Focus on the Fabulous
CCSD EL Team-- Ashley Lane, JoAnn Lopez, Anna Bishop and Garret Myer
Our EL team has been working hard conducting ACCESS testing on all of our EL students in grades K-12 since the beginning of the new year. The ACCESS test is designed to assess comprehension and communication in English for our English Language Learners. It tests the progress of our students, who have a home language other than English, in their language development. Our team coordinated a schedule that honored instructional time and kept disruptions to a minimum. This is a long month of testing and their efforts are appreciated. There were many positive comments from colleagues and administration about how successful testing was this year. This is not an easy task, and it took a lot of planning and hard work to make it go as smoothly as it did.
Throughout the year, our EL teams works hard to help all students excel in school, without a language barrier getting in the way. Assessing our students helps us to get a better understanding of where our students need support and what specific skills need more development. The Access test provides helpful information that will help us to plan appropriate instruction based on students’ needs. The instructional approach used is the co-teaching model as it supports our EL students in language development and content knowledge comprehension. This instructional process allows our EL team to collaborate with our core teachers in lesson planning and designing instruction that is tailored to both the linguistic and academic need of our students.
Fabulous Field Trip
This past week, we had six Center students attend the 2020 National Mentoring Summit in Washington, DC. The summit is a national convening of youth mentoring professionals,researchers, mentor affiliates, philanthropic investors, and government and civic leaders aimed at collectively strengthening and expanding quality mentoring relationships for young people across the country. Students attended a variety of workshops related to this year’s theme, “Building Relationships, Advancing the Movement.” This was an amazing opportunity for our kids. The students had the chance to take in the sites in DC, visit the Holocaust Museum on the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, and spend some time on Capitol Hill meeting with US Senator Cory Gardner and Representative Scott Tipton.
Rewind
Focus on Family-School Partnership
Wednesday evening, Center families had the chance to listen to guest speaker, Fabian Ramirez, who is recognized as the top bullying speaker in the nation. His message focused on working together as a school community with families and staff, being aware of what is going on in our children’s lives, and understanding that bullying is a transfer of hurts. He provided strategies to better communicate, listen, and support our children. He also discussed social emotional learning techniques to help students build positive relationships. Center School District works hard to establish an inclusive learning environment that is supportive of all students. CCSD is also actively involved in establishing and maintaining strong family, community partnerships. This parent night was one example of those efforts.
(L )Mr. Murillo welcomes families for the parent night. Below- Guest speaker Fabian Ramirez shares his message.
Parent Teacher Conferences
Haskin Elementary teachers held Parent Teacher Conferences on January 29th and 30th. This is an important time for parents to have some one on one conversations with teachers regarding their child’s progress in school. This scheduled time is a great chance for teachers to share academic progress and growth with parents, learn from parents and family members so that we are informed about strengths, needs and behaviors, ask questions, and discuss any issues that may be interfering with learning. Skoglund Middle School and Center High School will have Parent Teacher Conferences this coming week, on February 5th , and Home Visits on February 12th.
Focus on our Fabulous Students
Wednesday, January 29th, we had our monthly ICAP day for students. This time is focused on providing learning opportunities for students to ensure that they are prepared for post-secondary options, whether it be college, the work place, or the military. Mrs. Bishop’s Advisory class won the competition and Mason Armenta-Merritt won the 2020 Skoglund Middle School Spelling Bee. The students celebrated the big win with a pizza party! The top nine finalists for the spelling bee included Teresita Chavez, Matthew Johns, Jasmine Larimore, Julian Maldonado, Devannie Nunez, Nick Palma, Alejandro Puentes, and Elijah Swanson. These students will be competing next week at the SLV Spelling Bee. Way to go Vikings!
Spreading Sunshine
Our awesome Sunshine Committee continues to spread sunshine throughout the district. Last week, they provided fun treats for the staff on their sunshine cart!
Focus on Athletics
It was a busy weekend for our Center Vikings. Our wrestling team hosted two tournaments over the weekend, the Courtney Lake Dual was held on Friday, and the Valley Classic took place all day on Saturday. We had three Viking wrestlers competing, Pablo Valencia, Eleazar Aguilar, and Fabian Chavez. We had over 28 teams competing. Thanks to everyone who pitched in to make the tournaments successful. Hosting these tournaments is quite a production and takes a lot of hard work. Thanks to Mark Meyer, Joe Garcia, John Noriega, Brian Ullery, Rodney Mondragon, Tito Chavez, Sarah White, Kevin Jones, Rachael Barraza, Dennis Schoenfelder, Cindy Rigsbee, Susan Banning, Kindra Rounds, Julio Paez, Teddy Garcia, Ascencion Najera, Panta Villagomez, Ramos Segura, Walter Martinez, Chris Segura, Randy Martinez, Rich Brandt, Leroy Torrez, and everybody else that worked tirelessly throughout the weekend to pull it all off. We had a number of compliments from community members and visiting teams.
Eleazar Aguilar prepares to compete, while our Viking cheerleaders root him on!
The Kiwanis held their annual Pancake Breakfast Saturday morning, to kick off the festivities.
Our basketball teams also competed in Sierra Grande Friday night and in South Park on Saturday. The boys came up with a strong win Friday against the Panthers. Both the boys and girls teams celebrated wins in South Park on Saturday!
Former standout student athlete Travis Phillips was inducted into the Viking Athletic Association Hall of Fame during the Valley Classic.
Fast Forward
Center Vikings will be celebrating Winter Fest the week of February 4th- 8th. Tuesday will be Hawaiian Day and our basketball teams will have a home game against Hoehne. Parent Teacher conferences for the secondary will be on Wednesday, February 5th and Home Visits will be on Thursday, February 6th. We will have our Winter Sports Pep Assembly Thursday afternoon, to get our basketball teams prepared for their big games in Sargent that evening. Our wrestling team will be heading to Crowley County to compete on Saturday.