October 22, 2017

Echoes from Cañon

Examples of Excellence

JoAnn Bliss is the Alpha Delta Tau Teacher of the Month for October.

Congratulations to Cañon City High School math teacher JoAnn Bliss for being named the Alpha Delta Tau Teacher of the Month for October. JoAnn is highly respected by her peers and the kind of teacher who helps her students understand the real-life application of the math concepts they learn. JoAnn also gave willingly of her personal time this summer to support some incoming 9th grade students in our Algebra Bootcamp. I hear she even spent her own dollars at the end of each week rewarding her students for hard work by purchasing them lunch. We are truly fortunate to have a teacher like JoAnn working with our children!

This award is sponsored by our local Alpha Delta Tau chapter, a teacher sorority. Ms. Bliss received a certificate and a gift card. Anyone who would like to nominate a teacher for this award can find the nomination form on our district website at www.canoncityschools.org

How about that Cañon City High School Tiger Pride Marching Band? Last week The Race Showcase, donning shiny uniforms provided by numerous community donors and teeming with adult band booster support, took first place at the Colorado High School Activities Association 3A Regional Marching Band competition, compiling a score of 68.9. Hard work pays off, and the success Mr. Race and his musicians are having this year should be no surprise to all who have watched them prepare. Congratulations, and best of luck at state!

On Friday, several dozen Cañon City Schools leaders, the Cañon City Police Department, and first responders from the Cañon City Volunteer Fire Department, Department of Corrections, and the Florence Police Department participated in a Functional Exercise. This is an opportunity to practice responding to community crisis in real time. This drill was put together by Cañon City Police Chief Daric Harvey and CCSD Director of Student Support Services Paula Buser, and I must say the day was extremely intense. In the process, we learned a lot about the importance of accurate and timely communication and being familiar with our crisis plan. I can’t thank Chief Harvey and Paula enough for making it a priority to do this kind of work.

Police Chief Daric Harvey briefs all Functional Exercise participants.

First responders react to a new scenario they were presented.

The CCSD Crisis Team responds to news of a changing scenario.

The Focus of Our Work

On Monday October 23rd, Cañon City School District Board of Education will be presented with its annual financial audit. As has been the case under the guidance of Director of Finance Buddy Lambrecht, this year’s review is once again a clean one. Such audits consist of balance sheets tracking revenues received, allocated, and expended. One other important aspect to an audit is the Management Discussion and Analysis. A key section of the MD and A is the district’s opportunity to consider factors bearing on its financial future. Excerpts from this year’s analysis follow.

The District’s enrollment appears to have stabilized. Though there have been minor peaks and valleys, it has been relatively flat over the past four years.

The District’s accreditation rating was Priority Improvement in 2011. This was below the threshold for intervention by the state. From 2012 through 2015 the district’s rating was Improvement, above the intervention threshold. Since 2016 the District has achieved full Accredited status.

At 95% of state average funding, Cañon City Schools is among the lowest funded school districts on a per-pupil basis in Colorado.

In November 2000 Colorado voters approved Amendment 23 establishing a school funding reserve intended to ensure increases in base funding by, at minimum, inflation plus 1% over a 10-year period, then by inflation each year thereafter. However, reductions in state revenue due to the Great Recession resulted in the imposition of a Negative Factor, now called Budget Stabilization factor. This has resulted in a district funding gap of approximately $3.5 million per year between the promise of voter approved Amendment 23 and what has been allocated each year since fiscal year 2012.

As part of the District’s efforts to improve its facility usage it sold two properties in 2014. The Garden Park High School property was sold to Fremont County and the Madison School property was sold to an individual buyer. Net proceeds from the sales were deposited in the district’s capital reserve fund and have been used for capital related projects.

In September 2014, the District refunded a portion of its outstanding 2003 voter approved construction bonds. All savings were passed along to property owners within the District in the form of a reduced mill levy. The refinancing is projected to reduce interest expense by $900 thousand over the remainder of the life of the bonds.

