The Clarion, April 2007

Budget update: Cash Management and Investment Return

Cash is the life-blood of any business, and the St Vrain Valley School District is no exception. Management of available cash is a daily process.

As a governmental entity the District uses fund accounting. A fund is a separate accounting entity with a self-balancing set of accounts. The District manages 15 separate funds, each with its own cash and investments. Over the course of each July – June fiscal year the available dollars in each fund vary, some considerably.

Pursuant to Board policy “all cash held by the District (other than petty cash) shall be invested at all times. The objectives of investment shall be safety, liquidity and yield, in that order of importance.”

The District works closely with the local branches of Wells Fargo, Centennial Bank of the West, and Liberty Savings, two investment pools established for Colorado government entities, and the Denver office of investment banker George K. Baum & Company. Each of these partners helps the District to achieve the investment objectives.

The current investments provide the highest safety possible. Most of the funds are available on an immediate basis. Funds not requiring instant access are invested for up to four years. Current rates of return range from 4.5% up to 5.35%.

Combined investment earnings for the current fiscal year total nearly $3.2 million as of March 31, 2007, providing much needed funds toward the District’s mission of education.

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Zila identifies District achievement gains, challenges

St. Vrain students are leading the charge on academic excellence. In recent weeks over 600 students from across the district have registered to sit for 1200 advanced placement exams. This is news!

Another development: the District’s decision to expand AP classes in every high school and introduce honors classes into our middle schools has been another big success. In fact, students are enrolling in AP, honor’s level classes, and full-year International Baccalaureate programs across the district in dramatically increasing numbers. About three times the number over previous years!

And there’s more.

The demand for college classes is up, so next year two more District high schools will offer college credit classes in conjunction with Front Range Community College. Already, ambitious Skyline students can complete their first year of college by the time they graduate.

Yet another development is the growing number of our middle school students enrolling in Algebra and Geometry. Historically – and for most Colorado students today – these classes are reserved for high school. In St. Vrain, a significant number of 7th and 8th grade students are studying Algebra and Geometry before high school.

And even outside the classroom, students are winning accolades in academic programs like the Math, Engineering, and Science Achievement (MESA). This year, 900 students – girls and boys not traditionally predisposed to the hard sciences – are in MESA and many are working alongside professionals from Seagate, Amgen, Xilinx, IBM, Lockheed Martin, and other corporate partners.

St. Vrain students are also lining up to participate in Odyssey of the Mind, Forensics, and the performing arts, are they’re winning honors in state and national competitions.

And what’s more, in the coming days we expect an announcement of National Merit Scholars among our student ranks. These individuals will soon be representing our community and our District at our nation’s most prestigious institutions of higher learning.

Meanwhile, the Colorado Department of Education has designated two St. Vrain high schools as ‘excellent’ and a number of middle and elementary schools as ‘excellent’ or ‘high.’

Most St. Vrain schools are demonstrating continuous gains in student achievement. In fact, the District’s 45 schools have met 95.1 percent of the targets set by the federal No Child Left Behind Act, outperforming most other large metro school districts including Cherry Creek and Boulder Valley.

And just this week, on the heels of Mead Middle School’s Colorado School to Watch event attended by Colorado Lieutenant Governor Barbara O’Brien, our school has been invited to host a statewide conference for educators and share our practices with other Districts.

All great news! But there’s much more to accomplish.

For example, an unacceptable number of St. Vrain students do not complete their high school diploma and many graduates will choose not to continue their education. This must change.

At one time a high school diploma was all a student needed to launch a respectable career. In fact, many older Americans – with little more than a high school diploma, good character, and a solid work ethic – built satisfying careers and made lasting contributions to their community.

In today’s world, however, building a satisfying career and making a lasting contribution with only a high school diploma is nearly impossible. Students who opt out are far more likely to experience shrinking career choices and greater financial insecurity than ever before.

At a recent work session of the Board of Education, board members discussed strategies for increasing graduation rates and their attention turned to early childhood education. “This is where we get the best bang for the buck,” said one board member. The board member is right.

