October 2008


Monday, Oct. 27
Commissioner of Education Dwight D. Jones will attend the first meeting of the School Leadership Academy Board from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.
 
Location – Colorado Department of Education, 201 E. Colfax Ave, state board room, Denver
 
Friday, Oct. 31
Commissioner Jones will provide welcoming remarks for the general session at the National Middle School Association’s Annual Conference and Exhibit. The commissioner will speak at 8 a.m.
 
Location – Colorado Convention Center, 700 14th St., Denver

Dwight D. Jones

Released by the Colorado Department of Education

DENVER – The next meeting of the Public School Capital Construction Assistance Board will be held Wednesday, Oct. 29 in Denver.
 
The meeting will be held from 9 to 11:30 a.m. in the State Services Building at 1525 Sherman St., room B70.
 
The meeting agenda includes:
 
Approve minutes from the Oct. 6, 2008 meeting
 
BEST (Building Excellent Schools Today) Grants—timeline for grant cycle, guidelines for program
 
BEST Emergency Grants—timeline for grant cycle, guidelines for program
 
BEST Lease-Purchase Projects—timeline for grant cycle, guidelines for program
 
Statewide Facility Assessment, status update
 
The board will also discuss future meetings and meeting sites, including two public hearings scheduled for Monday, Nov. 3. The topic for the first public hearing is permanent rules for the Full-Day Kindergarten Facility Capital Construction Assistance Program. That hearing is scheduled at 10 a.m. The topic for the second public hearing, at 10:30 a.m., is permanent rules for the Public School Facility Guidelines.
 
Both hearings will be held at the Colorado Department of Education, 201 E. Colfax Ave. in the first floor board room.
 
The BEST legislation increases the level of financial assistance provided to school districts, charter schools, institute charter schools, the Colorado School for the Deaf and Blind, and Boards of Cooperative Educational Services (BOCES) for capital construction projects, particularly in those school districts that can’t afford to meet their own needs.
 
The function of the Public School Capital Construction Assistance Board is to protect the health and safety of persons using public school facilities and to maximize student achievement by ensuring public school facilities provide a safe and un-crowded environment that is conducive to student learning.
 
For more information on the Capital Construction Assistance Board and to read board minutes, visit http://www.cde.state.co.us/cdefinance/CapConstCCAB.htm

CDE

The first meeting of the School Leadership Academy Board is Monday, Oct. 27 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. The meeting will be held at the Colorado Department of Education in the first floor state board room.
 
The board was created through legislation calling for a School Leadership Academy Program, including a principal academy to improve the recruitment, training and ongoing professional development of school leaders in Colorado.
 
Colorado State Legislature passed House Bill 1386 in 2008, establishing the leadership academy board, which will advise the Colorado State Board of Education in overseeing the leadership academy program.
 
The 14 members of the School Leadership Academy Board include:
 
Kevin Aten, Principal, Mountain View High School
Linda Barker, Director of Teaching and Learning, Colorado Education Association
Floyd Beard, Executive Director, East Central Board of Cooperative Educational Services
Jeanette Cornier, Assistant Commissioner, Office of Teaching and Learning, Colorado Department of Education
Jim Eck, Senior Director, McCREL (Mid-continent Research for Education and Learning)
Jay Helman, President, Western State College
Mark Hyatt, President, The Classical Academy
Lynn Rhodes, Dean of Education, University of Colorado at Denver
Mary Rubadeau, Superintendent, Telluride School District
Mary Seawell, Associate Director, Get Smart Schools
Nathan Smith, Principal, Del Norte Middle School, Del Norte School District
Mary Kay Sommers, Principal, Shepardson Elementary School, Poudre School District, 2008-2008 President of the National Association of Elementary School Principals (NAESP)
Tim Taylor, President, Colorado Succeeds
Jane Urschel, Deputy Executive Director, Colorado Association of School Boards
 
Board members will serve a three-year term. The board will set policies and procedures for the leadership academy program, monitor the program, define criteria for the department to use in selecting participants for the academy, determine curricular components of the program, and report annually to the Colorado State Board of Education.

Commissioner Dwight D. Jones

Tuesday, Oct. 21
Commissioner of Education Dwight D. Jones will speak at a City Club of Denver event titled “K-12 Education in Colorado.” The lunch meeting will begin at noon.
 
Location – Brown Palace, 321 17th St., Denver
 
Wednesday, Oct. 22
The commissioner will attend Cisco Networking Academy’s Colorado 10 Year Celebration Event at 11a.m. The one hour event will include brief speeches from Gov. Bill Ritter and Colorado Chief Information Officer Michael Locatis.

