AP for all

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St. Vrain Valley Schools is on a mission to ensure that all students graduate with a rigorous academic experience, and the skills they need to be successful.

Advanced Placement® (AP) classes provide outstanding opportunities for students to engage in rigorous, college-level coursework preparing them for postsecondary education, while simultaneously earning college credit when they score a 3 or higher on an AP exam. AP coursework enables students to save on tuition and graduate college in less than four years.

St. Vrain is always seeking innovative ways to provide support for students so they can be successful now and in the future. Recently, St. Vrain Valley Schools was one of four Colorado school districts to make the College Board’s Annual AP District Honor Roll. The AP Honor Roll recognizes school districts committed to increasing access to AP courses for all students while maintaining or increasing the percentage of students who earn a score of 3 or higher on their AP Exams.

Overall enrollment in AP classes has increased by 50 percent since 2004, while minority enrollment has increased by approximately 80 percent. This year alone, Skyline High School has seen a significant increase in student participation in AP courses. “We have 797 student enrollments in AP classes (some students take more than one AP class), which is the highest we have ever had and a 55 percent increase from 2014,” shared Heidi Ringer, principal of Skyline High School. “For AP exams, we’ve also had an increase in exams taken and the pass rate has also increased. The school offers many resources to support students including practice exam opportunities and Saturday study sessions.”

During the 2018-2019 school year, Erie High School and Skyline High School collaborated to give students across the district an opportunity to participate in AP Saturday study sessions. Students learned new perspectives from their peers and teachers, and dove deeper into lessons they had already experienced. “The success from these sessions prove that as a district, we are committed to demonstrating that we believe our strength rests in everyone’s success as well as our own,” shared Kim Wiggins, assessment coordinator for St. Vrain.

Rigorous AP classes are offered at every high school and each school has an AP coordinator available to recruit students. The goal is for every student to have an AP course experience before they graduate.

Skyline High School recruits students in October for the following year and their AP coordinator visits all classes to talk about the course offerings. “Teachers discuss AP with all students and encourage them to challenge themselves to take at least one AP class,” shared Ringer. “There are no prerequisites for AP classes, so any student that wants to take an AP class can do so.”

In addition to the Saturday study sessions, both Erie and Skyline offer practice exam opportunities in an effort to continue providing the support and encouragement students need to feel confident and be successful. “When students take AP classes, they develop their academic potential and confidence to the highest levels by engaging in challenging, college-level curriculum while in high school,” shared Matt Buchler, principal at Erie High School. “This confidence and success will serve them well during high school and after graduation. AP classes also provide the added benefit of acquiring credits at a fraction of the cost of what a college or university charges students.”

Carolyn Root, AP Studio Art Drawing teacher at Skyline High School, knows the importance of student engagement in AP courses. “Students who take the AP drawing course become much more aware that as an artist they have a voice and a platform for their message. They begin to create with a purpose and think about how the choices they make in each artwork support  that message or idea,” shared Root. “This realization often gives them confidence to share their thoughts in other ways, such as in writing or open discussion groups. It also prepares them for the rigors and challenges of college classes, as well as helping them develop skills in time management with projects and personal scheduling.”

When students take AP courses and exams, they demonstrate to colleges that they have sought out educational experiences that are rigorous and will prepare them for success not only in college, but beyond. “By taking AP classes, I’ve had the opportunity to challenge myself and broaden my worldview,” shared Cassie Mahakian, senior at Erie High School. “I’ve loved interacting with my classmates and teachers at a higher level, and by having these classes as an option, I have been able to expand both my skills and knowledge of the world.”

Investment in AP classes is part of St. Vrain’s overall strategy to provide students with multiple pathways that lead to career and college success. “We constantly speak about rigor and challenge in our classrooms,” shared Wiggins. “If students don’t experience mastery of challenges there, then AP sounds herculean. Our message is clear: the primary difference between AP and non-AP should only be that AP teaches standards beyond high school.”

