The week before Spring Break was busy! I started the week by visiting Diamond Ridge High and Entrada Adult High School. I was so impressed by the way the school building is evolving to meet the diverse needs of our nontraditional high school students. The classes are welcoming, teachers and staff know everyone by name, and most importantly, the students want to be at school! They have multiple supports: food pantry, counseling, showers and washing machines for the homeless, study/homework help, etc. The new science, cooking, and maker spaces will be ready for next year. One wing of the building is Entrada. This is open to the community to learn English skills and connect with community services, and earn GED diplomas. I so appreciate the support Canyons gives the community and our disadvantaged to have access to programs and are given an opportunity for success. Next, I visited with the wonderful employees who work in the Transportation Department. These bus drivers, dispatchers, routers, and mechanics keep the district rolling! They have the biggest hearts. Many of these employees are some of our oldest. When asked why they continue to work, they told me, “It’s because of the kids!” Being with our students is the highlight of their day. They shared with me some of their ideas to improve transportation efficiency, communication, and would love to someday have a new building. The building they are in is 60 years old. Newer equipment has been added as needed, but restroom upgrades, better office flow, break room space, and earthquake stability would be an important future goal for the District. I had the opportunity to attend a presentation concerning upgrades to our operations system Skyward. Our current version is very dated and unable to meet all of our District needs. It was impressive to see the what the new upgrade can do with teacher grading, reports, scheduling, attendance, lunch accounts, and enrollment. It may be worth the cost to upgrade a system the District is already familiar with. This information will inform future study sessions. I also attended the National School Boards Association recently. It was a wonderful opportunity to inform, share, discuss, and be in touch with issues facing our public schools all over the country. Three topics seemed to be reoccurring: school safety; student equity, mental health and resilience, and effective school board policy. It was reaffirming to see that many of the presentations aligned to our practices at CSD. We have a vision through our Strategic Planning, shared governance, and increased accountability for learning and less on operations. We have built strong collaboration between district leadership and board governance. We focus on students and their needs. It was nice to get to know each other better and strengthen relationships.
