St. Vrain students continue to connect to their community through afterschool programming

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Though their learning is taking place online, students across St. Vrain Valley Schools continue to connect with peers for extracurricular enrichment activities. Clubs allow students to socialize outside of academics and maintain connections to their school community during this period of blended learning.

Mead Middle’s school focus is Extracurricular Engagement and Learning (EXCEL) with a longstanding belief that students succeed when they become involved and are connected to the school, which has been steadfast during online learning.

Mead Middle Physical Education Teacher, Felicia Clifford, meets with her running club members twice a week. The students connect over WebEx and begin the club by stretching and sharing highlights of their days with one another. They discuss running goals in terms of time and miles and then plan a route for the day. After completing independent runs, they reconvene to end each meeting by sharing their journeys.

“Students are finding joy in belonging to a group and doing something they love,” said Clifford.

The group has decided that they would like to run for a purpose and researched the app “Charity Miles,” in which they can select a charity and donors will make a contribution based on the total miles run.

Meanwhile, coding enthusiasts at Mead Middle meet regularly to tackle various computer programming challenges.

Math and Special Education Teacher, Amanda White, says the program is important for students because they can connect with peers who are outside of their scheduled classes.

“Students are able to find that common interest with peers that they may not have known before,” said White.

During in-person learning, students gather in the computer lab, and the group has pivoted to meeting virtually where White provides a coding challenge and the students share their work on the group screen. Club members can view each other’s coding creations and laugh together as they see visuals like a hamburger exploding across the screen or a dog dancing to a song.

At Westview Middle School, clubs have continued during blended learning due to the strong culture of student agency within the school community. Students in the filmmaking club, WTV, have been producing their news stories remotely since March when online learning unexpectedly began. Math Teacher and Club Leader, Dave Kline, attributes the strength of the club during challenging times to students’ passion for it.

“Students were able to continue the program remotely because it was their program and they wanted to see it continue,” said Kline.

With the start of the 2020-21 school year Kline received permission to set up the “Socially Distant Film Studio,” so members of the club can film segments of the show using the school’s equipment, which is now housed on a portable cart outside the school.

Kline also gives the students different film challenges that they can tackle remotely, such as telling a knock-knock joke in the style of film noir and recreating a famous movie line in many different scenes.

“Through programs like WTV, students are able to maintain that connection and routine,” continued Kline. “It’s easier for students to see this as a temporary setting when they are able to continue established routines, even if it is a remote setting.”

Westview Middle also emphasizes student leadership. As a school that follows the Student Teacher Progression model, where students and teachers stay with the same group for each year of middle school, students grow into the role of school leaders and mentors by the time they reach eighth grade.

Westview Science Teacher and leader of the school’s Plains to the Park program, Dan Cribby,  attributes the success of the program during online learning to the culture of student agency and leadership embedded within the Westview community. Students that were once apprentices in the program during their sixth and seventh grade years take on a higher role when then become the oldest in the clubs.

With Plains to the Park, typically Cribby takes a group of middle schoolers on experiential learning trips to Rocky Mountain National Park or Button Rock Preserve to study wildlife behavior based on data retrieved from field cameras. The COVID-19 pandemic has changed how the club runs, with Cribby now driving up on his own to collect the data and share back with the students over WebEx. Still, the eighth graders meet online regularly to plan how the program will continue with lower grade-level students starting in the second semester, and it will be the students who determine how the program adapts.

“All of our students feel they have ownership in the program, and feel confident moving things forward,” said Cribby. “The thing that makes this program successful during online learning is that students have agency in their work. They are able to shape and design the program to suit the needs of the times.”

Join Us: Virtual Town Hall with Boulder County Public Health

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Dear St. Vrain Valley Community,

Thank you for your continued partnership as we navigate the complexities of the evolving coronavirus pandemic and this difficult time for our community. While there have been various challenges, overall it has been a strong start to the new school year with high levels of student attendance and engagement across our system. I am incredibly proud of our students, teachers, staff, and families for their strong commitment, perseverance, and flexibility as we adapt to these unprecedented challenges related to how we deliver effective instruction and provide student support.

