Echoes from Cañon
Examples of Excellence
I hope all of you have heard our Cañon City High School Tiger Pride Band took first at the regional marching competition this past week. They have been working hard since late summer and this paid off with a score of 64.30 at last Wednesday’s competition. Congratulations!
On Monday October 19th from 5:30 to 8 PM at Harrison K-8 School the Cañon City School District will be holding a safety fair and community pizza party. Director of Student Support Services Paula Buser has done a great job attracting local and state level resources to support this effort. Included in the event will be a bully prevention and intervention presentation, and information on the Safe2Tell safety reporting program presented by state level director Susan Paine. Attendees will also have the opportunity to meet with representatives from the Cañon City Fire Department, the Cañon City Police Department, CCSD’s wellness team, the Family Crisis Center, the Fremont County Office of Emergency Management, Rocky Mountain Behavioral Health, and Solvista Health. We encourage the entire community to come on out to this wonderful event
Starting last week the CCSD tech department began holding BTS (Buck the System) days at various school sites once again to offer comprehensive help in meeting school site technology repair and maintenance needs. I want to thank director Shaun Kohl and his staff for making this effort to pour such resources into our buildings to support the use of instructional technology by teachers and students.
In the past few weeks CCSD was notified that it will receive a couple of nice grants. One is for upwards of $150,000 from the Colorado Health Foundation to support cooking from scratch in cafeterias. The other is a statewide library grant in the amount of $4,000 that will help support materials purchase for information literacy programs. I would like to thank Paula Buser and Director of Student Services Dominic Carochi for their work on these grant applications and for all they will do implementing them.
On Monday October 19th from 5:30 to 8 PM at Harrison K-8 School the Cañon City School District will be holding a safety fair and community pizza party. Director of Student Support Services Paula Buser has done a great job attracting local and state level resources to support this effort. Included in the event will be a bully prevention and intervention presentation, and information on the Safe2Tell safety reporting program presented by state level director Susan Paine. Attendees will also have the opportunity to meet with representatives from the Cañon City Fire Department, the Cañon City Police Department, CCSD’s wellness team, the Family Crisis Center, the Fremont County Office of Emergency Management, Rocky Mountain Behavioral Health, and Solvista Health. We encourage the entire community to come on out to this wonderful event
Starting last week the CCSD tech department began holding BTS (Buck the System) days at various school sites once again to offer comprehensive help in meeting school site technology repair and maintenance needs. I want to thank director Shaun Kohl and his staff for making this effort to pour such resources into our buildings to support the use of instructional technology by teachers and students.
In the past few weeks CCSD was notified that it will receive a couple of nice grants. One is for upwards of $150,000 from the Colorado Health Foundation to support cooking from scratch in cafeterias. The other is a statewide library grant in the amount of $4,000 that will help support materials purchase for information literacy programs. I would like to thank Paula Buser and Director of Student Services Dominic Carochi for their work on these grant applications and for all they will do implementing them.
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Regional Wellness Coordinator Kristi Elliott represented Cañon City Schools well last week co-presenting a session with Lara Peck from RMC Health on changing school health habits for the better at the American School Health Association National Conference on Friday evening. Congratulations on making your first national conference presentation Kristi!
My final example of excellence this week is Buddy Lambrecht, CCSD Director of Finance. Buddy has served our district for 11 years. It seems he is always the first to arrive at work, and usually the last to leave and his dedication is simply phenomenal. It is Buddy’s job to manage our district funds, and he is truly respected in the way he tracks the expenditure of over $20 million per fiscal year. As one of his coworkers recently said of him, “it is hard enough for each of us to stay within a personal family budget. “Can you imagine how hard it must be to keep more than 500 different people from overspending their annual allocations?” We joke that Buddy has an actual “no” button on his desk, and is willing to use it. However, I have noticed that Buddy never “uses” that button without first thoughtfully considering all options, including the learning benefits our children will reap from increased efforts to free up dollars.
My final example of excellence this week is Buddy Lambrecht, CCSD Director of Finance. Buddy has served our district for 11 years. It seems he is always the first to arrive at work, and usually the last to leave and his dedication is simply phenomenal. It is Buddy’s job to manage our district funds, and he is truly respected in the way he tracks the expenditure of over $20 million per fiscal year. As one of his coworkers recently said of him, “it is hard enough for each of us to stay within a personal family budget. “Can you imagine how hard it must be to keep more than 500 different people from overspending their annual allocations?” We joke that Buddy has an actual “no” button on his desk, and is willing to use it. However, I have noticed that Buddy never “uses” that button without first thoughtfully considering all options, including the learning benefits our children will reap from increased efforts to free up dollars.