The district has worked hard to secure Building Excellent Schools Today (BEST) grants to supplement its school repair budget. In 2014 an award was received to replace antiquated fire alarms. The project was successfully completed in the summer of 2015. In 2016 the District was awarded a grant to replace roofing at Lincoln School of Science & Technology, McKinley Elementary School and Cañon City High School. The total project cost was $1.01 million, with BEST providing $667 thousand and the District’s match being $344 thousand. The project was successfully completed in summer 2016 and summer 2017. In May 2017, the District was awarded a grant to conduct $7.5 million in building envelope, health, safety and security upgrades to Cañon City High School, Cañon Exploratory School, Harrison K-8, Lincoln School of Science and Technology, and McKinley Elementary School. To execute the grant the district must gain voter approval of its 2017 Bond question 3B.

In November 2013, the District asked voters to approve a mill levy override (MLO) and a Bond. The MLO was to expand operations, including additional vocational and advanced course offerings, updated textbooks and technology, and recruiting and retaining high quality staff. The Bond was to fund facility improvements including roof repairs, parking lot surfacing, and other deferred maintenance items as well as equipment for new vocational offerings and building security upgrades. Both measures failed in a close vote. As a result, Cañon City remains one of only two floor-funded districts in the state that does not yet have a mill levy override.

With the failure of its 2013 mill levy override and bond questions Cañon City Schools will continue to face budget shortfalls and defer major building maintenance projects unless its November 2017 MLO and Bond questions are approved by voters. This latest attempt at an MLO would increase operations funding by $1.385 million per year to support the infusion of instructional technology, replace outdated learning resources, bolster employee compensation, more effectively maintain facilities, and expand preschool services. The 2017 Bond question would leverage $18.2 million in revenue to accomplish $52.9 million in building improvements, including construction of two replacement schools and performing major maintenance on the remaining five, by leveraging Colorado’s Building Excellent Schools Today program.

In 1995 Cañon City Schools approved the charter application for the Mountain View Core Knowledge School (MVCKS). MVCKS continues to operate a K-8 Charter School under the sponsorship of the District. In fiscal year 2017 MVCKS’s fund balance remained adequate due to conservative budgeting practices. The passage of 2017 questions 3A and 3B could place the school on even greater financial footing by paying off its $1.3million building loan and increasing its discretionary per-pupil funding by approximately $800 per year.

In December 2015 Congress passed the Every Students Succeeds Act (ESSA) as a rewrite of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act replacing No Child Left Behind (NCLB). ESSA provides new guidance and requirements for accountability, assessments, low performing school remedies, and teacher and school leader responsibility for academic improvement. The State of Colorado finalized implementation rules guidance and requirements in spring 2017 and this resulted in a $120,000 (roughly 10%) reduction in funding that has significantly impacted the budget.

In spring 2017 the Colorado Legislature passed the Rural Sustainability Act. This provided a one-time $171 per pupil funding infusion totaling $660,000. These funds have been allocated to provide teacher training to conduct scientifically proven reading interventions for struggling students, adopting up to date math curriculum materials for grades K-5, addressing our most pressing facility repair needs, and upgrading outdated technology equipment.

Once the Board of Education accepts the audit, community members will be welcome to request a copy from the district to review it in its entirety.

The Tiger Pride Band takes the field at Regionals.

Last Week

I took some personal time on Monday and Tuesday. During the rest of the week I had a touching base session with RE-2 superintendent Rhonda Roberts, a District Leadership Team meeting, and an all-day Functional Exercise simulation involving Cañon City Police and a slew of area first responders.

This Week

Tiger Pride Drum Majors proudly display regional 1st place hardware!

This week I have a board work session and meeting, an Instructional Leader Professional Learning Community session, an Early Childhood Leadership Commission meeting in Denver, a Cañon 2020 meeting, and a meeting with folks from GE Johnson to touch base about possible next steps in selecting a builder and architect should our question 3B pass. I will also attend a problem-solving session with Cañon City Education Association leaders regarding elementary teacher plan time.

Thanks for listening once again!

George S. Welsh