The Manitou Springs District 14 Board of Education met Monday, Feb. 28, to hear updates about district schools and discuss continuing updates to policy. The meeting took place in the SILC building and streamed live via Zoom.
The meeting began with a presentation from Manitou Springs Middle School Principal Dustin Cady, Assistant Principal Area Bartlett and sixth-grade math teacher Cory Urban.
Cady opened the presentation with praise for his students and a recent play he attended starring middle school students. As part of a Manitou tradition, the entire student body walked from the middle school to the elementary school auditorium to watch their classmates perform.
“Our students did an amazing job,” said Cady. “Not only the students in the play, but our students who walked down and were a respectful audience. That’s just the Manitou way.”
Cady then yielded the floor to Urban, who discussed how the school has been working to improve instruction. That’s part of a three-point plan that middle school leadership designed last year.
Urban explained that one component of instructional improvement has been the effort to implement concepts from a book titled “7 Steps to a Language-Rich Classroom” by John Seidlitz and Bill Perryman. Seidlitz is the founder and CEO of Seidlitz Education, which creates education tools for schools and teachers.
The concepts include adapting instruction to meet students at varying language proficiencies and developing engagement strategies to keep students involved in their own learning.
The school began the process last year, allowing teachers like Urban to get familiar with how to implement it. Nancy Motley, Seidlitz Education’s senior educational consultant, came to the school to help train staff on implementation and to observe teachers in the classroom.
“It has transformed my classroom,” said Urban. “Students are brainstorming and engaged in a way that I’ve never seen before.”
After Urban finished, Cady discussed how late-start Wednesdays have benefitted middle school students, particularly those who are struggling academically or behaviorally.
“Because we have late-start Wednesdays, we can have all of our exploratory teachers, our paraprofessionals and our mental health team get together and focus on a couple students and really problem-solve as a team.”
Bartlett closed the presentation with a discussion on building leadership density, the third point in the middle school action plan. That’s the concept of expanding leadership responsibility across all staff while expanding each member’s power to guide school decisions and support students.
In short, leadership is increased by decentralizing leadership from an admin-only structure to a whole-staff endeavor.
“We want to build consensus, and we want to have cognitive conflict. We don’t want to be a complacent group, we want to push and grow for the benefit of our students, our staff, our community members and beyond,” Bartlett said.
Bartlett noted that the students have also embraced the leadership examples middle school staffers present and have developed their own student council.
Next, the school district’s transportation department was recognized. Even in the best of times, the transportation has a difficult job getting students to and from school and traveling throughout the state to various events. The pandemic increased the complexities of their daily tasks, with staff shortages, unexpected closures and mask policies.
“What you have all done for our communities during the hardest time in education is remarkable,” said Superintendent Dr. Elizabeth Domangue. “This has been a difficult two years for the transportation department for many reasons.
“This group of people has been so flexible and done so much for us and we are very, very lucky to have them.”
The board also listened to a presentation from Athletic and Activities Director Cameron Jones. He focused on middle school activities, detailing the successes of their endeavors for the school year.
The robotics team qualified for state and finished 12 out of 24 teams in Colorado. The orchestra has resumed live concerts and the acting/forensics team has grown to 14 participants.
Sports have also continued to thrive, with full teams and lots of enthusiasm. Jones noted that there were enough volleyball players to completely fill three teams this year.
After presentations, the board began first readings of two policy updates.
Policy GBEB outlines staff conduct and responsibilities. Updates include expanding policy around staff and student engagement on social media, as well as the reporting process for suspected abuse of a student.
Director Jack Sharon requested that the document emphasize the importance of seeking law enforcement guidance immediately and the board agreed to add that language.
Policy JLC details student health services and records and their privacy. It also addresses annual screening programs and communicable disease reporting.
Board members will review the document and suggest changes before or during the next work session.
At the end of the meeting, the board moved to a closed executive session to seek legal advice for an undisclosed legal question.
The next work session will start at 4:30 p.m. Thursday, March 17. The next regular meeting will start at 5 p.m. Monday, March 28. Both meetings will take place in the SILC building, 405 El Monte Place.