Superintendent’s Update – The Future is in Our Classrooms

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Dear St. Vrain Valley Community,

Thank you for your outstanding support in championing the growth and development of St. Vrain Valley Schools into a nationally recognized center of excellence for student engagement and 21st-century learning. Your unwavering dedication to the well-being and success of our students, teachers, staff, and schools is a testament to the outstanding community in which we live.

It has been a tremendous month in our community with numerous celebrations of student and school success. Our student-athletes at Erie High, Niwot High, and Lyons High have already brought five team state championships back to St. Vrain for the 2019-2020 academic year. Approximately 200 young musicians performed last night with the district-wide elementary honors choir. Altona Middle School, Skyline High School, and the Innovation Center were spotlighted at this year’s Succeeds Prize for excellence in education. The recognitions that have been earned by our students, teachers, and staff are too numerous to list, and we could not be more proud of the work taking place in classrooms across St. Vrain.

Public education provides the foundation for everything that makes our communities – and our nation – vibrant and strong. It is an honor to serve alongside the families, teachers and staff, business owners, elected officials, and other community leaders who continue to champion the advancement of our students and our schools. Together, we have thrived and strengthened our position as an accelerator of innovation and discovery. 

Again, thank you for your continued partnership – together, we will keep the #StVrainStorm of success moving through St. Vrain Valley Schools.

Sincerely,
Don Haddad, Ed.D.
Superintendent
Twitter: @SVVSDSupt

Superintendent’s Update – The Future is in Our Classrooms

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November 9, 2019, 4:23pm  |  St Vrain Valley School District

Dear St. Vrain Valley Community,

Thank you for your outstanding support in championing the growth and development of St. Vrain Valley Schools into a nationally recognized center of excellence for student engagement and 21st-century learning. Your unwavering dedication to the well-being and success of our students, teachers, staff, and schools is a testament to the outstanding community in which we live.

It has been a tremendous month in our community with numerous celebrations of student and school success. Our student-athletes at Erie High, Niwot High, and Lyons High have already brought five team state championships back to St. Vrain for the 2019-2020 academic year. Approximately 200 young musicians performed last night with the district-wide elementary honors choir. Altona Middle School, Skyline High School, and the Innovation Center were spotlighted at this year’s Succeeds Prize for excellence in education. The recognitions that have been earned by our students, teachers, and staff are too numerous to list, and we could not be more proud of the work taking place in classrooms across St. Vrain.

Public education provides the foundation for everything that makes our communities – and our nation – vibrant and strong. It is an honor to serve alongside the families, teachers and staff, business owners, elected officials, and other community leaders who continue to champion the advancement of our students and our schools. Together, we have thrived and strengthened our position as an accelerator of innovation and discovery. 

Again, thank you for your continued partnership – together, we will keep the #StVrainStorm of success moving through St. Vrain Valley Schools.

Sincerely,
Don Haddad, Ed.D.
Superintendent
Twitter: @SVVSDSupt

Western Digital Partnership a Decade in the Making

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November 6, 2019, 11:02am  |  St Vrain Valley School District

In 2008, Skyline Principal Patty Quinones was faced with a monumental task – transforming the high school experience for her Skyline Falcons. “It was a time of incredible change and innovation.  We knew that the world was changing quickly and we had to keep up.  As we looked at the industries in our community, we realized that STEM offered our students that strong competitive advantage.”  Together with a team of dedicated teachers and staff, Quinones set about creating the district’s first high school focus program, STEM Academy.  Built in partnership with CU Boulder, the program focused on STEM and engineering skills, offering students a path to STEM careers.  To complement the new explicit focus on STEM, the school also added a Visual and Performing Arts Academy to provide even more opportunities for students. 

“We really did start small.  We needed help from industry on a whole host of issues, but technology was at the center.”  As the team began implementing the school’s first computer science coursework, they lacked something key: laptops.  Western Digital had recently opened an office in Longmont and was dedicated to supporting its new community.  “Western Digital stepped in and donated a laptop cart and set of laptops.  In those days, 1:1 initiatives like we have now didn’t exist, so with that investment, we could suddenly provide a huge increase in computer science programming to our students.”  With those laptops, Skyline was able to add its first course, Advanced Placement Computer Science.  The STEM Academy blossomed, ultimately helping to earn the district a $16.6M Race to the Top District grant.  In 2016, based on the success of the STEM Academy, Skyline added the district’s first Pathways in Technology Early College High School (P-TECH). 

