Echoes from Cañon
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
Jen Newton shares outstanding summer reading academy results with the Board of Education.
A prime example of Core Belief #2, we believe learning growth matters most, was on display Monday evening as Washington Elementary Title I Teacher and CCSD Summer Reading Academy Coordinator Jen Newton shared with our Board of Education the outstanding growth our summer school students displayed.
Jen reported a whopping 70% of summer school students met or exceeded their goal of maintaining or growing their end of year composite reading performance based on DIBELS test results. Additionally, 11 of our students who did not attain this goal still showed good gains in fluency and accuracy.
Lots of thank you’s go to the staff at McKinley Elementary this week for focusing their effort on Core Belief #2. Toward this effort, their Title Team, Literacy Coach, and Special Education department did a wonderful job scheduling reading intervention sessions both during and after school. As part of this effort, they created a sustainability plan by expanding Lindamood-Bell testing training throughout the building. Christy Johnson and Mark Lyons are taking on the important work of preparing for and tutoring students, and Kari Holcomb and Jessica Stevens established the student selection process for the program. I have no doubt this effort, and the actions of their instructors, will result in wonderful student learning growth.
I also want to share an instructional shout out about Brittney Wilcox who clearly exhibited our 4th core belief. Brittney is a 5th-6th grade teacher at Cañon Exploratory School who has been doing a great work differentiating instruction in Math, producing outstanding learning targets, and having students complete learning target reflection sheets after lessons are taught. Every bit as important, Brittney has been working hard on her communication with parents, and from what I hear this is much appreciated. This is hard work, but Brittney’s actions show she clearly emphasizes what is good for kids over the needs and comfort of adults, in this case herself.
This week’s embodiment of Core Belief # 1 is Michelle Nethercot, a second grade teacher at Washington Elementary. Principal Brian Zamarripa reported this about Michelle, “I’ve had several interactions with parents of students you once had or currently serve, one being during a recent 504 meeting, and I want to commend you for the work you do to meet the needs of your students.” Brian added, “last week the guardian of a student you had last year praised you for the relationship you developed with her granddaughter while she was in your classroom, and for your consistent communication regarding her child's classroom performance.” “The level of success this student experienced was greatly due to who she had as a teacher.” In a communication I receive from Mr. Zamarripa, he went on about how effectively Michelle has already been establishing positive and trusting relationships with her students, even though we are not even one month into the school year. Thank you Michelle, for the way you meet the social-emotional needs of ALL your children!
Jen reported a whopping 70% of summer school students met or exceeded their goal of maintaining or growing their end of year composite reading performance based on DIBELS test results. Additionally, 11 of our students who did not attain this goal still showed good gains in fluency and accuracy.
Lots of thank you’s go to the staff at McKinley Elementary this week for focusing their effort on Core Belief #2. Toward this effort, their Title Team, Literacy Coach, and Special Education department did a wonderful job scheduling reading intervention sessions both during and after school. As part of this effort, they created a sustainability plan by expanding Lindamood-Bell testing training throughout the building. Christy Johnson and Mark Lyons are taking on the important work of preparing for and tutoring students, and Kari Holcomb and Jessica Stevens established the student selection process for the program. I have no doubt this effort, and the actions of their instructors, will result in wonderful student learning growth.
I also want to share an instructional shout out about Brittney Wilcox who clearly exhibited our 4th core belief. Brittney is a 5th-6th grade teacher at Cañon Exploratory School who has been doing a great work differentiating instruction in Math, producing outstanding learning targets, and having students complete learning target reflection sheets after lessons are taught. Every bit as important, Brittney has been working hard on her communication with parents, and from what I hear this is much appreciated. This is hard work, but Brittney’s actions show she clearly emphasizes what is good for kids over the needs and comfort of adults, in this case herself.
