Miner's Minutes-March/April 2023

As we head into Spring of an odd numbered year it is time to think about School Board Elections. Many people wonder, myself included before being on the Board; "What it is BOE members do?". We set the path for the School District to maintain and improve an excellent educational system. We do this through setting Policies and End Goals. These are the roadmaps for the Superintendent. We work with the Superintendent to express our communities values and outcomes desired for our students. As a Board member you would work with and support our work as a whole while giving individual input. We also hire and evaluate the Superintendent.

I look back on the last two years and have a sense of pride in what we have done as the team of 5+1, School Board + Superintendent. We are nearing the first redraft of our extensive policy manual; reviewing, refining and clarifying all of our policies. Though keeping our Policies current and relevant is an on going process we are about to conclude a higher level review with forethought after defining our Global Ends Statement through extensive public input, thank you for that input. The Telluride School District will support all students in striving for their highest potential through quality academics while addressing individual needs within a safe and healthy community. We then set goals out of the numerous details of our Ends statements as areas to improve on in the near term.

Through this process Mr. Pandolfo with his Administration team has taken on many projects. Some of the largest are: improving and expanding employee housing; developing interventions to improve educational outcomes for all students, many of which need additional help coming out of COVID; keeping our Elementary and Intermediate Schools' reading programs compliant with the READ Act using research-based curriculums; looking to do the same for math; updating our contracts with Palm Arts and Telluride Film Festival as TFF comes into their 50th anniversary; assessing our capital needs, which largely include afore mentioned employee housing; addressing the possibility of detaching Rico from the Dolores County School district to become annexed to the Telluride School District. All while improving our emergency response protocols, as well as school culture as we return to “normal”. Not to mention, doing the regular work of oversight and budgeting. If this seems like a long list, it is.

If these things interest you consider joining our team and running as a candidate in the Fall election, detailed information will be available on our web page at tellurideschool.org in the near future. All relevant dates will be there: when petitions are available; when to return, etc. There will be 3 seats in the coming election with 2 of the current Board members eligible to run again. You can also ask me any question you may have. My email is cmiller@telluride.k12.co.us. I am looking forward to talking to you about the gratification and rewards of serving on our School Board.

Cheryl Carstens Miller

President Telluride School Board

March 21: BOE Monthly Meeting 5:15 pm

March 22: 5th Grade A Midsummer Night's Dream Performance

March 22: Middle School Movie NIght & Pizza (sponsored by TEF)

March 24: 5th Grade TASP Adventure on the Mountain

March 27: 5th Grade The Tempest Performance

March 27: Kindergarten Dual Immersion Intent to Commit forms are due at 9 am

March 27: District Accountability

March 28: KOTO "Off the Record" 6pm on Rico Detachment/ Annexation

March 30: 8th Grade Mock Trial

March 31: Deadline for 23/24 school year registration for continuing students

March 31: 8th grade Avalanche Field Trip

March 31: 5th Grade Market Day

April 3-April 14: Spring Break

April 17-21: TIS Earth Week Events

April 18: BOE Monthly Meeting 5:15 pm

April 20: Rico Detachment/ Annexation meeting

April 21: Coffee Talk with Superintendent & BOE

April 24: District Accountability

April 25: 6th grade trip to Mesa Verde

April 26: 6th grade Lunch Line performance

April 28: 4th grade Energy Invention Fair

CMAS Testing Information below

Please refer to weekly emails from TES, TIS & TMHS for times, places and most current communication. For Telluride Athletics calendar of events click HERE

Continuing Student Registration
(For currently enrolled students who are continuing in the 2023/2024 school year)

• Log into the TSD PowerSchool parent portal with your existing parent/guardian account to review and update the online registration forms.
• Items you will need to complete registration:
  • If residency has changed in the last year, proof of residency must be uploaded – see registration Form A for types of documents accepted
  • Health Inventory form / Inventario anual de salud del estudiante
  • Immunization records
• Continuing student registration includes three forms to be reviewed and completed:
  • Form A - Demographics and Contacts
  • Form C - Health Information
  • Form E - Consent and Acknowledgment of Agreements
• Forms A, C, and E for Continuing Student Registration are reset each year prior to registration kickoff. PowerSchool will automatically populate those fields it can, and the remainder will be blank. Please fill in all blank fields and review and revise all pre-populated fields before submitting.

The 2023/2024 Telluride School District final calendar can be found here.

The draft 2024/2025 calendar is linked here.

