December 5, 2022
Focus on the Fabulous
Winter sports competitions are getting started and our Center athletes are beginning this season with a lot to celebrate. Our varsity basketball teams competed at the annual Sangre Shoot Out. Our boys’ team won the Consolation Championship and our Lady Vikings beat Sargent in OT to take 3rd place! Way to ball Vikings! We are proud of all of you!
Meanwhile, our wrestlers were on the road, competing with some pretty big districts at the Broomfield duals. After two rounds, Center was in first place, beating much bigger districts. By the end of the competition, Center finished in 3rd place, with 3 champions- Jordan Duran, Aaron Valadez, and Jesus Valadez. This is a great start to their season!
Tim Sanchez shared that his daughter Willa competed in her first swim meet last week in La Junta and made two state cuts- one in the 100 M breaststroke and the other in the 200 M medley. Center doesn’t have a swimming team, but we are happy that she is getting this opportunity and representing Center in her competitions. Congratulations Willa!
Our 8th-grade boys' basketball team remains undefeated!
Kristin Enquist has organized a Girls on the Run team for our students. This is a fun, evidence-based program that inspires girl empowerment by building confidence, kindness, and decision-making skills. In November our girls competed in a race in Colorado Springs and Center’s very own Avril Villagomez ran a 31.30 5K and earned 1st place in the competition! There were over 200 girls competing!
Congratulations to all of our athletes on a weekend full of successes. Rewind
The 82nd Annual Colorado Association of School Boards Convention was held in Colorado Springs last week. The Center school district was well represented as we had school board members and high school students attend the event. The theme this year was Portraits of Success and why our stories matter.
We heard several great keynote speakers, attended breakout sessions related to the district work we are doing, networked with other boards across the state, and had time to do some of our own team bonding. Salma Cendejas, our Board secretary attended sessions focused on board governance and policy work. She and I will be continuing that policy work this coming week to make sure all of our policies are up to date and aligned with Center systems and guidelines. This is ongoing work and the Board has spent time reviewing and updating necessary policies each year. Kim Duran is our current legislative delegate and she and I attended the annual business meeting.
Hanna Hays takes a group of our students each year so that they can have this amazing leadership opportunity. She was impressed with our students and said they jumped right in and got involved in the discussions and collaborations that took place.
The five students that attended were Willa Seesz-Sanchez, Selah Harrington, Arazeliz Garcia, Jose Valadez, and Julian Maldonado. The Board took the students out to a fun dinner on Tuesday night before they jumped into the student strands that took place on Friday and Saturday. The students will be presenting to the Board about their experiences at our December BOE meeting.
I had the chance to meet with each building’s Boulder work team. Each building is focused on three priority areas that are identified as boulders. This work is embedded into the District Action Plan and is being implemented through BLTs, MLT, and building-level efforts. The teams reported on the work that was happening in each building. The Boulder teams have quarterly update meetings to discuss progress being made and discuss the next steps. I have been working with the Colorado Education Initiative on future plans. We are making plans for another retreat this winter to continue the work that has been started and further the plans.
The Recruitment and Retention team met early in the week last week to continue preparations for the annual Christmas Party.
Fast Forward
Upcoming dates
Week of Dec. 5th- 8th- NWEA and DIBELs Benchmark Testing
Wednesday, Dec. 7th- Rural Alliance Advocacy Meeting, Weekly Superintendent PLC
Thursday, Dec. 8th- MLD Team Meeting, Discipline Team Meeting, HS Knowledge Bowl @ ASU, HS B-Ball @ Lake County
Friday, Dec. 9th- HS B-Ball VAA C/JV Tournament
Saturday, Dec. 10th- HS Wrestling @ Limon, HS B-ball VAA Tournament
Monday, Dec. 12th- Dental Screenings, NWEA and DIBELS Benchmark Testing Continues, MLT
Tuesday, Dec. 13th- Superintendents’ Advisory Council, District Accountability Meeting, Regular BOE Meeting
Dec. 19th- 21st- Final Exams
Dec. 22nd- All Staff Potluck Breakfast, Secret Santa Gift Exchange, and Annual Staff Christmas Party @ Carther’s Roadhouse- 1:00- 5:00 PM