Administrative Report from Jason Westfall for the April 2016 Board of Education
Meeting
1. PARCC Olympics- The middle school staff and students worked very hard during the first round of
state testing. Throughout the week and most of the day Thursday student competed in the 2nd
Annual PARRC Olympics. The staff set up various games and educational activities for teams of
students. Throughout the Olympics teams scores were updated on a bulletin board so teams could
track the competition. Along with the games, teams were given points for how they approached
the tests assigned to them. If as a team they took the tests seriously, tried their best and did not
disrupt the testing environment they received points. If they failed in any of those areas, their team
lost points. In the end Mrs. Wills’ Yellow team won the week and each received $10 from our TRIBE
account. Following the team award each teacher selected a Most Outstanding Member of their
team and that person received $10 from me. The students loved the fun that the teachers have
injected into this stressful week. The staff seemed to have a lot of fun, especially enjoying the “Lost
and Found Fashion Show”, where students use only what is left in the lost and found to dress up 2
‘models’ who show off down the runway and are scored by a panel of four judges (Mrs. Kolm, Mrs.
Pollick, Mrs. Jantz, Mr. Westfall). This is an amazing event for the middle school students that we
will surely continue in the future.
2. April PLC- Sharon Daxton-Vorce couldn’t be with us for this PLC so I led the discussions. We first
went over the district results from the recent Student Perception surveys completed by a sample of
each teacher’s students in grades 3-12. We then moved forward with the next chapter in the book
Sharon has used to guide our work this year. The chapter deals with teaching students how to ask
deep meaningful questions and to use those questions to take control of their learning. It was an
unexpectedly helpful chapter for use to discuss because as a district we found in our survey data
that some students are struggling to see their opinions as valued by the class and don’t always feel
like they belong to the classroom community. Our hope is to use this chapter to address those
types of issues in our classrooms.
3. Hiring- We will be interviewing soon for our high school studies position and potential elementary
openings. We have received a fairly high number of applications through our account with CDE,
Teacher-Teacher.com. Other advertising sources have not been so helpful to this point. I will be
attending the CSU Teacher Career Fair on April 20th in the hopes of accumulating as many
applications as possible for our opeings.
4. Job Description- I have attached an update and slightly more detailed list of duties associated with
my half of the co-superintendent position for your input.
Classroom News
Preschool News (Mrs. Gabehart): On March 29th we had our Yearly Licensing visit and it went very
well. We had a few minor things that needed to be fixed or added to our files and those have been
completed and the report has been sent back to CDE. I have completed the annual CPP Reapplication
Report, it has been approved by The Early Childhood Council and will be sent to CDE this week.
I will be attending the annual Regional CPP meeting on April 6th and will be updated on any changes that
will be made regarding CPP grants. I understand that funding has been cut for next year and we will find
out how that will affect our program.
There are some licensing changes that are taking place as well and I will be meeting with Denise Kelly from
CDE to discuss those and have any questions answered. I know that there are some new trainings that are
being added so Julie and I will be taking those before the start of next year.
Preschool and Kindergarten Roundup will be held April 22nd from 8-12. We have several new students on
the list and hope to get more signed up. We have it advertised in the school bulletin, newspaper, and the
school website.
On a more fun note, we celebrated our 100 day of school on March 31st. We planned several fun activities
that the kids really seem to enjoy. They could hardly wait to put the number 100 on our counting
chart. We cheered and did a 100 day dance. They then had to find 100 Hershey Kisses and match their
number on the bottom of the kiss to the number on the number chart. This was a huge success until we
realized we were missing number 63. I finally found it at the end of the day. We then did a sorting activity
where the kids had to sort out 10 different items (10 each) and glue them onto a poster board. We then
counted all the items by one and then by ten’s. Many of the kids commented at the end of the day “this
was the best day ever!”
1st Grades Update (Mrs. Burian)- In First Grade we have been learning about prepositions. We have had
fun learning how they help us add details to our sentences. We even have a fun game in class that we play
with them. We like participating in our writing groups and are learning to be specific with what we write as
we practice writing together.
Middle School Science- Mr. Siguenza and Ms. Blatner took 12 of the 7th grade class to Keystone Science
School for a 3 day/2 night field trip. The trip was a great success as the students and chaperones enjoyed
cross country skiing while learning about snow science and orienteering. The data gathered from the 2
different groups they were split into will now be used as evidence to write an argumentative paragraph on
which test site would generate more melt water.
Middle School Social Studies (Mrs. Wills)- 8th grade toured the Elbert County Justice Center
yesterday. They visited the Jail, Sheriff’s Dept., both courtrooms and met the district court judge, the
Assistant DA, Probation, and the office of Emergency Mgmt. The tour correlates with a section in our unit
on prison reform (1800’s) and an earlier unit on the branches and levels of government. Awesome time was
had by all. The students had written responses today about the tour and they were well written and had a
lot of great thoughts in them.
