueblo for an annual Colorado Association of School Executives regional meeting. I start Wednesday early morning in a meeting about staff iLearn professional development requirements, then facilitated a Compass Committee meeting, touched base with Health and Wellness Coordinator Brian VanIwarden about our Youth Connections grant application, and proceeded to Denver to attend a meeting about mill levy equity. On Thursday and Friday I attended to personal matters.
This Week
On Monday I'll write and publish another installment of Echoes from Cañon, meet with Director of Operations Jeff Peterson and Assitant Superintendent of Schools Adam Hartman about transportation/school boundary data, attend a board work session and meeting, and then run over to CCHS for the Fall Premier Concert. On Tuesday we have a Superintendent Advisory Council meeting, I'll attend a Regional Manager's Meeting, meet with board candidate Beth Gaffney, then facilitate another Civic Canopy session. Wednesday includes a DHS FIOG meeting, a touching base meeting with Fremont County Department of Human Services Executive Director Stacie Kwitek, and a visit to the every other week TechSTART tech night out gathering. On Thursday we host the Colorado Supreme Court, who will conduct two hearings at the Cañon City High School auditorium, I'll also attend a meeting about CCMS student access to high school classes and a Communities That Care quarterly board meeting, before making my way to Denver to participate in the Colorado Association of School Executives Superintendent of the Year selection process. Late in the day on Friday I'll proceed to Breckenridge to join board members Shad Johnson and Robin Reeser at the Colorado Association of School Boards Fall Delegate Conference. This is an annual event where CASB sets its legislative advocacy priorities. We'll remain there until 2 PM on Saturday.
Other Voices
Larry Oddo poses with his McGuffy award.
At Monday's Colorado Association of School Boards Region 6 meeting, Cañon City School Board President Larry Oddo was presented with a 2019 McGuffy Award for outstanding service. This presentation read as follows:
"Larry Oddo has served the Cañon City school board for eight years, including the last four as president. A one-time accountant and a current business operator, Mr. Oddo’s talents were key to Cañon City’s navigation of negative factor budget cuts related to the Great Recession. Under his guidance, Cañon City Schools kept its focus on providing valued programs for students while retaining the great people necessary to effectively educate them. In the past several years Mr. Oddo was instrumental in the success of both an override and bond question providing funds necessary to implement a one-to-one technology initiative, upgrade 5 school buildings, replace two schools, and providing make-up experience steps to loyal employees whose pay was frozen as a result of the recession."
Thanks to Mr. Oddo’s influence, the Cañon City School District is fully accredited and the entire community is focused on preparing students for evolving careers.
Congratulations Mr. Oddo, and thank you!
. . . and thanks for listening once again,
George S. Welsh
"Larry Oddo has served the Cañon City school board for eight years, including the last four as president. A one-time accountant and a current business operator, Mr. Oddo’s talents were key to Cañon City’s navigation of negative factor budget cuts related to the Great Recession. Under his guidance, Cañon City Schools kept its focus on providing valued programs for students while retaining the great people necessary to effectively educate them. In the past several years Mr. Oddo was instrumental in the success of both an override and bond question providing funds necessary to implement a one-to-one technology initiative, upgrade 5 school buildings, replace two schools, and providing make-up experience steps to loyal employees whose pay was frozen as a result of the recession."
Thanks to Mr. Oddo’s influence, the Cañon City School District is fully accredited and the entire community is focused on preparing students for evolving careers.
Congratulations Mr. Oddo, and thank you!
. . . and thanks for listening once again,
George S. Welsh