In keeping with the District’s efforts to create a seamless path to college and post-secondary training, we’re committed to providing the strongest possible start to our youngest students. We’ve started by raising the credential requirements (every preschool teacher must now have or be working toward teacher licensure) and we’ve expanded preschool slots throughout the District.

Our ultimate goal is to offer preschool as well as high quality full and part-day kindergarten in every elementary school in the District.

Look for preschool outreach in neighborhoods as well. The newly renovated Meeker Neighborhood Center – which opened this week in Longmont – has three new preschool classrooms. This innovative collaboration between the District, the City of Longmont, Boulder County, and the Bright Eyes initiative is attracting attention from other Colorado municipalities.

All of these developments support the District’s overall goal to increase achievement, decrease achievement disparity between income groups, and ensure that ever-increasing numbers of our children make a seamless transition from a strong K-12 experience to college and beyond.

Finally, I want to recognize students who are making enormous gains despite challenging circumstances. Two thousand St. Vrain students have mild and severe disabilities. These students are also making heroic achievement gains. As Superintendent of Schools I want these students and their families to know how very proud I am of your hard work and tenacity.

We are a District on the move and as we conclude this school year and look to the next, we shall remain committed to academic achievement for all our students.

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IBM ramps up 2007-08 mentor program

For the past nine years, IBM volunteers have served as "e-mentors” in St. Vrain schools, communicating with 4th and 5th grade students. The goal, according to IBM e-mentor coordinator Bill Prater, is to enhance student interest in math and science.

A total of 39 St. Vrain teachers in 20 neighborhood schools are participating. Students communicate with their e-mentor or mentors about once a week throughout the entire school year. Whenever possible, IBM supplements the experience by donating a personal computer for participating classrooms.

The innovative mentoring program continues this fall and IBM will again provide equipment grants to ensure there is a PC for e-mail communication in the classroom.

Once an e-mentor has been assigned, he or she visits the classrooms to get acquainted with the students and help identify goals and priorities for the year. For the remainder of the year the e-mentors and students communicate on a weekly basis using "MentorPlace," a secure Web-based software tool allowing two-way communication.

According to Prater, the program focuses on math and science but it has the flexibility to introduce students to a wider variety of career and personal interests depending on student needs and the class schedule.

More information about the program is available at www.mentorplace.org.

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Science for all: Class addresses needs of English language learners (Daily Times-Call)

By Melanie M. Sidwell, The Daily Times-Call

LONGMONT — The teenager, an immigrant from Guatemala and an English language learner, listened intently as a scientist with the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration spoke to the space weather class at Skyline High School in mid-January.

After the presentation, Skyline freshman Edwin Torres asked in Spanish: “What do I need to do to be a scientist like you?” recalled Karen Hunter, the St. Vrain MESA coordinator.

The Math, Engineering and Science Achievement (MESA) program hopes to answer that question through a science elective class now being tested in four local schools: Sunset, Altona and Coal Ridge middle schools and Skyline High.

The program traditionally is offered as an after-school program, but this is the first year MESA is offered as a science elective, allowing students to earn half a science credit per semester, Hunter said.

Skyline’s MESA elective class also is taught in both Spanish and English, which “makes it absolutely unique,” Hunter said.

“This is really the best of both worlds,” she said. “Normally, (ELL students) don’t have the opportunity when they’re just coming in. They’ve either got ESL teachers who have only the language skills or science teachers who lack Spanish skills.”

Teacher Maria Murillo, a native Spanish speaker with a science background, uses both Spanish and English to teach space weather concepts to about 20 ELL students at Skyline.

All of the curriculum is in English, but Murillo and the students can discuss concepts — such as what a sunspot is — in their native language to help build scientific understanding to make that leap in English.

Skyline’s MESA science elective class is funded this year by the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Studies and Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics, which also produced and financed the curriculum, trained Murillo and pays her salary, Hunter said.