Colorado Department of Education

Tuesday, Oct. 14

 

Commissioner of Education Dwight D. Jones will speak at a Closing the Achievement Gap Conference hosted by CompassLearning. The day-long conference focuses on examining tools and strategies educators need to help their students succeed academically. The commissioner speaks at 9 a.m.

 

Location – Summit Event Center, 411 N. Sable Blvd., Aurora

 

Wednesday, Oct. 15

 

Over the course of three days, Commissioner Jones will visit 10 school districts in Colorado:

 

  • 8 a.m. – Montezuma-Cortez RE-1 School District

          Location – 121 E. First St., Cortez

 

  • 9:30 a.m. – Dolores County School District RE-2J

          Location – 108 West Highway 666, Dove Creek

 

  • 11:15 p.m. -  Dolores School District RE-4A

          Location – 17631 Hwy. 145, Dolores

 

  • 1 p.m. – Mancos School District RE-6

          Location – 395 W. Grand Ave., Mancos

 

  • 2:30 p.m. – Durango School District 9-R

          Location – 111 S. Camino del Rio, Durango

 

Thursday, Oct. 16

 

District visits continue in:

 

  • 7:30 a.m. – Ignacio School District 11 JT

          Location – 315 Ignacio St., Ignacio

 

  • 11 a.m. – Creede Consolidated School District 1

          Location – 308 La Garita St., Creede

 

  • 1 p.m. – Sargent School District RE-33J

          Location – 7090 N. Road 2 E., Monte Vista

 

Commissioner Jones will attend a banquet for the Southwest Superintendents Summit beginning at 5:30 p.m.

 

Location – Inn of the Rio Grande, 333 Sante Fe Avenue, Alamosa

 

Friday, Oct. 17

 

Commissioner Jones will provide the opening remarks at the Southwest Superintendents Summit beginning at 8 a.m.

 

Additional district visits include:

 

  • 11:30 a.m. – Fowler School District R-4J

          Location – 600 W. Eugene, Fowler

 

  • 1 p.m. – Rocky Ford School District R-2

          Location – 601 S. 8th St., Rocky Ford

 

Commissioner Dwight D. Jones

The Colorado Department of Education along with Front Range businesses will celebrate the contributions of employees with disabilities during the tenth annual Disability Mentoring Day (DMD), Wednesday, October 15. DMD serves as a valuable experience for students and job seekers with disabilities to learn about career opportunities in a variety of fields.

 

CDE and the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation are co-hosting the DMD Celebration Reception, featuring a presentation by a youth panel of job seekers, on Wednesday, Oct. 15, 2008, from 7:30 to 9:30 a.m. at the Tivoli Center, 900 Auraria Pkwy., Zenith Room 640. Dr. Ed Steinberg, CDE’s assistant commissioner for student support will offer opening comments.

 

DMD will showcase more than 125 mentees from 30 businesses in communities across the Front Range. Many of this year’s DMD participants are youth with disabilities transitioning from school into the adult world of work. With help from the School to Work Alliance Program (SWAP), a collaborative effort of the state and local school districts, these youth are afforded the opportunity to explore and prepare for future careers through DMD.

 

Organizations participating in DMD in addition to the Colorado Department of Education and the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation include Access Center for Disability Accommodations and Adaptive Technology Metropolitan State College of Denver, 11 local school district SWAP partnerships, Colorado Division of Vocational Rehabilitation, Denver Public Schools Career and Technology Education and Colorado Workforce Centers.

 

Employers confirmed to attend the DMD reception include Alameda East Animal Hospital, Aspen Seating, Best Buy, Camp Bow Wow, Denver Zoo, Echo Star/Dish Network, Ecographics Inc., Federal Valley Motors, First Line Insurance, Food Bank of the Rockies, Frederic Printing, Goodyear Auto Service Centers, Grand Hyatt, Integrated Airline Services Inc., JCPenney, Lockheed Martin, Plous and Adler Family Dentistry, Radisson Graytone Castle, Riverdale Elementary School, Safeway, UPS and West Bros. Inc.

 

For more information on SWAP, contact Barbara Palmer in CDE’s exceptional student leadership office at 303-866-6721 or palmer_b@cde.state.co.us

 

For additional information on DMD, contact Tom Muniz in the Denver Office of Economic Development at 720-865-5610 or tom.muniz@denvergov.org

Colorado Department of Education