As we prepare for potential changes to our current learning models, we continue to work closely with our county and state health agency partners to monitor public health data and the spread of COVID-19 in our community. Our goal remains to return to some form of in-person learning as soon as we determine that it is both safe and feasible to do so. Toward this end, we are inviting our community to join us for a virtual town hall on Monday, September 21 from 6:00-7:00 pm. We will be joined by Boulder County Public Health officials: Jeff Zayach, Executive Director; Dr. Chris Urbina, Medial Officer; Heather Crate, Program Coordinator; and Soda Sonoda, Lead Epidemiologist II, to discuss the state of the coronavirus pandemic in our community and their recommendations regarding the potential return to in-person learning. Additionally, we will be answering questions from our community as time permits during this meeting.

Please Join Us for a Virtual Town Hall

Again, thank you for your continued flexibility and support. I hope that you are able to join us on September 21, and we look forward to sharing more detailed information about potential changes to our school schedules.  Sincerely,Don Haddad, Ed.D.SuperintendentSt. Vrain Valley Schools@SVVSDSupt

Estimada comunidad de St. Vrain Valley:

Gracias por su continua colaboración mientras transcurrimos por las complejidades de evolucionar en la pandemia de coronavirus y por este momento difícil para nuestra comunidad. Aunque ha habido varios desafíos, en general ha sido un comienzo sólido para el nuevo año escolar, con niveles altos de asistencia de estudiantes y de compromiso en nuestro sistema. Estoy increíblemente orgulloso de nuestros estudiantes, maestros, personal y familias por su fuerte compromiso, perseverancia y flexibilidad a medida que nos adaptamos a estos desafíos sin precedentes, relacionados con la forma en la que brindamos instrucción efectiva de alta calidad y apoyo a los estudiantes.

A medida que nos preparamos para posibles cambios en nuestros actuales modelos de aprendizaje, continuamos trabajando estrechamente con nuestros socios del condado y de la agencia de salud estatal a fin de monitorear los datos de salud pública y el contagio de COVID-19 en nuestra comunidad. Nuestro objetivo continúa siendo volver a algún tipo de aprendizaje en persona tan pronto cómo determinemos que sea seguro y factible hacerlo. Para lograr este fin, invitamos a nuestra comunidad a unirse a nosotros en una reunión virtual del condado, el lunes 21 de septiembre, de 6:00 a 7:00 pm. Se nos unirán los funcionarios de Salud Pública del Condado de Boulder: Jeff Zayach, director ejecutivo, Dr. Chris Urbina, oficial médico, Heather Crate, coordinadora del programa, y Soda Sonoda, epidemióloga principal II, para debatir sobre el estado de la pandemia por coronavirus en nuestra comunidad y para brindar sus recomendaciones en lo que respecta al potencial regreso al aprendizaje presencial. Además, durante esta reunión, estaremos respondiendo preguntas de la comunidad, en la medida que el tiempo lo permita.

Por favor, participe con nosotros en una reunión virtual del condado

 Nuevamente gracias por su flexibilidad y apoyo. Espero que puedan unirse a nosotros el 21 de septiembre, y esperamos compartir información más detallada sobre cualquier posible cambio en nuestros horarios escolares. Cordialmente,Don Haddad, Ed.D.SuperintendenteEscuelas de St. Vrain Valley@SVVSDSupt

Grant dedicates nearly $1 million to increase postsecondary workforce readiness

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St. Vrain Valley Schools has been awarded a $930,889, four-year grant through the Colorado Department of Education’s School Counselor Corps Grant Program (SCCGP). The grant supports successful transitions for St. Vrain students — from elementary to middle school, middle to high school, and high school to postsecondary education and the workforce — with a focus on attendance and graduation.

“Our goals for this grant are to increase attendance, graduation rates, and ultimately, postsecondary workforce readiness among all St. Vrain students,” said Kristin Hefflon, Student Services Coordinator. 

To achieve these goals, the three-year grant will fund one additional full-time school counselor at Skyline High School, Trail Ridge Middle School, and Mountain View Elementary School. The new counselors will be tasked with developing and implementing sustainable programming focused on transition activities like school, industry, and postsecondary visits, student panels, and information nights. An increased emphasis will also be placed on the Individual Career and Academic Plan (ICAP), a multi-year process that guides students and families in the exploration of career, academic, and postsecondary opportunities.