“This is not watered-down science. This is real science,” Hunter said. “They’re developing English language skills along with truly understanding the scientific content.”

Hunter said the MESA elective program, just as any new class, will be reviewed by a board of school district personnel to determine whether or not to continue the course next year.

Skyline freshman Sandra Gonzalez, who hopes to be a teacher someday, said bilingual students need these kinds of courses to tackle the language barrier while learning their core subjects.

“We take science classes in English but can understand it better in Spanish,” she said. “I think they should have more classes like this. It’s a good thing.”

Skyline freshman Jesus Tena said the MESA science elective has shown ELL students that college is a possibility. He hopes to attend a university someday and become a doctor.

“I can speak English, but I have some problems with the terminology sometimes,” he said. “When I can ask (questions) in Spanish, I understand more. Some students don’t even think (college) is a possibility and think only blue-collar jobs are for them.”

Murillo said the program shows these students that secondary education is possible and they have opportunities in science-based fields.

“I know they need and want science. We cannot neglect the other areas (of study),” Murillo said. “They’re trying to get a start in science, and hopefully they’ll get farther. English is important, but so is learning everything in high school. Science is a part of high school, and this covers that gap.

“If they can contribute to society better the more prepared they are, the better prepared we all are.”

Melanie M. Sidwell can be reached at 303-684-5274, or by e-mail at msidwell@times-call.com.

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School Resource Officers honored for school care

In 1996-1997, the Boulder County Sheriff’s Department and the St. Vrain Valley School Board entered into a partnership by starting a pilot program by placing a school resource officer at Lyons Middle-Senior High School.

In the ensuing years, the Board has entered into agreements with four other police departments within the St. Vrain Valley School District and, as a result, has school resource officers, also called SRO’s, assigned to nearly all the District’s secondary schools.

SROLaw enforcement agencySchool
Britt FellBoulder County Sheriff Dept.Lyons Middle-Senior High School
Steve AubryBoulder County Sheriff Dept.Niwot High School
Alley YoderFirestone Police Dept.Coal Ridge Middle School
Kin CornwellFirestone Police Dept.Coal Ridge Middle School
Jamey VelottaErie Police Dept.Erie High School
Mark RobertsonFrederick Police Dept.Frederick High School
Bobby GarciaLongmont Police Dept.Longmont High School
Craig MansanaresLongmont Police Dept.Skyline High School
Jerry KarnesLongmont Police Dept.Silver Creek High School
Kathy SannerLongmont Police Dept.Longmont High School

SRO Program supervising officers include:
Sgt. Mike Dimond, Boulder County Sheriff
Commaner Paul Zuber, Longmont’s Police Dept.

Law enforcement leadership:
Gary Barbour, Frederick Chief of Police in Frederick
Mike Butler, Longmont Chief of Police
John Hall, Erie Chief of Police
David Montgomery, Firestone Chief of Police
Joe Pelle, Boulder County Sheriff

SRO duties:

  • Conduct law related education in the classroom (student law academy, drug awareness, self defense, segments of driver’s education)
  • Assist in counseling for students and act as a resource guide concerning legal matters
  • Investigate any crime that would occur on campus
  • Assist in community projects which bring the school community and the surrounding community together
  • Help educate parents on new issues facing our youth (i.e. Internet crime)
  • Assist with school safety committees and participate in threat assessments and safety plans with students
  • Provide critical expertise in developing and updating each building’s Emergency Operation Procedures
  • Assist with each buildings safety drills and exercises
  • Create a positive relationship between police and the student communities at each of our secondary schools

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Student AP registrations skyrocket

This year more than 650 students have registered for more than 1200 Advanced Placement (AP) exams, more than tripling previous numbers of applicants in the St. Vrain Valley School District.

Actual testing will begin on Monday, May 7, and continue through Thursday, May 17. Late testing will be held the following week on Wednesday through Friday, May 22-24 at the LSC. The attached spreadsheet details the registration statistics.