This week’s embodiment of Core Belief # 1 is Michelle Nethercot, a second grade teacher at Washington Elementary. Principal Brian Zamarripa reported this about Michelle, “I’ve had several interactions with parents of students you once had or currently serve, one being during a recent 504 meeting, and I want to commend you for the work you do to meet the needs of your students.” Brian added, “last week the guardian of a student you had last year praised you for the relationship you developed with her granddaughter while she was in your classroom, and for your consistent communication regarding her child's classroom performance.” “The level of success this student experienced was greatly due to who she had as a teacher.” In a communication I receive from Mr. Zamarripa, he went on about how effectively Michelle has already been establishing positive and trusting relationships with her students, even though we are not even one month into the school year. Thank you Michelle, for the way you meet the social-emotional needs of ALL your children!
Our Future Focus
A Harrison student speaks to the entire student body during the student council election speech assembly.
I want to thank Mitch Ary and Dani Donnell for all the hard work they put into last week's Harrison Student Council Election Assembly. I stumbled upon this when I was in the building and observed students from all grade levels making speeches in front of their classmates. From what I hear, this was the first time many can remember Harrison holding a student council election including candidate speeches. The addresses were eloquent and their passion for making the school a better place was clearly evident. What a great way to help students develop our key traits of civility and agency!
On Tuesday and Wednesday of this week board directors Larry Oddo, Lloyd Harwood, Mary Kay Evans, and Shad Johnson will interview eight candidates interested in filling Kristyn Econome’s open board seat. I have no doubt this will be a difficult decision for them, and I remind everyone who has shown interest there will be three board openings (including his one which will soon be filled) next fall during our regular biennial election cycle.
At its regularly scheduled meeting last Monday the Cañon City Board of Education also approved a resolution in support of Colorado Amendment 73. I’ll share the full text of this resolution in this week’s Other Voices section. However, key to this action was the board’s effort to clearly delineate how additional revenues will be invested the education of children should the measure pass.
Here's the language related to this as it appears in the resolution:
-33% of new dollars will be invested to increase compensation and benefits for all employees in order to continue attracting and retaining the highest quality people available to work with our children.
-25% of new dollars will be invested to increase the number of highly qualified staff in areas such as classroom instruction (to decrease student to teacher ratios), special education, instructional support, counseling, technology support, instructional coaching, health services, and maintenance and upkeep of facilities.
-25% of new dollars will be allocated to general and capital reserve funds to create strong balances to allow the district to address future personnel needs, facility improvement projects, and provide grant matches to more greatly leverage local dollars.
-6% of new dollars will be invested in safety and security upgrades to include replacing outdated surveillance equipment, purchasing technology-based security platforms, placing security guards in every school, and expanding our team of School Resource Officers.
-4% of new dollars will be invested in continuous technology equipment and broadband service upgrades to support instructional technology.
-4% of new dollars will be invested to continually upgrade instructional materials. 2% of new dollars will be applied to eliminating all fees currently required of students and parents for participating in regular education programs and extracurricular activities, as well as to eliminate fees currently charged to local organizations and agencies for the use of school facilities, allowing them to pass savings on to their program participants.
-1% of new dollars will be invested in sustaining our K-8 free breakfast program and expanding it to the high school level.
On Tuesday and Wednesday of this week board directors Larry Oddo, Lloyd Harwood, Mary Kay Evans, and Shad Johnson will interview eight candidates interested in filling Kristyn Econome’s open board seat. I have no doubt this will be a difficult decision for them, and I remind everyone who has shown interest there will be three board openings (including his one which will soon be filled) next fall during our regular biennial election cycle.
At its regularly scheduled meeting last Monday the Cañon City Board of Education also approved a resolution in support of Colorado Amendment 73. I’ll share the full text of this resolution in this week’s Other Voices section. However, key to this action was the board’s effort to clearly delineate how additional revenues will be invested the education of children should the measure pass.
Here's the language related to this as it appears in the resolution:
-33% of new dollars will be invested to increase compensation and benefits for all employees in order to continue attracting and retaining the highest quality people available to work with our children.
-25% of new dollars will be invested to increase the number of highly qualified staff in areas such as classroom instruction (to decrease student to teacher ratios), special education, instructional support, counseling, technology support, instructional coaching, health services, and maintenance and upkeep of facilities.
