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From the Board, October 11, 2024- Scott Bolitho

From the Board, October 11, 2024- Scott Bolitho

I am honored to write this week’s Board update. Since being seated on the Garfield Re-2 School Board just a few weeks ago, I have learned one thing for certain—I have a lot to learn. My Boardmates have been helpful and supportive, and I am grateful for their warm welcome.

The October 9 School Board meeting was held in one of the most spectacular venues the Garfield Re-2 School District has—the Coal Ridge High School library. The panoramic views of the valley make it a great place to hold a meeting. The Nutrition Service Director, Mary McPhee,  and her staff showed off their culinary skills with a fantastic Halloween-themed spread, and our meeting contained just as much great information.

Dr. Jackie Davis, Principal at Coal Ridge High School, and her team provided a very comprehensive discussion of the data at CRHS. Coal Ridge is in its 20th year of existence, opening in 2005. The data discussion included an explanation of the Titan’s academic achievement data, the extensive support that they provide for students, and a dive into their School Performance Framework (SPF). With an overall score of 66.8, Coal Ridge is the highest-scoring high school in the valley from Eagle, Roaring Fork, Re-2, District 16, and Mesa Valley School Districts. Great work Titans!

The Board heard a presentation from Communication Director Theresa Hamilton about the revised Family and Community Partnership goals in the strategic plan. This year, schools are focusing on presenting school accountability data to their families, even if it means using a PTA or Booster club to share their great information and gather feedback. Our school leaders are learning more about high-impact family partnership strategies and beginning to integrate them into their existing initiatives. Finally, there is a deeper data dive into family partnerships within their schools.

Curriculum Directors Simone Richardson and Jacob Pingel presented their revised goals for Academic Achievement and explained how they are slightly modifying the targets to reflect accurate Garfield Re-2 School District data. The goal continues to be the same - that Garfield Re-2 students will perform at or above the state average on assessments of English Language Arts (ELA) and Math proficiency by the 25-26 school year. They believe that the great Re-2 teachers and staff, the systems and resources they have put in place, and the hard work of our students will close the gap between the District and the State in a short period of time.

The District will adopt a two-way communication platform shortly to enhance family and teacher/coach/school communication. Director Hamilton, Technology Director Roger Gose, and Human Resources Director Devon Spaulding are leading a team of staff members evaluating a variety of platforms. They will seek feedback from District Accountability and school secretaries about specific parts of the platforms and hope to have a recommendation to the School Board soon. We are looking forward to this.

The last part of the meeting is always policies. We finalized policy ECAC that talks about vandalism, ADC about tobacco use in schools, and JICH about drug and alcohol involvement by students. We were even able to repeal a couple as part of the revisions. These are now posted online so check them out on the district website. We also review policies IKF and IKF-E about graduation requirements and IKFB about graduation exercises and JICA about student dress code. The last two are really just about adding language that outlines the graduation adornments that students are allowed to wear. These policies can be found in the packets online on the Diligent site.

Finally, I want to take a moment and thank all of the people who spoke at public comment and specifically Garfield Re-2 staff member Lisa Zeman. Lisa shared the moving, heartfelt story about her late husband, Tim. Tim was a Garfield Re-2 facilities team member. One of the things that she shared was how much the Garfield Re-2 School District means to her family. She shared that the support she felt during her family's most desperate times was a source of strength. Thank you, Lisa, for sharing your story with the Board and the community.