March 12, 2023
Focus on the Fabulous
District Nurse Wendy Murillo has worked hard over the last year to get a Certified Nursing Assistant class approved and set up for Center students. Thanks to those efforts our students are getting the opportunity to learn CNA skills and work on possible certification and post-secondary options. Quality healthcare has never been more crucial than it is today. CNAs are a crucial part of the team at any hospital, nursing home, or residential care facility. Our students are getting the opportunity to be trained to use AEDs, administer CPR, and first aid. CNAs are responsible for a wide range of daily tasks concerning patient care. We are fortunate to have the strong nursing team that we do in Center. Thanks to Wendy and Randi’s’ expertise we are able to offer this programming for our students! One of our core beliefs focuses on making sure Center students leave high school with the skills and knowledge that ensure that they can perform at high levels and be successful in life. We want our graduates to demonstrate the knowledge and competencies needed to succeed in postsecondary settings and to advance in career pathways as lifelong learners and contributing citizens.
Our students have multiple opportunities to develop postsecondary skills. This is an area of focus in our District Action Plan. High school students work on these skills in Senior Seminar, through their Capstone Projects, and in the variety of classes that we are able to offer- from Mrs. Alfson’s Culinary Arts class to Mr. Jones's construction and mechanics courses, to Mrs. Maldonado’s technology classes. Our students have a variety of options to choose from to explore, learn, and help make decisions about the next steps in life. CHS students participated in the ASU Career Fair and even got to meet up with some Center Viking alum!
I had the chance to get into a few classrooms last week. This always does my heart good. Starting out as a middle school special educator, working with kids has always been the reason that I do what I do. In my current role, I don’t have the chance to do this as frequently as I’d like to, but when I do get the opportunity, I feel rejuvenated and rededicated to the important work that we get to do in education.
Brain breaks in Mrs. Stillwagon’s class.
Hands-on fraction activity in Miss Slane’s class. Photo cred Mrs. Villagomez.
Rewind
Last week we held Parent Teacher Conferences. It was great to see all of the families at school. Thanks to our awesome team for going the extra mile to connect with parents and families. Secondary staff did home visits on Wednesday night, while elementary staff scheduled visits with families. I heard from several elementary teachers that they were able to meet with all of their families. It’s so important to develop and maintain collaborative relationships with families. We are able to accomplish so much more when we are all working together to do what’s best for our students.
The district has been working on a state pupil count audit for the years 2017- 2022. This has been an involved, cumbersome process that has required us to go back and find documentation and records on students that attended the district over five years ago. A huge thanks and recognition to Brenda Montoya, Debra Lujan, Adele Alfson, Janet Sanchez, Melissa Rendon, Joy Werner, Agnes Salazar, Dianna Valenzuela, and Rosa Ramos for helping with this process. There’s a lot of work that goes on behind the scenes and these ladies have worked hard, done the work, and helped to come up with the necessary documentation needed.
Board President Lyn Bogle sponsored a crane for our district. Mrs. Jimenez will be working with her students to design and decorate the bird to represent Center Schools in the annual Crane Festival in Monte Vista. This is the before picture. We are looking forward to the after. Thanks to Mr. Bogle for the sponsorship for our district!
I’ve had the chance to meet with the elementary and middle school PDSA teams that were put together at our Mt. Princeton retreat. The teams have created some specific plans related to the boulder work that was established at the South Fork retreat. The PDSA teams have designed and are implementing some targeted actions in each of the buildings that are aligned to supporting the overall boulder work and district improvement plans. The PDSA model stands for Plan- Do- Study- Act. These plans are iterative mini-experiments during which educators articulate improvement changes, carry out the change, study the results, and then decide what to do next.
The purpose of PDSA cycles is to learn as quickly as possible whether and how an intervention works in a particular setting and to make adjustments accordingly to increase the chances of delivering and sustaining the desired improvement or to stop the intervention and try something else. I’m excited about the plans that the teams have put together and looking forward to seeing how things work out.
It was fun to see Gabe Swanson and his band performing this past weekend! They were rocking out and having a good old time! We have some impressive talent on our team!
Fast Forward
We are heading into the last week of the third quarter. We’ll have Spring Break in a week and then one more week in March, once we return. April will be focused on our state assessments. We need to stay focused, make the most out of the time we have with our students, and ensure that we are providing the best instruction and learning environments for our students. Here’s to a great week!
Upcoming dates to get on calendars
Monday, March 13th – MLT, Meeting with CEI, Calendar Committee, SMS and CHS PDSA Meeting
Tuesday, March 14th – Opportunity Coalition, Superintendent Advisory Council, District Accountability, Regular Board Meeting
Wednesday, March 15th- Tech Device Inspection, Safety Meeting, Admin. Team Meeting, Weekly Superintendent Meeting, District Leadership Team, CHS Baseball vs. Las Animas
Thursday, March 16th- End of 3rd quarter, Recruitment and Retention Meeting, Mesa State Teacher Job Fair
Friday, March 17th- Adams State Presidential Search Committee Meeting, CHS Baseball vs. Manzanola
Monday, March 20th- 24th- Spring Break
Wednesday, March 22nd- GCU, ASU Teacher Education Program Meetings
Friday, March 24th- Teacher Job Fair- Northern Arizona University