Excitement permeated the standing- room-only crowd at the D 49 meeting on Nov. 3. The obvious reason for the commotion: the Nov. 1 voter approved mill levy and the three newly elected board members, Dave Stark, Anna Bartha and Amy McClelland.D 49 Superintendent Steven Hull, along with the board, congratulated the incoming board members.Becky Carter, principal of Stetson Elementary School, presented information on specific programs at the school. She detailed the school’s “open concept” library, parent volunteer program and peer tutoring, where students in grades four and five tutor the students in grades one, two and three. She also discussed a grant from Intel Corp. for a new Engineering in Education program. The school is one of only four in the country to receive the Intel grant. Spanish teacher Rosie Reyes had several students’ present monster pictures they had drawn in Spanish and English.Ken Delay, a member of the Colorado Association of School Boards, presented the CASB McGuffey award to outgoing board members Paul Bryant, Judy Holman and Carol Chapman for their outstanding service to D 49.Kevin Butcher of the Falcon Education Foundation presented over $16,000 in grants to district teachers to enhance the learning experience for their students.Peggy Littleton, another member of the Colorado State Board of Education, congratulated D 49 on the successful passage of the mill levy and updated the group on the Colorado board’s current focus.”Literacy is my passion,” Littleton said. “Too many students fall through the cracks when we fail to recognize reading difficulty.” The board is scrutinizing high school graduation rates, she said. And the CSBE is looking at methods to track students who move in and out of different school districts. She said the state wants records of home-schooled students, dropouts, students who have left the state and those who have transferred to another district within the state.The board also is looking at online education, which is becoming more popular through- out the country. The CSBE wants to have high over site on core content and rules for online education. “The core content must propel students forward,” Littleton said.Hull provided an enrollment update, and said 48 additional students have enrolled since Oct. 1. He also said he believes since the mill levy passed, which means the rapid construction of new schools, many students will return to the district who are currently home schooled or attending school out of the district.Doug Peden, director of human resources for D 49, said this election was the most important in the 28 years he has worked for the district. “This wasn’t an easy decision, and I am very proud our community,” Peden said.Board members and Hull discussed the new alternative school, which will be housed at the current Falcon Middle School, and how it will help students in danger of dropping out. The benefits of an alternative school are the specialized programs for kids who are not successful in traditional schools. They talked about the importance of identifying them early enough and offer options other than leaving school before they graduate.The next board of education meeting is Dec. 8 at 6:30 p.m. at the central office administration building.