Built on early successes at Skyline and across the district, St. Vrain has since implemented a nationally recognized learning technology plan, focus programs at every high school, a second P-TECH program, and an Innovation Center.  A decade after its first investment, the Western Digital Foundation recently awarded a $10,000 grant to St. Vrainnovation, the district’s future-ready mobile innovation lab.  With the mobile lab, St. Vrain will not only be able to provide innovative, technology-driven programs to students, but also demonstrate to educators across the country how technology-enabled and personalized learning changes students’ lives.  

Western Digital’s support is a story of how one investment can have far-reaching effects.  “In those days, we were testing small projects to see what worked.  Today, our teachers are leading the nation in their practices and taking the show on the road,” says Quinones. “We’re very grateful for longtime supporters like Western Digital, who are willing to invest in big ideas and a vision.  It has been an amazing experience to see that vision come to life for students.”

Western Digital Partnership a Decade in the Making

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In 2008, Skyline Principal Patty Quinones was faced with a monumental task – transforming the high school experience for her Skyline Falcons.

“It was a time of incredible change and innovation. We knew that the world was changing quickly and we had to keep up. As we looked at the industries in our community, we realized that STEM offered our students that strong competitive advantage.” Together with a team of dedicated teachers and staff, Quinones set about creating the district’s first high school focus program, STEM Academy. Built in partnership with CU Boulder, the program focused on STEM and engineering skills, offering students a path to STEM careers. To complement the new explicit focus on STEM, the school also added a Visual and Performing Arts Academy to provide even more opportunities for students.

“We really did start small. We needed help from industry on a whole host of issues, but technology was at the center.” As the team began implementing the school’s first computer science coursework, they lacked something key: laptops. Western Digital had recently opened an office in Longmont and was dedicated to supporting its new community. “Western Digital stepped in and donated a laptop cart and set of laptops. In those days, 1:1 initiatives like we have now didn’t exist, so with that investment, we could suddenly provide a huge increase in computer science programming to our students.” With those laptops, Skyline was able to add its first course, Advanced Placement Computer Science. The STEM Academy blossomed, ultimately helping to earn the district a $16.6M Race to the Top District grant. In 2016, based on the success of the STEM Academy, Skyline added the district’s first Pathways in Technology Early College High School (P-TECH).

Built on early successes at Skyline and across the district, St. Vrain has since implemented a nationally recognized learning technology plan, focus programs at every high school, a second P-TECH program, and an Innovation Center. A decade after its first investment, the Western Digital Foundation recently awarded a $10,000 grant to St. Vrainnovation, the district’s future-ready mobile innovation lab. With the mobile lab, St. Vrain will not only be able to provide innovative, technology-driven programs to students, but also demonstrate to educators across the country how technology-enabled and personalized learning changes students’ lives.

Western Digital’s support is a story of how one investment can have far-reaching effects. “In those days, we were testing small projects to see what worked. Today, our teachers are leading the nation in their practices and taking the show on the road,” says Quinones. “We’re very grateful for longtime supporters like Western Digital, who are willing to invest in big ideas and a vision. It has been an amazing experience to see that vision come to life for students.”

Build Support, Innovate, Repeat: Agile Public Education In Colorado

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By Tom Vander Ark, Contributor

Read the full story in forbes

With thoughtful sustained leadership, big school districts can earn community trust, establish and maintain rigorous academic standards, and become agile—even innovative. That’s the lesson from schools in Longmont, Colorado, north of Denver. 

St. Vrain Valley Schools (@SVVSD) serves the city of Longmont and a dozen smaller communities in four counties stretching from the Continental Divide to the plains and covering 411 square miles. 

Serving 33,000 students in 60 schools, the district is growing by several hundred students each year and is likely to double in size over the next few decades as people continue to move to this area of robust growth, technology, and other incredible opportunities (with equally spectacular views).  