In addition to programming, counselors will also identify at-risk students and provide additional support for those students and their families, including targeted interventions for identified students with increased needs, offering education for families on the importance of attendance and addressing barriers, and creating opportunities to build stronger relationships between students’ families and schools.

“This is a coordinated effort between our students and families, district departments, and community partners,” Hefflon says. “This grant will allow us to expand upon great work that is already being done in St. Vrain.”

In recent years, St. Vrain has increased the number of school counselors districtwide, adding one counselor to every high school, and ensuring that there is a counselor or interventionist at every one of the elementary schools. In 2017, St. Vrain adopted the ICAP as a graduation requirement, starting with the class of 2021, requiring every graduating student to complete a capstone project focused on their future goals and plans. Last year, St. Vrain’s Student Services and Curriculum Departments began collaboration to further integrate ICAP activities and reflections into core content.

“While counselors discuss ICAP with students, teachers engage students in meaningful career conversations by connecting academics with long term planning and postsecondary exploration,” Hefflon says. “Students are learning that by the time they get to middle school and high school, their purpose is to plan for life after high school.”

While this is not the first SCCGP grant that St. Vrain has received, it is by far the largest. Past grants have provided funding for additional counselors at Longs Peak Middle School, Timberline PK-8, Sanborn Elementary, and Northridge Elementary. Grant counselors in these schools have demonstrated success in increasing school-wide ICAP implementation, transitions to middle school and high school, and family-community engagement.  

Beyond grant funding, St. Vrain also receives continued support from community partners like Boulder County IMPACT, the Colorado Education Initiative, and the Safe Schools Alliance to create systems that will sustain the work implemented through the grant.

“With the support of this grant funding and our community partners, we are shifting the conversation to make the connection between what students are learning now to what they will learn and be able to do as adults,” says Hefflon. “Our goal in St. Vrain is to support every student and prepare them for life after graduation.”

St. Vrain Valley Schools hosts musical instrument drive

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St. Vrain’s Fine Arts department is hosting a musical instrument collection drive. Members of the community are invited to donate gently used instruments to St. Vrain Valley Schools’ music program and receive a donation receipt from the St. Vrain Valley Schools Education Foundation. There are two drop-off dates and locations:  

  • September 30 | 8:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m.
    Lincoln School. 619 Bowen Street. Longmont, CO. 80501
     
  • October 2 | 12:00 p.m. – 4:00 p.m.
    Erie High School. 3180 County Road 5. Erie, CO. 80516

“As we transitioned to online learning last spring, we realized there was a need for instruments so that each student can have one at home for practice,” said Fine Arts Coordinator, Janay Bird. “Typically, students are able to share instruments housed in the classroom. This, plus the already-present need for instruments for our growing music programs, inspired us to partner with the Education Foundation to host this event as we continue to support our amazing St. Vrain musicians.”  St. Vrain’s Fine Arts department has received calls from community members asking if the school district would accept musical instrument donations. Often, people wanted to donate because the family was moving or a student graduated and no longer used the instrument.  After the drive, St. Vrain’s Music Leadership team will collaborate to ensure all donations are cleaned and tuned, and then determine an equitable way to distribute instruments to schools. The Music Leadership team consists of music teachers across the district who represent various grade-levels and music programs.  Community members can bring gently used instruments to the designated donation sites. Piano and keyboard donations are accepted on an individual basis. Please contact St. Vrain’s Fine Arts Coordinator, Janay Bird, for details at [email protected] or 303-702-7916.

You’re Invited: St. Vrain Valley Schools to hold virtual performing arts college information night on September 22

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On Tuesday, September 22 from 6:00-8:00 P.M., all students who are interested in pursuing higher education in the performing arts are invited to attend St. Vrain’s performing arts college information night. Interested families must register ahead of the event to receive their invitation to the Webex event at http://stvra.in/performingarts.

This will be the second year St. Vrain has hosted a performing arts college information night. Last year, Erie High School hosted the event where over 150 people from across the district attended.

“After last year’s successful turnout, we are excited to be offering the event again this year in a virtual format,” said Scott Wright, Erie High School Theater Teacher. “The goal is to continue bringing together leading performing arts college programs from across the state to help assist students in their future education endeavors, as they continue to aspire and reach towards their dreams in the performing arts.”