High School Social Studies (Mrs. Long)- AP US Government and AP Comparative Government are finishing
up their last couple units before preparing for their two tests in May. We will start study sessions on
Fridays in April (10:00 am-2:30pm) for test prep. Lunch will be provided.
American Government will begin their final project soon. Their project consists of creating a 30-45 pg.
workbook on American Government and Comparative Governments. They will be including literary analysis
from various sources, landmark case analysis, key vocabulary, and a how-to guide that will explain how
government works. This has always been a fun project for my American Government classes!
Middle School Math (Mrs. Austin)- As students it’s hard to come back after spring break and be motivated
to work, let alone do math. So for the first day back I thought it would be fun to do an activity, I had my
Above: The problem scorecards used to determine which problems each student had to complete
based on their score for each football golf hole.
classes play football golf. I set my classroom up to look like a golf course, with 6 holes. There were trees
(textbooks), water (blue paper), and sand(yellow paper), and the holes to tee off from and putt were green
paper, with a cone for the flag. Students used paper footballs to hit to get to the holes. They were given
score sheets to record their number of hits it took to get the green. We played in partners to help each
other out and rotated through the holes. Once everyone was done, they were given the problem scores
cards. If on hole one they scored a three then they solved that problem, so there were different problems
for each hole and each number that they scored. So each student had 6 different math problems that they
had to solve based on the score that they shot playing football golf. The kids had a bunch of fun, it was a
great way to start the week, and of course the winners got candy, so they can’t complain too much.
Above: The middle school classroom set up for football golf.
In 8th grade math we learned about Transformations. Where a figure can be translated (slide), rotated,
reflected (mirror image) or dilated (enlarged or shrank) on a coordinate grid. After learning about
transformations I talked with them about Tessellations. A tessellation is created when a shape is repeated
over and over covering a plain (piece of paper) without gaps or overlaps, like a tiling. Some famous
tessellation are done by M.C. Esher.
Above: Mrs. Austin gave students an index card then we cut cross the card and translated it across the
figure, creating a new shape. We then copied that shape across a piece of paper. We made those shapes
look like pictures that we started to color, creating a tessellation. They are still a work in progress, they are
having a lot of fun. Mrs. Austin is even participating and making one.
Above: Completed 7th grade Tessellation.
What is going on in Elementary Physical Education? (Mrs. Kinsey) The elementary students just finished
what I had intended to be a short unit on cup stacking. Wow, was I wrong. This was the first time I have
ever incorporated cup stacking into my physical education planning. I was introduced to it a long time ago
during my observations as a student teacher. Mr. Carothers ordered a loaner classroom set and allowed
time for me to use the set with my little kids.
The students not only LOVED the unit but they flew with it. We did the entire cycle with 2nd-5th graders and
the younger students were able to do all of the sets but it was tough for them to get the cycle. They not
only learned the stacks but they also showed how creative they could be with the cups. This was a very
exciting step in my teaching and allowed some students who struggle in other areas of PE to really shine.
What is going on in Middle School Fitness? (Mrs. Kinsey) The fitness students are such a joy to have in the
morning. They are willing to try all of the crazy workouts I throw at them and they have really started to
develop an understanding of the value of physical fitness in their everyday lives. Due to the scheduling of
the morning classes I have had the chance to be with some students for 2 quarters. This has been great
because they are getting that morning exercise that promotes better learning for them throughout the day.
It has been a challenge for me because I don’t want them to be taking the exact same class twice. We have
opened up the door to new workouts, popular workouts and some traditional workouts mostly with just
our body weight. No matter what it is that the middle school students are learning, they are easy to teach
because they are so willing to try new things.
What is going on in High School Health? (Mrs. Kinsey) Things are always changing in the world of health,
dynamic health should be that name of the class. Right now in health we are learning about personal
choices and, relationships, sexual activity and planning for the future. I am currently using the CDE
curriculum that was developed by Colorado health teachers. This curriculum give me the advantage of
using what I think is relevant to our students but at the same time is structured and meets all academic
standards.
HS Math (Mrs. Brownlee) I gave a Prove It to Algebra 2 on Thursday that I was a little concerned about for
multiple reasons. First of all, it was the day of the pep rally last week so the class was 15 minutes shorter
than usual and it was the last day of the quarter. Second, I chose to put solving quadratics by completing
the square on it despite the fact that we haven’t been doing it for too long and, traditionally, it has been a
difficult concept for most classes (Kinsee and Faith still struggle with it). However, more than half the class
got a 3 or a 4!! There were 5 that made careless mistakes (on that learning outcome) and since that was a
common theme on the entire Prove It and since we had a little extra time after the assembly today, I gave
the Prove Its back to everyone scored (with no feedback) and told them they could fix anything they
wanted/could – all 5 were able to fix their mistakes on that learning outcome. Ten of the 13 improved on
at least 1 learning outcome and there are now 5 of the 13 with perfect scores on the Prove It. I believe that
using algebra tiles and going from the concrete to the abstract like we learned with Lorie is what lead to
this success.