August 13, 2023
Focus on the Fabulous
It’s time to officially kick off the 2023-2024 school year! We are excited to welcome back students on Monday. As always, we will be rolling out the red carpet to celebrate the stars of the show… our students!
We are ready to launch! We are fired up about the incredible team that has been put together and the fact that we are fully staffed! There’s a great combination of veteran staff and new faces in the district.
We have a new administrative team at the elementary. Krystal Bouet has moved into the Haskin principal position and JoAnn Lopez is our new assistant principal. They have already hit the ground running. They are well-versed to lead the elementary with their years of experience in the district and their commitment to our students and staff.
Last week was full of activities, including new teacher orientation, all staff welcome back, online registration, CHAMP, Back to Books, 6th and 9th-grade orientations, and Open House! Thanks to everyone who pitched in to help. Some of the highlights include a record amount of families during registration and at our Open House, over 50 free physicals provided for our students, vision and dental screenings, over 200 backpacks handed out, fun orientation activities, student trips, and great community support!
A special thanks to Wendy Murillo for making arrangements for CHAMP, Adele Alfson for getting the outside organizations lined up to participate in CHAMP and Open House, Dalia Molina, and Lucia Miranda for getting all the amazing prizes for the drawing, our amazing office staff- Brenda Montoya, Agnes Salazar, Debra Lujan, and Rosa Ramos for taking on the online registration process and getting so many of our families registered, the CYPD team for organizing orientations and trips for our 6th and 9th graders, and all staff that kicked in to help make all of the events successful.
A shout out to the amazing team at the Methodist church that always welcomes our staff back with a delicious luncheon, school supplies, and a generous donation! We appreciate the school-community partnership and it’s something our staff looks forward to every year!
We had the opportunity to do some team building during our welcome back, establishing the shared ownership approach for the year! The teams worked together to articulate core beliefs, identify district areas of focus, get to know each other, and get to know the district!
Rewind
It has been a busy summer and an incredibly action-packed last couple of weeks. In July, eight staff attended the Innovative School Summit in Vegas. We had a great time and we were able to take advantage of four conferences in one that focused on discipline, innovative instruction, social-emotional support, and effective strategies for at-risk students. This conference reinforced for our team the work that we were already doing in the district and also gave us some direction to get structures in place to start the new school year.
At the end of July, our administrative team attended the annual CASE conference in Breckenridge. This conference is a great time to regroup, refresh, and get updated on what is going on at the state level to prepare us for another year in education. We took the opportunity to meet administratively, with building and district leaders, to work out logistics and make plans for the start of the year.
The following week, thirty staff headed to Buena Vista for our 2nd annual beginning-of-the-year retreat. This time was focused on continuing the work on our Graduate Profile and zeroing in on the boulders that were established at the retreat the year before.
When we returned from the retreat we jumped right into our two optional PD days. Thanks to Kevin Hagan, Ashley Lane, Lindsay Stillwagon, Julianne Quintana, Anna Bishop, and all the mentors for contributing to the professional development. We had approximately 20 new and veteran staff that participated in the PD that focused on frontloading of expectations and the Center Way. A big shout out to our tech team that made sure that devices were ready for new staff as soon as they walked through the doors.
Fast Forward
A few dates to keep in mind for the first week of school! I hope it's the best one yet!
Calendar Dates
Monday, August 14th- First day of School, Welcome Back Students, Admin. Zearn training
Wednesday, August 16th- Rural Superintendents Advocacy Meeting, Superintendents PLC
Saturday, August 19th- Town of Center End of Summer Party- Parade @ 10:00 am
Friday, August 25th- ½ PLC, ½ workday- no students