The event will feature faculty and staff from the University of Denver, DIME Denver, the University of Colorado, Colorado State University, and the University of Northern Colorado. Speakers will share information with students and parents considering pursuing a degree in dance, music, and theater. Topics will include programs and degree opportunities, the performing arts college application process, questions to ask potential colleges, scholarship opportunities, and the audition process during the time of COVID-19.

The event’s main speaker and facilitator is Director of Admission and Recruitment at the University of Colorado Boulder, Veronica McClellan. “Ultimately, this event serves as a really easy-to-digest way to learn and understand the logistics of applying and auditioning to Colorado programs, and also a way to better understand what questions to be asking any institution across the country,” said McClellan. “Colorado is home to a rich pool of bright, talented, up-and-coming artists and it’s so important to us to provide good information about the paths forward so they can feel empowered to pursue their dreams.”

Project kits provide hands-on learning from home for Longmont’s Career Development Center students

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Packaged in plastic boxes and bags, hundreds of project kits created for St. Vrain Valley School District students enrolled in the Career Development Center awaited pick up Friday in the parking lot at 1200 Sunset St.

Under tents set up outside the building, masked students relished a moment to have face-to-face contact with their instructors, before heading home with their assignments in hand.

The take-home project kits will be a new normal for students enrolled in the district’s technical education programs. With the district opting for a remote start to the school year, in wake of the coronavirus pandemic, the idea was to give students some of the same hands-on experiences they would be getting in the classroom, said Charles “Buck” Webber, the assistant principal for the Career Development Center.

Read the full story in the times-call

The little fish that could: Despite COVID-caused changes to program, St. Vrain students, partners reintroduce redbelly dace into wild

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While “innovation” in the Innovation Center’s name conjures up images of robotics and aeronautics and other high-tech fields, it doesn’t exclude conservation. “Although it’s not a biology center or an ecology center, they’re innovating how to raise these fish,” Boulder County Parks and Open Space wildlife biologist Mac Kobza said.

Tuesday was a day for the “nerds.”

Technically, it was a day for the NRDs — northern redbelly dace — and the St. Vrain Valley School District students, educators and others who were all part of a project to reintroduce the endangered fish into the St. Vrain River ecosystem.

Read the full story in the Longmont leader

P-TEACH Grads Return to Classroom as Apprentice Teachers

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Just three months after finishing high school, some recent graduates are back in St. Vrain  classrooms. Eight members of the inaugural class of the Pathways to Teaching (P-TEACH) program are working as apprentice teachers at Mountain View Elementary and Timberline PK-8. Apprentices are paraprofessional educators, who, under the direction of a classroom teacher, work to support student learning through a wide range of planning, instruction, and clerical duties.

For 20 hours a week, P-TEACH apprentices gain real work experience as paraprofessionals, while receiving added mentorship from a classroom teacher and weekly 1:1 coaching from their P-TEACH NxtGEN @ St. Vrain Coordinator and Instructor, Nicole Rudman. The rest of the week, they are enrolled as students at the University of Colorado Denver and Front Range Community College, working to earn credits toward their bachelor’s degrees in early childhood education, elementary education, or elementary special education.

Deejha Blash-Lopez, a 2020 Longmont High School graduate, works at Mountain View Elementary School with kindergarten teacher Lauren Vargas.

“Through this experience I get to apply what I’m learning in class and see it actually happen,” says Blash-Lopez. “I am able to see all the behind the scenes work of the classroom, which helps me get a deeper understanding of all of the work that it takes to become a teacher.”

The P-TEACH program was developed in 2018 with grant funding from an Early Childhood Workforce Innovation Grant through the Transforming the Early Childhood Workforce in Colorado Initiative, which is funded by Buell Foundation and Gary Community Investments and led by Early Milestones Colorado, as well as a Colorado Department of Higher Education Plan Into Action grant. Through the customized pathway program, aspiring young educators can pursue teaching careers in high school by getting a head start on their post-secondary education through concurrent enrollment at CU Denver while also gaining hands-on work experience.

