Welcome to 2010! We are halfway through the school year, and I wish to take a moment to thank the Adams 14 community for the hard work and dedication they have shown this year and to provide a mid-year report on our progress in meeting the goals of our strategic plan. When we launched our strategic plan this year, we committed to measuring our progress each month and making adjustments periodically to positively affect all parts of our system. As I reviewed District performance data with senior staff this week, I was pleased to note that we are making positive gains across the board, but especially in the key strategic area of delivering consistent high quality instruction.

We haven’t quite reached our goals in delivery of instruction or student engagement that we measure weekly through the Tuesday walk throughs, but we are getting closer. The improvements we have seen to this point are striking, and I commend the teachers for their considerable effort and commitment in this process. We know that the key to improvement and success is not just monitoring, but also giving practical and relevant feedback. We are working hard to ensure that the feedback we provide is consistent and targeted to improve daily practice. I appreciate all the hard work that our schools are doing to improve student learning.

As a District, we understand that focusing on literacy and language in the early years will pay off for our students in the long run. As principals and walk through teams have seen, the implementation of English Language Development (ELD) time in schools is improving. This focused language development time is critical for our students to improve their English fluency. At the elementary level, we have coupled ELD time with a structured 90 minute literacy block to increase the time that our students spend reading and developing language skills daily. Over time, our efforts in this area will yield positive achievement gains.

Other evidence of success: Districtwide attendance data shows that students are attending school more frequently. Attendance is a critical piece for our students, and we must all continue to emphasize how important it is for every student to attend school – every day, every class, on time. It is certainly logical that students must be in school to learn, and so we will continue delivering this message to our community.

Our graduation rate increased last year to 69.8% at Adams City High School, and our dropout rate has decreased significantly. Our dropout prevention initiatives include the Dropout Early Warning Database (DEWD, accessible through TAAT) and a multi-tiered prevention and intervention plan. Remember at the beginning of the year I told you that we had 237 students drop out last year? To give you an idea of the success we have had this year in addressing the dropout problem, we are now on track to have fewer than half that number of dropouts this year. ACHS, LAHS and District staff are all collaborating to address this crisis. Dropout prevention and recovery requires a personal approach to reach individual students. At the beginning of the school year, Adams 14 contacted every student who dropped out of school last year. Many of those students returned to school to seek an alternative pathway to graduation. As a result of our success, Adams 14 has been recognized as a statewide leader and has been invited to share best practices with other school districts through the National Center for School Engagment and the Colorado Graduates Initiative.

Parent involvement is increasing in Adams 14. Just last night, 13 parents at Hanson celebrated their completion of six hours of parent education workshops. And in February, about 30 parents will participate in a similar celebration at Rose Hill. We know that students are more likely to succeed academically when parents participate in their children’s learning experiences. Through these workshops, parents are learning how to support literacy at home, how to create positive collaborations with schools, and how to create home learning centers to reinforce classroom learning. Adams 14 is actively seeking grant funding to increase its parent involvement and early family literacy initiatives.

While Colorado continues to struggle to fund essential programs like K-12 education, and we know that this will impact us negatively this budget season, we are seeking alternative funding sources to benefit children and families. Our emphasis on increasing revenue through grants has paid off this year. In December alone, Adams 14 won nearly $400,000 in grant funding. The largest of these grants is a multiple year 21st Century Community Learning Centers grant, which will fund after school and summer enrichment programs at Hanson and Monaco.

On the operations side, our improvements in the transportation department have resulted in decreased costs and increased efficiencies. More students are getting to school safely and on time; we are advertising on our buses to increase revenue; and we are consolidating bus routes to make sure we are not duplicating services or incurring overtime expenses. Our grounds and maintenance crews continue to create safe and clean learning environments for children. These employees are doing a great job, and we thank you!

Our efforts to improve energy efficiency continue. We have installed motion sensors in offices at Adams 14 Educational Support Services. The motion sensors turn off lights automatically when offices are empty, which saves energy and money. We are developing plans to install solar panels on schools to help offset some of our power consumption costs. And we have installed energy efficient lighting in schools throughout the District. We review our energy efficiency monthly through a performance contract with Siemens Energy Management, and we continually make adjustments and improvements that save us money while helping the environment.

That was just a quick review of some of our successes so far this year. With all the talk of education reform and improvement at the national level, it’s important that we recognize that our own improvement and reform efforts are beginning to show results right here in Adams 14. We are not short of challenges in our District, but it is also important to reflect on the successes we have realized this year. I am confident that the dedicated staff and caring community in Adams 14 will continue to find success in 2010!