Focus on the Fabulous
We had a great first week of school! It’s so amazing to have students back on campus where they belong! We are excited to welcome some of our newest Viking members to our Center family. We are also thankful to welcome back our veteran staff that we have been blessed to have on our team over the years! We have a great mix of new energy and experienced wisdom. Together we will make up the best educational team around!
Kade Harrop is a new teacher for the district, but not a new face, as he completed his student teaching in our district last year. He did such a fantastic job, we wanted to keep him in our district, so he is now our new elementary PE teacher. Kade shares that his three strongest assets as an educator are the solid, trusting relationships he builds with students. He is able to do this through his strong listening skills and his ability to engage ALL students. He is interested in building the Hershey Athletics program in our district and attending professional development related to that. He is a great addition to our team. We are fortunate to have both Kade, and his wife Mckinsey, as part of our Haskin team!
Juliann Quintana is our new 2nd-grade teacher. She has three years of experience teaching at the elementary level. She has served as a behavior interventionist, a paraprofessional, a Save the Children teacher, and a first-grade teacher. She is great at organization and classroom management. You can already tell she is organized when you walk into her classroom. It’s very welcoming! Juliann is married to Raul and has two little boys, James is her oldest and Michael is her youngest. We are happy to have Mrs. Quintana here in Center!
Our next staff member needs no introduction as JoAnn Lopez has been a part of the Center family for 21 years! She’s been in education for 24 years and some of her past work experience includes migrant education and substitute teaching. JoAnn currently serves as our K-5 CLD teacher. She has done a great job working with our English learners and providing them with the targeted support they need for language development. JoAnn is married with four beautiful daughters, Arazelíz (17), Samantha (18), Mackayla (19 almost 20 next month), and Alyscia (23). Her favorite thing about her job is building relationships with students, staff, and the community. Her strongest asset is her voice. Through her voice, she is able to communicate, educate, and instruct!
Yesterday I sent out data updates for each of our buildings, Haskin, Skoglund, and CHS. Overall, I was pleased with the growth that was accomplished. Haskin 4th-grade students did a great job in ELA and 5th-grade students showed high achievement scores in math! Haskin’s ELA growth scores were the highest they had been in at least the last four years, including 2019, which was before the pandemic. Math growth at the elementary is way up. Haskin’s overall MGP is 56% which is higher than the state @ 51%. ALL the disaggregated groups demonstrated growth overall in ELA and math. The solid instruction, curriculum alignment, use of research-based resources and methods, and ongoing progress monitoring are having a positive impact on our students.
Skoglund middle school students did really well at the 7th-grade level, in both math and ELA. Sixth and seventh graders’ are approaching expectations in academic achievement in ELA and 7th graders are approaching expectations in math. HS students showed solid growth in 9th and 10th-grade math! 9th graders have a Median Growth Percentile (MGP) of 52, which exceeds the state average of 48! 10th-grade students are approaching academic achievement expectations in ELA. All of our ELD students are showing positive movement. It’s really impressive to see that kids are continuing to grow and learn in spite of the challenging times we’ve faced in the last few years. Thank you all for your commitment to our kids and excellence! Center students are benefiting from all of your hard work and our belief that ALL kids can achieve at high levels and be successful in life!
Our staff has worked hard to make the building welcoming and aesthetically pleasing! Check out all the great bulletin boards around the building. The elementary is doing a birthday board! This is a great way to connect and establish a sense of belonging for our staff.. and we'll all love checking out the photos!
Rewind
There was a lot going on last week. Tuesday evening I attended the Rural and Statewide Networks for Philanthropy Colorado Dinner with Katrina Ruggles. Because of all the hard work Katrina and her team have done to get additional support in place for our district, both during the day and for after-school programming, Center’s name and efforts are a part of the conversation surrounding funding. The following day the Funders Learning Network did a site visit of the community. They gathered at the CYVC for presentations and networking. Wednesday evening I attended the SAC Board meeting at BOCES. Friday, I traveled to Denver to take part in the New Superintendent and BOCES Executive Director CDE Orientation panel.
Fall sports are around the corner and our facilities team is making preparations, getting the football field ready. In order to have Friday night lights, we needed to do some work on our lights. Panta and Rodney braved the heights to work on the lights.
The Recruitment and Retention team had its first meeting on Monday. This team focuses on Improvement Strategy #4 from our District Action Plan. CCSD is committed to attracting and retaining the best and brightest to teach our students. Our goal is to recruit, train, and retain highly qualified teachers. Effective educators are the single most important school-based factor determining student success!
We have a great partnership with the town of Center and we are grateful for the support they provide to us. Interim Chief A. Fresquez, Officer AJ Fresquez, Officer Cristian Guaderrama, Officer Adam Fresquez, and Officer Kendra Adolph have been on campus to assist in our security efforts and make sure the kids and staff are safe. They are also helping to make sure we have safe drivers around the buildings before and after school.
The new drop-off and pick-up procedures are going fairly well. All students that are dropped off go through the elementary loop. HS student parking and bus pick-up/drop-off is in front of the cafeteria. The town was very responsive and provided the district with cones to help with the procedures and routing of traffic.
Fast Forward
Wednesday, August 24- Rural Alliance Meeting, District Leadership Team Meeting, Weekly Superintendent PLC
Thursday, August 25th- Check-in Mentor Meetings, Safety Meeting, ASU Presidential Search Committee Meeting
Friday, August 26th- ½ PLC, ½ work day
Upcoming dates to get on calendars
Monday, September 5th- No School- Labor Day
Friday, September 9th- No students- Staff Professional Development
Wednesday, September 28th- Open House- 4:30- 6:00 pm
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