-25% of new dollars will be allocated to general and capital reserve funds to create strong balances to allow the district to address future personnel needs, facility improvement projects, and provide grant matches to more greatly leverage local dollars.
-6% of new dollars will be invested in safety and security upgrades to include replacing outdated surveillance equipment, purchasing technology-based security platforms, placing security guards in every school, and expanding our team of School Resource Officers.
-4% of new dollars will be invested in continuous technology equipment and broadband service upgrades to support instructional technology.
-4% of new dollars will be invested to continually upgrade instructional materials. 2% of new dollars will be applied to eliminating all fees currently required of students and parents for participating in regular education programs and extracurricular activities, as well as to eliminate fees currently charged to local organizations and agencies for the use of school facilities, allowing them to pass savings on to their program participants.
-1% of new dollars will be invested in sustaining our K-8 free breakfast program and expanding it to the high school level.
Bond Progress
The CCMS staff discusses the benefits of grade level and subject area room configurations.
We held our third design meetings for both our CCMS and Washington building projects this week. Key tasks included determining how the buildings will support our instructional models. The entire CCMS staff participated in making a decision classrooms will be grouped on a grade level basis. This will support their middle-school instructional philosophy, as well as the conduct of cross-curricular Professional Learning Community work. A key focus on the Washington front is deciding how best to group grade level classrooms, and whether to pursue space for a potential preschool -daycare program.
We also had representatives from the Cañon City Recreation District, Solvista, and Valley-Wide health services at our meetings. We're asking Recreation representatives to advise us on how we might more readily support their building use needs, and Valley-Wide/Solvista representatives are in the room because of our desire to include a school-based health center at CCMS.
We also had representatives from the Cañon City Recreation District, Solvista, and Valley-Wide health services at our meetings. We're asking Recreation representatives to advise us on how we might more readily support their building use needs, and Valley-Wide/Solvista representatives are in the room because of our desire to include a school-based health center at CCMS.
Last Week
Last week I worked with Assistant Superintendent of Schools Adam Hartman on revising the Measures of Student Learning portion of our evaluation calculator, attended a regular board meeting and work session, held Superintendent Advisory Council and Building Design Team meetings, observed the high school P-TECH parent informational kickoff event, observed delayed start professional development activities, began work updating district and school level Unified Improvement Plans, attended a quarterly CCEOE meeting, and attended a regional superintendent's meeting. I also dealt with a few unexpected tasks of major importance.
CCHS Principal Bill Summers shared important information to Class of 2021 parents about how their child can participate in the new P-TECH partnership.
This Week
My schedule for Monday includes a bunch of parent meetings and an afternoon/evening trip to Springs for the CASB Fall Regional. On Tuesday I have mental health collaboration, BSERT, SAC, and CCMS design meetings. On Wednesday I have 1451 (human services collaboration), staff recruitment, and Instructional PLC planning meetings. On Thursday I teach a full day Leadership Cañon session and will end the day in our first IBS session on Recruiting and Retaining High-Quality staff. So far Friday looks light, with a high school business department meeting and a Fremont County Dream Big event phone conference.
Other Voices
As stated above, at its regularly scheduled meeting last Monday the Cañon City Board of Education approved a resolution in support of Colorado Amendment 73.
What is Amendment 73? Amendment 73 would amend the Colorado Constitution to increase funding for PK-12 public education and provide tax relief for nonresidential property owners while stabilizing the local share of school funding.
-It creates a graduated income tax (stay tuned to learn more about this).
-It increases corporate income tax by 1.37% for C-Corps only (C-Corps are basically Limited Liability Corporations).
-Lowers the residential assessment rate to 7.0% from 7.2% and freezes it there.
-Lowers nonresidential assessment rate to 24% from 20% and freezes it there.
. . . all to increase funding for public schools.