St. Vrain received a second Transforming the Early Childhood Workforce in Colorado investment this spring, adding $190,000 in support of the expansion of the P-TEACH program to include a four-year bachelor’s degree pathway for both recent graduates and adult paraprofessionals seeking to advance their education careers. The grant provides funding for P-TEACH NxtGEN students for identified college-level coursework at Front Range and CU Denver, all of which will transfer to CU Denver to be applied toward their degree requirements.

“Expanding our program gives us the opportunity to support our diverse community of P-TEACH graduates as they study to become future educators, many of whom are the first in their families to attend college,” Rudman, the P-TEACH NxtGEN @ St. Vrain Coordinator and Instructor, says. “Through their apprenticeships, they can apply the theories that they are learning in college to the real world of the classroom, all while having the support of their fellow cohort members, their mentor teacher, and NxtGEN coach.”

For Blash-Lopez and her peer cohort, the ultimate goal is to become a lead classroom teacher. As they complete their studies at CU Denver, the P-TEACH apprentices will continue to work as paraprofessionals for three years, followed by a year of student teaching. They will graduate college with a competitive advantage, ready to join the workforce and inspire the next generation in St. Vrain, and beyond.

“I want to try and be a positive teacher and help make kids want to learn,” Blash-Lopez says. “I love seeing when children start to progress and you can see how excited they get when they learn something new. I want to try and ignite that spark for learning.”

Project Launch Algebra Summer Program

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Summer programming is a great way for students at all levels and abilities to gain new skills, master challenging content, and get a head start on the year ahead. This summer, with the support of 22 teachers, 174 incoming ninth grade students had the opportunity to be part of the district’s inaugural Algebra 1 Focus Program. The four-week summer program took place in June and was offered at each feeder high school throughout the district.

Project Launch Algebra was designed as a bridge from eighth grade math to Algebra 1, focused on math standards that feed into the first semester of high school. During spring of 2020, teachers were asked to choose students that if given the right classroom support, cooperative learning, smaller class sizes, and engaging content, would succeed in math.

The design of Project Launch Algebra was to expose students to many different forms of mathematical thinking, explicit instruction, meaningful applications of concepts, and reflection opportunities.

“For students, our goal was for them to leave with a positive perception of math and equip them with a mindset that they can succeed in learning and understanding math with the right conditions in place,” shared Greg George, K-12 Mathematics Coordinator. “For teachers, we wanted to provide instruction materials and daily routines that modeled best practices in the teaching and learning of mathematics, including the use of formative assessment data to dive instruction.”

Classes had six to nine students, allowing better collaboration between students in a smaller group setting. 

“It was fun to see students persevere as they tackled some challenging problems, as the 9:1 student to teacher ratio really allowed for teachers to build that safe community necessary for students to succeed,” shared Kelly Addington, Learning Coach.

The program ran for two weeks with in-person learning, three hours a day, and one week via Webex for one hour a day.

“I was blown away by the eagerness of students who participated in the program,” shared Instructional Coordinator Lindsay La Porte. “The conversations I heard in classrooms demonstrated deep, mathematical thinking.”

The curriculum was designed to provide a balance between short and intensive direct instruction, student exploration, and rigor. It gave incoming ninth grade students the opportunity to explore complex mathematical problems and increased confidence in students’ ability to tackle problems, providing them the help they needed to successfully be prepared for Algebra 1.

“I have learned and grown greatly in the last two weeks, and feel more comfortable with the whole idea of algebra – I’ve learned many new things about myself, and about the whole idea of making and solving equations, and I plan to learn more,” shared a student participating at Silver Creek High School.

Even though the focus of this program was centered around boosting a students’ confidence in math, this was also a very important part of their transition from middle school to high school. Face-to-face experience between students and teachers, and connections students made, were invaluable in providing a strong foundation for when they enter high school.

“Even in this time, education, teaching, and learning can continue and be powerful,” said La Porte.

Taking the New School Year by #StVrainStorm

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As we begin a new school year in an unprecedented time, St. Vrain Valley teachers and staff are rising to the challenge of teaching in a virtual environment. Together, we will move forward and come through this as a stronger system. 

 See highlights below from our teachers, staff, and community of our first few days and months of preparation for the 2020-2021 school year.

#StVrainStorm

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