Parent Post – November 17, 2017

Posted November 29, 2017

PARENT POST – NOVEMBER 17, 2017

Dear Cory Parents,
 
Heading into our holiday break I want to take a moment to thank you all for your support of Cory this year. The Friends of Cory Campaign, through your generous donations, has raised over $72,000 to support our school! This past week’s Scholastic Book Fair was a great success and we are waiting to hear the final numbers raised to support our school library. Not only has the community supported the school in such generous ways but the parents of Cory have also supported the various drives our students have initiated to help others. These drives include donations for Houston, Unicef, The Dumb Friends League, uniforms for students in Honduras, gently used books for a DPS school in need, and the Scholastic drive—where every donated dollar was matched with  two dollars. Of those two dollars, one dollar will be donated to a school impacted by the hurricanes and another dollar will be donated to support literacy non-profits.  
 
I would also like to the thank the community for such a warm welcome as the interim Principal at Cory. It has been a pleasure working with the staff and community to continue to build an amazing school together!
 
In other news, Our School Leadership Team is meeting after the holidays to review much of the visioning feedback from surveys conducted last year, as well as staff feedback this year, to begin drafting our guiding vision and mission. Once this vision is drafted it will go to the CSC for feedback and fine tuning. This work will help name how Cory is unique in the community as a school, and will help align school initiatives and our budget to a vision for our kids.
 
Lastly, I hope you all had a chance to see the first copy of our school-wide newspaper which was distributed this past week. The newspaper began as a project headed up by a few students in Mrs. Golden’s classroom two years ago with the help of a few parent volunteers. This project is growing to become a school-wide newspaper written and edited by our Cory students. If you didn’t have a chance to pick up a copy, please stop by the main office to receive the first edition!
 
Have a wonderful holiday break and we look forward to seeing all of the students back on Monday, November 27th.
 
Regards,
Liz TenCate
Interim Principal

Principal Selection Process Update:
 
The first step on the school side of the selection process is to identify the traits, you the community, are looking for in your next school leader. The attached form asks for specific feedback in several areas including the teaching and educational experience you think is important, communication style, skills and characteristics as well as areas that you think should be priorities for the next leader. We hope to have 100% participation and feedback from the community. This form should be turned in to the main office at Cory by December 11th.   School Leader Hiring Community Input Form (This form is also coming home with your student today in their Friday Folder.)

The second opportunity to become involved in the Principal Selection Process is to apply to be on School Principal Search Advisory Committee (SPSAC). This committee will be creating the interview questions specific to Cory, aligned to the traits identified in the community feedback, and conducting the interviews with selected candidates. This committee will be meeting in early January and will require a significant time commitment after school. This commitment is outlined in the application attached here. Applications to serve on the SPSAC are also due by December 11th to the Cory main office.  The committee should represent a diverse set of parents (grade level, student needs, time at the school etc.).  School Principal Search Advisory Committee Rules and Responsibilities; Application to serve on the School Principal Search Advisory Committee

At the December meeting, the CSC will be reviewing all community input forms as well as SPSAC applications. The CSC will synthesize the community feedback and select the SPSAC members based on creating a committee representative of the school as a whole.

At this time, the SPSAC committee will take the lead on the Principal Selection Process. Starting in January, the committee will take the synthesized feedback and move forward to begin the interview process with the support of the Instructional Superintendent.   
As outlined in last week Parent Post, here is an overview of the entire district process:

  1. Principal candidates must complete a very rigorous and multiple step process (using data to determine school needs, demonstrate the ability to manage a budget, role playing that replicates situations leaders deal with, teacher coaching, extensive interview/application processes) to gain entry into the candidate pool for the Denver Public Schools.
  2. Once a candidate is admitted into the candidate pool, they are able to apply for specific school vacancies.
  3. When a school has a vacancy, the staff and community participate in a process to identify the qualities and characteristics they are looking for in the next leader. Interested staff and community members are also offered the opportunity to apply to be part of the hiring committee. The committee is selected in order to be representational of the community.
  4. The committee and the Instructional Superintendent (IS) use the information re: qualities/characteristics to craft interview questions and to review the potential candidates for consideration.
  5. Interviews are conducted by the committee. These result in the identification of 2 or 3 finalists.
  6. The finalists participate in a learning walk where they observe teachers and identify areas for coaching and continued development (these walks occur at different schools for fairness).
  7. Sometimes candidates participate in an additional process where they demonstrate their ability, through scenarios based on the actual school/school community, to truly support the needs of the school and/or address the issues within the school.
  8. The finalists participate in a community forum where all of the questions are generated by the audience. All audience members fill out a feedback form naming strengths/growth areas for each candidate.
  9. Throughout the entire process, the Instructional Superintendent writes a report adding information after each portion of the process is completed.

We hope to have your participation in this very important process.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving.
 
Best,
Liz TenCate

 

News from the art room:

Please place all Original Works online art orders before the deadline of Nov. 22! Products will be shipped to Cory and dispersed to your child before winter break. Feel free to contact Ms. Alexander at angela_alexander@dpsk12.org with any questions. Thanks for supporting out art room fundraiser!


Lost and Found:
 
Please come take a look through the Lost and Found.  Any lunch boxes or water bottles left in the hallway on Friday after school will be discarded.  Lost and found will be taken downstairs for donation in the near future.