When Don Haddad joined St. Vrain 19 years ago as a high school principal, the district was experiencing significant struggles. They lacked community trust, had a $14 million budget shortfall, and had never passed a local mill levy. 

When he became superintendent 12 years ago,  Dr. Haddad (@SVVSDsupt) began developing a team and building community support to work collaboratively developing a comprehensive mission and vision designed to provide a strong competitive advantage for every student. 

In addition to a can-do attitude, the leadership team urged a shift in the focus from asking, “What could our community do for us?” to “What could we do for our community?”

The new team began laying the groundwork for a strong foundation of rigorous academics and a plethora of incredible co-curricular programs in the areas of performing arts, visual arts, and much more. “We push academic excellence with an aligned system and a strong tech infrastructure,” said Haddad. “A strong foundation of academics serve as a platform for robust innovation.” 

How Business Partners Support Innovation 

St. Vrain Valley Schools is a ‘full-choice’ district with more than 90 business partners that support real-world learning in career pathways including STEM, biotech, aerospace, energy, medical and biosciences, visual and performing arts, leadership, and P-TEACH—a program promoting pathways to a teaching career. College credit partnerships offer a year or more of college credit in each pathway. 

In 2016, the district opened Colorado’s first Pathways to Technology Early College High School (P-TECH) program. The P-TECH model enables students to earn an associate’s degree alongside their high school diploma at no cost to the student. Students also earn valuable experience working with mentors from industry partners while enrolled in the program, and are first in line for jobs upon graduation.

At Skyline High School’s P-TECH program, students gain a powerful work experience at IBM while working toward an Associate of Applied Science in Computer Information Systems at Front Range Community College.

At Frederick High School’s P-TECH, students benefit from partnerships with Tolmar, Agilent Technologies, and Avexis while working toward an associate’s degree focusing on biochemistry from Aims Community College. An upcoming third P-TECH at Silver Creek High will focus on cybersecurity.  

More than 700 St. Vrain learners participate on 155 robotics teams with the support of mentors from local businesses. 

Haddad recognized that St. Vrain is a big business for northern Colorado. As it is approaching 6,000 employees and serving numerous industry and community partners, St. Vrain also employs about 140 students as technicians and designers in part-time jobs and work study programs. 

St. Vrain also recently moved its Innovation Center to a new 50,000-square-foot state-of-the-art facility. The Innovation Center is a next generation career center offering advanced opportunities in technology and entrepreneurship (see feature). 

This year, the district is also launching their new Mobile Innovation Lab initiative and will expand opportunities in academic and technology throughout Colorado and beyond. Funded entirely through corporate partners including IBM, UC Health, Stapp Toyota, Crestone Peak Resources, and United Power, the lab will highlight transformative learning experiences and pilot new curriculum and advanced technologies.

Using Grants, Local Levies, and Bonds to Fund Innovation

In 2010, St. Vrain won a federal innovation grant for $3.6 million and raised more than $700,000 in local matching funds.

In 2012, St. Vrain won a $16.7 million Race to the Top grant which laid the groundwork for P-TECH and the Innovation Center. 

Touring the Innovation Center, Hilary Sontag, Director of Competitive Grants & Strategic Partnerships (@SontagHilary) points to evidence of support from the Rose Community Foundation, Daniels Fund, and the Morgridge Family Foundation.  

The district has passed two local mill levies, which are currently worth approximately $56 million annually (and growing) to support, among other things, enriched teacher development and 1:1 technology access for secondary students—the latter of which has been recognized with top awards by the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) and the Consortium for School Networking (COSN). The community also passed a facilities bond initiative in 2008 for $189 million and one in 2016 for $260.3 million.

“Building on top of a strong academic foundation has enabled disciplined, robust innovation,” explained Haddad. “It has expanded districtwide access to new programs and complex design thinking experiences.” 

Cultivating Leadership is Key to Stability 

Stable and effective leadership is key to St. Vrain’s success at improving on traditional measures and developing innovative new programs. 

One way that St. Vrain builds community support and develops leadership capacity is Leadership St. Vrain, a nine-month program that allows community volunteers to dive into school district operations, share their perspectives, and become more active participants. Many School Board members emerge from this program, yielding cohesive mission-focused governance. 