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Additional kindergarten programs approved

At the board meeting on Wednesday, April 25, the Board of Education unanimously approved the addition of 3 fee-based full-day kindergarten programs in the District. The three new programs will be at Lyons Elementary, Niwot Elementary and Mead Elementary.

In addition to the three newly approved programs, there are 5 full-day fee-based programs already in operation: Hygiene, Legacy (Frederick), Sanborn, Longmont Estates, and Burlington Elementary Schools.

Many of our other elementary schools offer Kindergarten Enrichment as part of our Community Schools program. It is a fee-based half-day program that extends the day for kindergarten students. This program is different from the full-day kindergarten program. Interested parents and guardians can check with other elementary schools in Longmont or the Community School Program to determine which facilities offer programs and will have openings for the Kindergarten Enrichment program.

The District is working to expand our full-day kindergarten programs. However as new programs are added across the District, we want to ensure consistency in all programs, quality teaching staff and that the programs are self supporting. Unfortunately, the state of Colorado only provides funding for half day kindergarten.

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Second St. Vrain teacher named Fulbright Scholar

St. Vrain Valley School District special education teacher Dr. Cynthia Luna Scott was named a 2007-08 Fulbright Scholar after eight months of technical panel reviews in the United States and Europe. Dr. Scott, Team Leader for Special Education at Sunset Middle School, has been appointed to the faculty of Presov University in the Slovak Republic to prepare teachers for the upcoming consolidation of Slovakia’s two parallel public school systems serving students with and without disabilities.

Educational disabilities recognized in Slovakia are for the most part severe cognitive impairments, Down syndrome, and physical disabilities. While at Presov University, Dr. Scott will lecture and conduct seminars and discussions in both the undergraduate and graduate programs. She will focus specifically on the educational needs of students with learning disabilities – how to identify them, diagnose them, and strategies for intervention. Slovak special educators are not prepared for integrating kids into the mainstream or for working with their mainstream colleagues to support students. Consequently, Dr. Scott will also establish training sites in urban and rural areas for student teachers to work with kids with disabilities in mainstream schools, and will offer seminars for teachers on professional collaboration.

As part of her assignment, Dr. Scott will also explore the harsh discrimination that still confronts members of the Romani (Gypsy) community – about 90,000 in the Slovak Republic. Children from the Romani community have exceptionally high rates of placement in special schools. Therefore, the Slovak government has ordered the special schools to close and the two systems will be merged. Dr. Scott will depart for the Slovak Republic in late August and will return to SVVSD in late January 2008.

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American serviceman donates active duty flag to St. Vrain school

Longs Peak Middle School campus supervisor and U.S. Army Reservist Matt Talafuse – now serving in Iraq and attached to a medical evacuation squadron – has donated an American flag to the Longs Peak Middle School which will be presented to the school staff at Longs Peak Middle School in early May.

The flag – which saw active duty on a US Army Blackhawk Helicopter carrying out rescue missions in Iraq – will be presented to the school staff by Commander Ralph Bozella, State Commander of the Colorado American Legion, on behalf of the school’s active-duty colleague serving in Iraq.

Also to be presented to the staff is a photo of serviceman Matt Talafuse wearing a Longs Peak Middle School t-shirt standing alongside the helicopter upon which the flag was flown and which Talafuse is responsible for maintaining. The flag and the photo will be displayed in the school’s historic Wall of Heroes display case.

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Mountain View Elementary celebrates 50th anniversary

Mountain View Elementary School celebrates 50 years of service to the St. Vrain Valley School District. Named for its majestic view of the Rocky Mountains, the school, located at 1415 14th Avenue in Longmont, was established in 1957 and has a long and proud tradition for outstanding education. An environment rich in respect, diversity, and culture exists at Mountain View. For more information about Rocky Mountain Elementary go to http://mves.stvrain.k12.co.us.

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St. Vrain Valley School District  •  395 South Pratt Parkway  •  Longmont, Colorado 80501        (303) 776 - 6200