EVERYONE must be committed to excellence in ALL they do EVERY day.
As we all had a chance to rest and relax and be with family over the Thanksgiving break, I could not help but think about the outstanding things we are doing in the Center School District. If you are not in our building on a regular basis, I personally invite you to come see the great things that our school is doing on a daily basis. Our school is loaded with faculty and staff that are doing wonderful things for our students in Center. I am not just saying this because I am part of the staff here at Center. The reason why I say this is I have been in over two dozen schools over the last six years. Being in other districts makes me reflect on how we are going about our business on a regular basis. We are very fortunate in Center to have great leadership from our superintendent George Welsh. Let’s be honest, he helps attract and maintain some of the best teachers in the valley and state of Colorado. Our school board continues to support our staff members as they make decisions that are best for kids. Our teams of teachers that are surrounding our students are working their tails off for our kids in Center schools. Our district has been blessed with many fabulous employees that surround us on a daily basis. Our para professionals, custodians, cooks, and our other support staff are the best around! And most important is our students! We have fantastic students here in Center. I have had many compliments in the past few weeks from outsiders about how our kids are respectful and well behaved and how they have a willingness to learn. As a district, we are not perfect and we will continue to improve. If you are a parent, I hope you respect and honor the great things that are going on in this district as I compare them to many schools around the state. I hope you appreciate and thank all the folks that are working hard with your children on a daily basis. I personally thank all the employees, students and parents that are involved into Center School District as we continue to follow our core beliefs that will help our students into the 21st-century.
As we all had a chance to rest and relax and be with family over the Thanksgiving break, I could not help but think about the outstanding things we are doing in the Center School District. If you are not in our building on a regular basis, I personally invite you to come see the great things that our school is doing on a daily basis. Our school is loaded with faculty and staff that are doing wonderful things for our students in Center. I am not just saying this because I am part of the staff here at Center. The reason why I say this is I have been in over two dozen schools over the last six years. Being in other districts makes me reflect on how we are going about our business on a regular basis. We are very fortunate in Center to have great leadership from our superintendent George Welsh. Let’s be honest, he helps attract and maintain some of the best teachers in the valley and state of Colorado. Our school board continues to support our staff members as they make decisions that are best for kids. Our teams of teachers that are surrounding our students are working their tails off for our kids in Center schools. Our district has been blessed with many fabulous employees that surround us on a daily basis. Our para professionals, custodians, cooks, and our other support staff are the best around! And most important is our students! We have fantastic students here in Center. I have had many compliments in the past few weeks from outsiders about how our kids are respectful and well behaved and how they have a willingness to learn. As a district, we are not perfect and we will continue to improve. If you are a parent, I hope you respect and honor the great things that are going on in this district as I compare them to many schools around the state. I hope you appreciate and thank all the folks that are working hard with your children on a daily basis. I personally thank all the employees, students and parents that are involved into Center School District as we continue to follow our core beliefs that will help our students into the 21st-century.
I could not go on without thanking the wonderful folks that put on our career fair last Wednesday in our Center gymnasium. This event was pulled off with a lot of hard work. We had many folks throughout the San Luis Valley that volunteered to come and help educate our students for a potential career. On Wednesday November 20th Katrina Ruggles planned and prepared our ICAP (individual career and academic plan) day. She put Arabia Morgan in charge of getting local volunteers to share their career expertise with our students. Arabia was on the phone and contacted multiple businesses, career leaders and volunteers throughout the San Luis Valley. She was able to secure many professional folks to come up to Center to donate their time for our students. The career fair had multiple booths full of volunteers throughout the San Luis Valley. These professionals offered a variety of information for our students and their future careers. Our students would go from booth to booth and ask questions about what it would take to be in this career. This career fair was in conjunction of our ICAP day. ICAP days are held in conjunction with our PLC (professional learning communities) days that we have on a monthly basis. During the day our students were working in career cluster groups that focused on their future. In these cluster groups, students were focusing on their future career plans. The students get to choose their future career as they are focusing on what it would take to be successful in the career of their choice. The event was a huge success, as I had the chance to talk to many of the local business volunteers. They were really impressed with the event as they stated how they were pleased with our fair and students’ willingness to listen and learn. I know that Arabia and Katrina did not pull this event off alone. Thanks to all the NCC volunteers that helped set up the event. And a huge thanks to all of those businesses that took time out of their day to volunteer for the fair.