The local chambers of commerce recognized St. Vrain as the Business of the Year, Large Business of the Year, and most Innovative Business of the Year. The Longmont Economic Development Council recognized the district for serving as a top economic catalyst, preparing graduates to join society with a competitive advantage. 

Launched last year, Community Strong is a community engagement campaign that supports  partnerships between the district and the wider community. Interested partners create a profile highlighting their potential for presentations, tours, or internships and the platform matches them with schools. 

Advocating for Public Education 

“We are taking public education by #StVrainStorm!” is a theme that is supported by the district’s leadership, teachers, staff, students and community that has served to inspire the St. Vrain community around the many successes of its students and schools.

St. Vrain also sponsors an initiative to build support for public education in Colorado called Our Schools Our Community, led by Kerri McDermid, Chief Communications and Global Impact Officer (@mcdermid), and Brandon Shaffer, Executive Director of Legal and Governmental Affairs (@BShafferCO). Stories are shared on Twitter at @COSchoolsProud and #COSchoolsProud.

“Remarkable things can happen in public education when transformative leadership (such as St. Vrain’s team) is in place for a number of years, and systems are built to sustain a strong, equitable foundation, as well as innovative practices,” said Deputy Superintendent Jackie Kapushion.

Mead High starts inclusive percussion class

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November 5, 2019, 11:06am  |  St Vrain Valley School District
By Amy Bounds, Times-Call

The band program is becoming more inclusive and accessible at Mead High School with the creation of a unified percussion class for students with special needs.

The class is based on the St. Vrain Valley School District’s unified sports program. New this fall, the district also started a high school unified bowling league.

Mead’s percussion class, created and taught by band director Chad Lemons, enrolls six students with special needs and five band student mentors.

Their first performance was Wednesday at the school district’s annual band night. The percussion students performed with Mead’s full marching band for the event.

Read the full story in the times-call

SVVSD starts new Advanced Manufacturing Academy

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By Amy Bounds, Times-Call

Starting this year, St. Vrain Valley high school students have the opportunity to learn manufacturing skills to prepare them for careers in machining, engineering, welding, electronics and optics.

The new Advanced Manufacturing Academy is located at Longmont’s Career Development Center, taking over space left by the Innovation Academy’s move to a standalone building. The program is starting with four sessions of the “Principles of Manufacturing” class. About 60 students are enrolled in the introductory yearlong class. 

“All the students are super motivated,” said Career Development Center Director Deniece Cook. “We’re super excited about their engagement.”

Skills to be covered in the introductory class include basics of 3D-design software, blueprinting, mechanical engineering, optics, electrical systems, fabrication and machining. Students are starting by learning machining, including safety and manufacturing terminology.

Read the full story in the times-call

An Entrepreneurial Mindset

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Visualize an entrepreneur and what do you see? An individual in business attire? Someone speaking next to a slideshow presentation featuring line graphs and pie charts? What about a 20-year-old female who started a handcrafted electric guitar company right out of high school? Or a male high school senior who is in the thick of creating a prototype for a shoe designed to replenish electrolytes back into the body? The modern-day entrepreneur encompasses anyone who can identify a problem or need and create a solution. While Jeff Lund, instructional technologist at the Innovation Center, would like to share more details on what his students are working on in the Entrepreneurial Zone, he can’t give away too much since they are in the middle of designing prototypes, exploring how to establish LLCs, and pitching ideas to local investors.

Through the Entrepreneurial Zone class, students create fluid business plans, conduct marketing SWOT analyses, and complete financial literacy coursework to understand what financing is required from investors to pay themselves and get their startup off the ground.

As an intern in the Entrepreneurial Zone, Skyline senior, AnneJeanette Gonzales, is paid as a district employee to serve as a marketer for community outreach events, an event planner for various networking events, and an online systems manager for entrepreneurial events. While enrolled in the course, she is also earning college credit. Participation in programs that combine coursework and real-world experiences are transformational for students. AnneJeanette shared, “The Entrepreneurial Zone has prepared me for my future, because I have been forced to step outside of my comfort zone. When I started high school I was very shy, but now I speak at a lot of events and this program has helped me expand my network and meet industry professionals and other students who have mentored me while I apply for college.”