Following is the complete text of the Board's resolution:
WHEREAS, the Cañon City School District Board of Education is future focused and believes every child in its care should have the opportunity to develop critical traits and skills needed to achieve success in an uncertain future: and
WHEREAS, access to quality public education provides children with such opportunities, thereby developing a competitive workforce to drive vibrant economic activity for decades to come; and
WHEREAS, evidence shows Colorado is experiencing a teacher shortage crisis, with many educators in rural areas earning too little salary to meet cost of living needs; and
WHEREAS, data shows Colorado's investment in education has lagged behind that of the rest of the nation, ranking it 48th in personal income invested in education; and
WHEREAS, data shows state education funding has yet to recover from the Great Recession despite Colorado’s rank as the fastest growing economy in the United States, with Colorado schools underfunded by $672.4 million in the 2018-19 school year alone as evidenced through Colorado’s legislatively imposed Budget Stabilization Factor; and
WHEREAS, this chronic underfunding of the Cañon School District has amounted to over $30 million since 2009, funds could have been used to hire desperately needed staff, fairly compensate remaining employees, update learning materials, invest in educational technology, and adequately maintain facilities; and
WHEREAS, this chronic underfunding has directly impacted the District’s ability to provide high-quality educational opportunities for all of its students; and
WHEREAS, during this same period of chronic underfunding Cañon City School District special education expenses have increased by $1.3 million per year while funding to provide special education services has only increased by $250,000 per year, thereby having an adverse impact on all remaining education programs; and
WHEREAS, the passage of Amendment 73 would increase Colorado’s total investment in public education by $1.6 billion annually, with $6 million extra coming to the Cañon City School District each school year, by stabilizing property tax collections and creating a graduated income tax system, and
WHEREAS, the passage of Amendment 73 would give the Cañon City School District Board of Education local authority to make decisions on how to best invest in programs and services the community values most; and
WHEREAS, if Amendment 73 passes, the Cañon City School Board will fully commit to investing new financial resources, outside of those passed on to preschool and charter programs, toward the following priorities on an estimated basis:
• 33% of new dollars will be invested to increase compensation and benefits for all employees in order to continue attracting and retaining the highest quality people available to work with our children.
• 25% of new dollars will be invested to increase the number of highly qualified staff in areas such as classroom instruction (to decrease student to teacher ratios), special education, instructional support, counseling, technology support, instructional coaching, health services, and maintenance and upkeep of facilities.
• 25% of new dollars will be allocated to general and capital reserve funds to create strong balances to allow the district to address future personnel needs, facility improvement projects, and provide grant matches to more greatly leverage local dollars.
• 6% of new dollars will be invested in safety and security upgrades to include replacing outdated surveillance equipment, purchasing technology-based security platforms, placing security guards in every school, and expanding our team of School Resource Officers.
• 4% of new dollars will be invested in continuous technology equipment and broadband service upgrades to support instructional technology.
• 4% of new dollars will be invested to continually upgrade instructional materials.
• 2% of new dollars will be applied to eliminating all fees currently required of students and parents for participating in regular education programs and extracurricular activities, as well as to eliminate fees currently charged to local organizations and agencies for the use of school facilities, allowing them to pass savings on to their program participants.
• 1% of new dollars will be invested in sustaining our K-8 free breakfast program and expanding it to the high school level.
; and
WHEREAS, the Cañon City School District Board of Education declares Amendment 73 to be a matter of official concern;
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Cañon City Schools Board of Education officially declares its support for Amendment 73 for significantly increased funding for public education in the State of Colorado; and
The Board authorizes the mobilization of District resources to distribute a factual summary to Cañon City School District residents regarding Amendment 73, in accordance with the Fair Campaign Practices Act, C.R.S. 1-45-117.
ADOPTED AND APPROVED THIS 10th day of September 2018.
Larry Oddo, President, Lloyd Harwood, Vice President, Mary Kay Evans, Secretary, and Shad Johnson, Treasurer
Thanks for listening once again!
George S. Welsh
What is Amendment 73? Amendment 73 would amend the Colorado Constitution to increase funding for PK-12 public education and provide tax relief for nonresidential property owners while stabilizing the local share of school funding.
-It creates a graduated income tax (stay tuned to learn more about this).
-It increases corporate income tax by 1.37% for C-Corps only (C-Corps are basically Limited Liability Corporations).
-Lowers the residential assessment rate to 7.0% from 7.2% and freezes it there.