This past week-
Tuesday – I was able to look at some lesson plans for review. We implemented the Pearson High School pilot testing for social studies in Mr. Poole’s room. I was able to be involved in instructional walks most of the day.
Wednesday –I attended the early morning ICAP review at 7:00. We had ICAP day in the morning and Mrs. Zimmerman and I presented during the PLC. Our afternoon was spent on cross curricular instruction, academic vocabulary, data review and lesson planning.
Thursday – I was able to get into some classrooms, and conduct regular business. I had a few RTI meetings during the day to help students. I filled our CHSAA eligibility for the second semester.
Friday – I covered a class in the morning, also I was able to see a few teachers in their classes and I had a few RTI meetings with parents.
The week ahead-
Monday- I will be looking at lesson plans. I will be preparing for our winter NWEA testing by grouping students. I have a couple of meetings scheduled and I plan on being in classrooms for the rest of the day.
Tuesday-We will be having all high school students take NWEA tests. The students will be in their ICAP groups. The students will be testing from 8:00 until 12:00. In the afternoon the students will be attending their respective classes. If the testing is going as planned, I will be traveling to Sargent for our monthly Principal PLC. We will be observing many teachers in the morning.
Wednesday- will be day 2 of NWEA testing. We have our annual AD meeting in Alamosa. I hope to be back on campus to see some instruction in the afternoon. Wednesday evening I will be traveling to Denver for a CHSAA football committee meeting.
Thursday- I will be in Denver for a football committee meeting for alignment. We have our first round tournament games in Sangre.
Friday-I will be on campus as much as possible to conduct walk throughs. As I will be in Sangre to watch our athletes compete in the Thunderbird shootout.
Saturday- I will be covering basketball or wrestling.
Have a safe and restful vacation!
Mr. Jones
Tuesday – I was able to look at some lesson plans for review. We implemented the Pearson High School pilot testing for social studies in Mr. Poole’s room. I was able to be involved in instructional walks most of the day.
Wednesday –I attended the early morning ICAP review at 7:00. We had ICAP day in the morning and Mrs. Zimmerman and I presented during the PLC. Our afternoon was spent on cross curricular instruction, academic vocabulary, data review and lesson planning.
Thursday – I was able to get into some classrooms, and conduct regular business. I had a few RTI meetings during the day to help students. I filled our CHSAA eligibility for the second semester.
Friday – I covered a class in the morning, also I was able to see a few teachers in their classes and I had a few RTI meetings with parents.
The week ahead-
Monday- I will be looking at lesson plans. I will be preparing for our winter NWEA testing by grouping students. I have a couple of meetings scheduled and I plan on being in classrooms for the rest of the day.
Tuesday-We will be having all high school students take NWEA tests. The students will be in their ICAP groups. The students will be testing from 8:00 until 12:00. In the afternoon the students will be attending their respective classes. If the testing is going as planned, I will be traveling to Sargent for our monthly Principal PLC. We will be observing many teachers in the morning.
Wednesday- will be day 2 of NWEA testing. We have our annual AD meeting in Alamosa. I hope to be back on campus to see some instruction in the afternoon. Wednesday evening I will be traveling to Denver for a CHSAA football committee meeting.
Thursday- I will be in Denver for a football committee meeting for alignment. We have our first round tournament games in Sangre.
Friday-I will be on campus as much as possible to conduct walk throughs. As I will be in Sangre to watch our athletes compete in the Thunderbird shootout.
Saturday- I will be covering basketball or wrestling.
Have a safe and restful vacation!
Mr. Jones