All students in grades 3 through 6 will take the Colorado Measure of Academic Success English Language Arts and Math tests over three days each from March 20 – 30. The 5th graders will take Science over three days April 25 – 27th.

All middle school students will have CMAS testing the week of March 20th.

11th grade students will have CMAS testing the week of March 27.

Aligning with our goal of HR practices that result in retaining and recruiting excellent staff, we have increased the wages for paraprofessionals and substitutes effective January 1, 2023.

• Paraprofessional starting hourly wage is now $20-$25 per hour, based on education and relevant experience, up from a previous starting wage of $18 per hour.
• Substitutes now earn $140-$160 per day, depending on the license they hold, up from $120-140 per day previously. Additionally, substitutes receive an extra $10 per day for each day worked after their first 30 in a given year.

We are finding that we still have a high need for substitutes willing to take a job the morning a vacancy is announced. Many subs pick up jobs well in advance but the “on-demand” jobs are the ones we have the hardest time filling. If you are willing to step into those jobs please reach out to Sue Kunz in HR at skunz@telluride.k12.co.us or 970-369-1231.

March 22 - Middle School Movie Night (flyer below)

April 20 - Donuts With Your Grown-Ups (flyer below)

Late April - Elementary School Movie Night (date TBD)

May 4 - Spring Social Fundraiser

The Telluride School District would like to thank the following for their generous contributions:

Telluride Science and Innovation Center for providing lunch at Telluride Intermediate School on March 10th.

Special thanks to Marissa Marshalka, Case Manager, with One-to-One Mentoring and Andres Jacinto, Community Outreach Specialist, with San Miguel County Public Health who helped with language translation at our registration workshops. Their support was invaluable.

Congratulations to the Spanish Spelling Bee winners! 7th grader Emma Dominguez de la Torre Martinez - 1st place, Keaton Koenig - 2nd place, and 3rd Grader Bond Shaffner – 3rd place.

DI coordinator Joanna MacDonald and the Spanish DI teachers pulled off a S U P E R Spanish Spelling Bee that highlighted the phenomenal skills of our Spanish learners!

Angela Watkins’s wonderful directing skills led the 4th graders in a play about the Western Movement and the 5th graders are soon performing the Tempest and Midsummer Night’s Dream. What a great theater arts program she’s developed in TSD!

Congrats to all students who were inducted in to the National Honor Society & National Junior Honor Society – 65 TMHS students were inducted.

Kudos to Jessica Heady and all the students who performed in TAB! Shout out to Chris Murray, Coach Y, Jimmy Moody & Chris Iverson for an excellent basketball season.

February Students of the Month:

7th: Finn Smith

8th: Akira Smith

9th/10th: Charlotte Welbourn

11th/12th: Avery Ireland

February Athletes of the Month:

Amy Guerrero

Emmeline Prohaska

Sam Herman

March Athletes of the Month:

Quinn O’Neill

Tjarn Lyons

Follow TMHS instragram telluridemiddlehighschool for TMHS updates.

Tuesday, March 21, 2023

SCHOOL BOARD MONTHLY MEETING

5:15 pm

Location: Bridal Veil & Zoom at

https://telluridek12.zoom.us/j/86585124120?pwd=TGd6c3A3WFMvRTI2blBnUStwdVI5Zz09

Meeting ID: 865 8512 4120/Passcode: 468668

Agenda and packets will be posted here (at least 72 hours prior to meeting)

Come join the Superintendent and one or more board members for coffee talk on Friday, April 21st to discuss all items school related. Greenhouse at La Cocina de Luz.

The Telluride Foundation is conducting a community survey and wants to hear from you! The results of this community survey will be used to help determine the focus of the Foundation’s future work and ensure it is meeting the needs of the communities it serves (San Miguel, Ouray, west Montrose counties, and the Town of Rico). The survey will take you less than 10 minutes and it is in English and Spanish

SURVEY LINK IN ENGLISH:

https://tinyurl.com/2p8bbshp

SURVEY LINK IN SPANISH:

https://tinyurl.com/3je4ab2h.

Creating a vision for the future is a community effort. As part of the East End Master Plan, San Miguel County Planning Department, the County Planning Commission (CPC) and consultant Design Workshop, will be holding two Community Open Houses on Tuesday, March 21. The Open Houses will be held in the Community Room at the Wilkinson Public Library, 100 W. Pacific Avenue, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., and from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m.

We hope you will be able to join us as we continue to gather community input on our shared vision and future goals.