The Focus of our Work
Last week I attended my first Fremont Schools Facilities Corporation board of directors meeting. Because of this I would like to share information regarding what I learned about it.
The Facilities Corporation was established in 1989 to develop the Family Center Housing Project in hopes of generating funding to maintain services provided by ECHO and the Family Center Early Childhood Council. At some point its focus expanded to support recreation activities and programs for at-risk students, with its most recent mission statement being "to build a strong community by providing funding for early childhood education and other programs and services for children who are at risk."
To gain wider support for the housing project a pool/recreation facility was added. When it became clear profits could not cover costs, the housing project was sold. I don’t know how much was raised through the sale but am aware that there is now a $750,000 uncommitted balance after allocations were made this fiscal year to support CCSD’s required Erate match and general ECHO operations expenses.
The Facilities Corporation Board is once again determining what its major focus will be. We will also decide if it might be prudent to invest some of the remaining balance in a way that would provide earnings of upwards of $30,000 per year to be allocated without reducing the principal. The board is in agreement to at least explore this option. However, I am not sure we are all in agreement as to what to spend investment earnings on.
Director of Finance Buddy Lambrecht says we have been selected to have an IRS Audit conducted of our payroll processes this coming week. It has been roughly10 years since our last one, so we were probably due. IRS agents will be on site at our administration building doing this on October 19th and 20th.
The Facilities Corporation was established in 1989 to develop the Family Center Housing Project in hopes of generating funding to maintain services provided by ECHO and the Family Center Early Childhood Council. At some point its focus expanded to support recreation activities and programs for at-risk students, with its most recent mission statement being "to build a strong community by providing funding for early childhood education and other programs and services for children who are at risk."
To gain wider support for the housing project a pool/recreation facility was added. When it became clear profits could not cover costs, the housing project was sold. I don’t know how much was raised through the sale but am aware that there is now a $750,000 uncommitted balance after allocations were made this fiscal year to support CCSD’s required Erate match and general ECHO operations expenses.
The Facilities Corporation Board is once again determining what its major focus will be. We will also decide if it might be prudent to invest some of the remaining balance in a way that would provide earnings of upwards of $30,000 per year to be allocated without reducing the principal. The board is in agreement to at least explore this option. However, I am not sure we are all in agreement as to what to spend investment earnings on.
Director of Finance Buddy Lambrecht says we have been selected to have an IRS Audit conducted of our payroll processes this coming week. It has been roughly10 years since our last one, so we were probably due. IRS agents will be on site at our administration building doing this on October 19th and 20th.
Last Week
Monday and Tuesday was Fall Break. During these days I was in and out of the office working on building evaluation rubrics, meeting about district accountability committee work, meeting with Boys and Girls Club director Steve Hinson, meeting with officers of the Cañon City Police Department, attending our emergency response team meeting, watching the CCHS Tiger Pride Band rehearse for regional competition, and travelling to Thornton to attend the Colorado Safe Schools Summit. I attended this on Wednesday, then flew to Orlando, Florida that evening to attend the American School Health Association National Conference with a team of CCSD educators.
This Week
On Monday I’ll be at one of three statewide superintendent gatherings going on simultaneously, thanks to modern technology. The session I will attend will take place in Pueblo. At the meeting we’ll discuss ways superintendents can work together to advocate for the needs of K-12 public education systems. On Tuesday I have Superintendent’s Advisory Council, Leadership, and CCEA leadership meetings. Wednesday brings about a number of general face to face meetings, while on Thursday I’ll have my monthly DHS gathering with Fremont County director Steve Clifton and RE-2 superintendent Rhonda Roberts. On Friday and Saturday I’ll be attending sessions 3 and 4 of Theory into Practice instructional improvement training with a team of CCSD leaders in Pueblo.
My in-building office hours for the coming week will be as follows:
Tuesday October 20th from 10:30 to 11:30 AM at CCMS
Wednesday October 21st from 10:30 to 11:30 AM at Lincoln
Thursday October 22nd from 9:30 to 10:30 AM at McKinley
Thursday October 22nd from 1:30 to 2:30 PM at CCHS
George S. Welsh
My in-building office hours for the coming week will be as follows:
Tuesday October 20th from 10:30 to 11:30 AM at CCMS
Wednesday October 21st from 10:30 to 11:30 AM at Lincoln
Thursday October 22nd from 9:30 to 10:30 AM at McKinley
Thursday October 22nd from 1:30 to 2:30 PM at CCHS
George S. Welsh