Our first month of school is off to a great start. It is wonderful to see so many new faces as we welcome new students and staff, as well as those returning to our schools. Our central enrollment offices are continuing to stay busy in their new location at 10850 East Woodmen Road.I want to extend a thank you to our parents and staff members for your patience, as we watch our new bus program in action. We continue to hear from school and Innovation Zone leaders, as well as from parents, about how to make the service more convenient, while still efficient, for the district. While the district was proud to offer outstanding bus service to our families in the past, our current reductions in funding mean tough decisions. Instead of taking resources away from the classrooms, funding for transportation was cut. Most importantly, students’ safety is the primary consideration as we work together to educate the community about this new option for our families.In D 49 we strive to use our resources responsibly and effectively to enhance student learning and foster an educational environment that is beneficial to every student. As we have seen our funding from the state decrease over the past years, our leadership’s goal is to keep resources directly in the classroom. Taking into account cuts from the state, a loss of federal stimulus dollars, increases in PERA costs and technology upgrades, the total loss to our district’s budget equals almost $11 million for the 2011-12 fiscal year. Our goal was and is to make sure that reduction is felt least by our students. As a result, 83 percent of the cut went to indirect spending, which includes administration, transportation and maintenance services. That left only 17 percent of the cut in programs that more directly support our students. Much of that direct spending cut was made to peripheral items. The changes we saw in regular education involved reorganizing how the educational program was staffed and delivered; that is what allowed us to keep the regular education spending target unchanged from last year.As we work to take on additional responsibilities and duties to continue meeting our high standards, I appreciate the focus each of you keep on students and learning. We prepare every one of our students to succeed, and the work you do every day is critical to that mission.We are proud to report the district’s growth scores for the 2010-11 school year. District-wide we saw good growth in students’ reading and writing abilities, going beyond the level of growth considered adequate by the state. Falcon High School showed the greatest growth in the district for high school writing, reading and math. Meridian Ranch International Elementary showed the highest growth for elementary students in math; Evans International Elementary had the greatest growth in writing; and a number of our other schools showed impressive levels of growth in reading, writing and math. In addition, our English Language learners saw great growth in reading, as did our economically disadvantaged students. Scores show we are also beginning to close the achievement gap with our black and Hispanic students in reading. You can view growth information directly at https://edx.cde.state.co.us/growth_model/public/index.htm#/year-2011/district-1110/schools. These growth scores are a testament to the outstanding teaching and student-focused learning going on in our classrooms. As a district, we will continue to work to ensure every single student is growing to meet his or her full potential.