Advocating for Financial Literacy

Financial literacy is one component of entrepreneurship and while it is incorporated into the Entrepreneurial Zone, this is not unique in St. Vrain. Financial literacy is woven through curriculum from kindergarten to high school. When personal financial literacy was first created as a Colorado Academic Standard in 2009, the content was looped into social studies and math classes. However, in 2016-2017, the St. Vrain Valley Schools Student Advisory Council met with district leadership to advocate for a standalone class to cover topics such as money management, financial planning, credit and debt, taxes, and risk management. Based on student input, the Board of Education voted to add financial literacy to St. Vrain graduation requirements starting with the class of 2021.

Students across St. Vrain high schools now have the option to take Personal Financial Literacy or Wealth Management, which cover job readiness and financial goal setting, to fulfill the new graduation requirement. Students engage in learning activities that simulate the financial world, such as an online stock market game and a virtual reality world where students are assigned a life and career where they learn how to provide for their needs. Longmont High sophomore, Tessa Money, shared, “before I took Wealth Management, I never really thought about how even people who have a lot of money can lose it if they don’t know how to manage their money.”

Students have many opportunities across all high schools to deepen and broaden their business skills. Longmont High is home to the High School of Business focus program, where students get a head start on exploring their postsecondary interests in the field. Classes include Leadership, Wealth Management, Principles of Business, Business Economics, Principles of Marketing, Principles of Finance, Principles of Management, and Business Strategies. Longmont junior, Matthew Cash, shared, “my enrollment in this program gave me the confidence to take on new leadership positions such as editor-in-chief of the yearbook.”

The Early Grades Matter

Another enrichment opportunity is through St. Vrain’s partnership with the Young Americans Center, a local nonprofit focused on financial literacy programming for youth. The nonprofit offers a program called Young AmeriTowne, which introduces numerous financial topics to students and then culminates with them “running town” for the day. Students receive visits from local community members who represent various career fields. They then decide which job they will apply for based on availability. Those who decide they’d like to serve as an elected official of the town must deliver a campaign speech to their peers. When the roles are decided and the students run the town for a day, they encounter real-world problems. If they are a store manager, they will run out of inventory and need to problem-solve how to replenish items. Another student’s character may receive a medical bill and have to navigate making payments. Community Schools Coordinator, Susan Zimmerman, emphasized the program changes the students’ perspective on money, “I’ve heard students talk about how they can start their own business and share ideas on how they can make their own money.”

Entrepreneurship is all about identifying problems and creating solutions. Elementary schools across St. Vrain participate in student-driven Genius Hour projects, where students research a topic they are passionate about and create a way to share it. One fifth grade student at Indian Peaks Elementary School visited a local farmers market and decided to bring one to the school as their Genius Hour project. The idea generated interest from fellow students and teachers who collaborated to make the project a community success.

St. Vrain’s Nutrition Services worked with the students at Indian Peaks to connect them to local farmers who ultimately donated food to be used at the school farm stand. On the evening of the school farmer’s market, students led everything from sharing their knowledge of farmers markets and seasonal produce availability, to preparing the farmers market stand with fruits and vegetables, to handling all of the transactions at the event. “I learned that you need to use a lot of math during the market,” shared fifth grader, Jonathon Lopez. He continued, “working with money and people is an important skill.” The students decided to donate their earnings back to the school to be placed in the school fund for field trips and co-curricular activities.

Indian Peaks STEM Coordinator, Alexandra Downing, speaks passionately on the success of the project and how the whole community enjoyed learning about the students’ research and experience. “Entrepreneurship is part of student voice. Students get to choose their topic and create something that’s new and share it with the world. The Genius Hour process gives students confidence and character, which instills in them the belief that they can make a difference in the world – whether it’s a simple change to something that’s already been made or a brand new invention, they go through the process of creation and you witness them grow.”

