by Jaye Sudar
WALSENBURG- In January, Randy Black of CASB, (Colorado Association of School Boards) lead a discussion on developing excellence as a board, high performance leadership and improving education. Tonight′s board workshop is the first in a series of benchmarks for the Targeted Districts Improvement Partnership, known as TDIP. One of eleven districts in the state, Huerfano County has three years to improve or face takeover by the state. TDIP provides funding to help the school district improve on multiple levels.
One of the key points made during the meeting was that the district needs to change the perceptions of the community when it comes to education. Instead of putting down the district, people should work to improve, and be proud of the schools. Randy Black stated that any district needs to “own your work”. To put this in perspective, the RE-1 District needs to lead the way in developing the best educational environment possible for our students. Furthermore, the board needs to work on six key goals. These are: Honesty, Transparency, Respect, Communication, Trust and Excellence.
Randy handed out a benchmark assessment for everyone present to rate how the district has progressed over the year. This included the board, Superintendent Olson and the audience. The ′snapshot′ of the district′s progress will be sent to the board.
In other business, the BEST Grant for the ADA improvements at the high school is progressing with a walk through due October 22nd and Requests For Proposals due soon after. Superintendent Olson stated that the search for a business manager was progressing, and that the boiler at Washington School has failed.