-Lowers nonresidential assessment rate to 24% from 20% and freezes it there.
. . . all to increase funding for public schools.
Following is the complete text of the Board's resolution:
WHEREAS, the Cañon City School District Board of Education is future focused and believes every child in its care should have the opportunity to develop critical traits and skills needed to achieve success in an uncertain future: and
WHEREAS, access to quality public education provides children with such opportunities, thereby developing a competitive workforce to drive vibrant economic activity for decades to come; and
WHEREAS, evidence shows Colorado is experiencing a teacher shortage crisis, with many educators in rural areas earning too little salary to meet cost of living needs; and
WHEREAS, data shows Colorado's investment in education has lagged behind that of the rest of the nation, ranking it 48th in personal income invested in education; and
WHEREAS, data shows state education funding has yet to recover from the Great Recession despite Colorado’s rank as the fastest growing economy in the United States, with Colorado schools underfunded by $672.4 million in the 2018-19 school year alone as evidenced through Colorado’s legislatively imposed Budget Stabilization Factor; and
WHEREAS, this chronic underfunding of the Cañon School District has amounted to over $30 million since 2009, funds could have been used to hire desperately needed staff, fairly compensate remaining employees, update learning materials, invest in educational technology, and adequately maintain facilities; and
WHEREAS, this chronic underfunding has directly impacted the District’s ability to provide high-quality educational opportunities for all of its students; and
WHEREAS, during this same period of chronic underfunding Cañon City School District special education expenses have increased by $1.3 million per year while funding to provide special education services has only increased by $250,000 per year, thereby having an adverse impact on all remaining education programs; and
WHEREAS, the passage of Amendment 73 would increase Colorado’s total investment in public education by $1.6 billion annually, with $6 million extra coming to the Cañon City School District each school year, by stabilizing property tax collections and creating a graduated income tax system, and
WHEREAS, the passage of Amendment 73 would give the Cañon City School District Board of Education local authority to make decisions on how to best invest in programs and services the community values most; and
WHEREAS, if Amendment 73 passes, the Cañon City School Board will fully commit to investing new financial resources, outside of those passed on to preschool and charter programs, toward the following priorities on an estimated basis:
• 33% of new dollars will be invested to increase compensation and benefits for all employees in order to continue attracting and retaining the highest quality people available to work with our children.
• 25% of new dollars will be invested to increase the number of highly qualified staff in areas such as classroom instruction (to decrease student to teacher ratios), special education, instructional support, counseling, technology support, instructional coaching, health services, and maintenance and upkeep of facilities.
• 25% of new dollars will be allocated to general and capital reserve funds to create strong balances to allow the district to address future personnel needs, facility improvement projects, and provide grant matches to more greatly leverage local dollars.
• 6% of new dollars will be invested in safety and security upgrades to include replacing outdated surveillance equipment, purchasing technology-based security platforms, placing security guards in every school, and expanding our team of School Resource Officers.
• 4% of new dollars will be invested in continuous technology equipment and broadband service upgrades to support instructional technology.
• 4% of new dollars will be invested to continually upgrade instructional materials.
• 2% of new dollars will be applied to eliminating all fees currently required of students and parents for participating in regular education programs and extracurricular activities, as well as to eliminate fees currently charged to local organizations and agencies for the use of school facilities, allowing them to pass savings on to their program participants.
• 1% of new dollars will be invested in sustaining our K-8 free breakfast program and expanding it to the high school level.
; and
WHEREAS, the Cañon City School District Board of Education declares Amendment 73 to be a matter of official concern;
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Cañon City Schools Board of Education officially declares its support for Amendment 73 for significantly increased funding for public education in the State of Colorado; and
The Board authorizes the mobilization of District resources to distribute a factual summary to Cañon City School District residents regarding Amendment 73, in accordance with the Fair Campaign Practices Act, C.R.S. 1-45-117.
ADOPTED AND APPROVED THIS 10th day of September 2018.
Larry Oddo, President, Lloyd Harwood, Vice President, Mary Kay Evans, Secretary, and Shad Johnson, Treasurer
Thanks for listening once again!
George S. Welsh