November 16: Future-Ready Robotics Showcase Highlights and Celebrates Student Learning and Whole Community Engagement

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October 16, 2019, 1:08pm  |  St Vrain Valley School District

Walk into any St. Vrain robotics program – be it after-school clubs at the elementary level, secondary classes, or competitive tournaments – and you will be immediately struck by captivated engagement. Students (and teachers) are busily and eagerly developing knowledge and skills in computer science, coding, engineering, design and technology, mathematics, and more. What’s more, they’re working together as creative thinkers, reflective learners, team players, and self-managers.

“Robotics is an integrated field,” says Axel Reitzig, coordinator of innovation at the Innovation Center of St. Vrain Valley Schools. “It has immeasurable impact in helping our overall STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics) initiative, providing a wealth of integrative experiences. Through robotics, students gain transformative experiences as they see how language arts relates to math, which relates to science. It really has no limits.”

Student interacting with an underwater robot with fish swimming around it

Reitzig was one of several early adopters who recognized the potential of robotics six years ago, confident that it would take off. “It just made sense,” he says. “A lot of things come together by doing robotics. It’s very experiential.” “Everything is connected,” adds Alexandra Downing, STEM Coordinator at Indian Peaks Elementary School, and VEX Robotics Program Manager at the Innovation Center. “Teams of students work together to build a robot around specific parameters; they use design-thinking and write down their process in their engineering notebooks. Teachers can see skills they’re using carried over into the classroom. They’re communicating at a higher level.

Since its inception, robotics programming and participation in St. Vrain have grown at staggering rates. From an initial five schools offering the after-school club, there are now competitive VEX robotics teams, spanning grades 2-12, at almost all district schools. The district also supports robotics by hosting tournaments, opportunities for students to test their robots and interact with other teams in a competitive environment. This year, the district will host 12 tournaments, as well as two state tournaments. “Tournaments are opportunities for authentic engineering and feedback,” Reitzig says. “They’re very challenging, requiring teams to rely on skill and teamwork. The real draw is to earn the opportunity to go to the state championship, and then qualify for the World Championships.”


Over the last six years, St. Vrain teams have consistently qualified for World Championships, finishing as high as second and third place.
Robotics engages students beginning in the early grades, and spans their educational career. Older students have opportunities to mentor clubs, run tournaments, and choose from an increasing range of classes integrating robotics in secondary schools. “The VEX program is not only a great entry point and community builder, it’s also a stepping stone,” Reitzig says. “What we see happening more throughout the district is that kids are more aware of opportunities, and that interest and awareness drives future programs we’re developing, like aeronautics, underwater robotics, and more. The current and future workforce demands education rooted in traditional academics while leveraging modern technology and advanced learning. Robotics is building that talent pipeline, equipping students with skills they need for the future, whether they go into a related field or not.

Students aren’t the only ones continuously growing through the creative challenges and demands offered by robotics. “Robotics is a disruptive part of technology for education,” Reitzig says. “It forces us as educators to change how we practice. It’s more student-directed, authentic, and hands-on. There’s constant problem-solving and change that keeps everyone stretching their limits and collaborating.”

2019 Future-Ready Robotics Showcase
Saturday, November 16
10 am-2 pm
Village at the Peaks

See St. Vrain robotics in action at the upcoming 2019 Future-Ready Robotics Showcase, planned for Saturday, November 16 at Village at the Peaks from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. The event includes the district’s ST. VRAINNOVATION Future-Ready Innovation Lab, which will be on-site providing a variety of blended experiences organized around how robots sense, think, and act within their environment. There will further be student-led stations to provide visitors with hands-on robotics experiences for the whole family.

The Robotics Showcase will also be a celebration, and a thank you to the community. “Robotics is growing so much because of everyone’s support,” Reitzig says. “It’s because of our district as a whole recognizing the value from the beginning. It’s Community Schools being such a strong sponsor at the elementary level. It’s district partners promoting volunteers and mentors, and sometimes offering funding. It’s parents supporting and enjoying this, appreciating this is a sport. It’s student dedication. It’s a celebration for everybody.”

St. Vrain Valley Schools