Announcing our newest Cory Team Member!

Posted April 18, 2016

On behalf of the Cory Personnel Committee, it is my pleasure to introduce to you our newest Cory Team Member, Sara Laughlin.  Mrs. Laughlin will will be starting at Cory this coming 2016/17 school year and will be joining our 4/5 Literacy Team.  She will also be joining us at our upcoming Auction to meet all of you!

Mrs. Laughlin will be an asset to our team and will offer the latest and greatest in instructional strategies to the classroom.  Our team is known to be a ROCKIN’ team and having her join us will only add to the great talent that already exists at Cory.  In addition to her qualifications that she highlighted in her biography, she has also received many awards for her stellar teaching, most notably as “Educator of the Year” in 2010 by the Colorado Association for Gifted and Talented .  Mrs. Laughlin was described as “exemplary” and “innovative” in the way that she contributes her time and effort in support of gifted children in Colorado.

She will be taking over Mr. Melamed’s classroom and will be partnering with Mrs. Stricker. Mr. Melamed will be stepping into the Senior Team Role and will be teaching Literacy with Mrs. LaVenture next year.  Please click here to read the letter regarding these changes that was sent to all parents on March 6th. 

Please click below for her biography.  May you enjoy reading her biography as much as we enjoyed interviewing and hiring her.

I also wanted to take the time to share with you the process in which these candidates were chosen. DPS has a tight recruitment system to help ensure every DPS classroom has the most qualified teacher. Within this system is a level of freedom for each school to dig deeper and find the best candidates for their particular school and needs. Below is a snapshot of the process in which we took to find what we believe are the “best of the best”.

Cory Personnel Committee Report- 4/5 Literacy Position- April 2016
Personnel Committee members include:

  • Jennifer Harris (Principal)
  • Brendan Doyle (1st Grade Rep.)
  • Patty Kozma (2nd Grade Rep.)
  • Sarah Clark (3rd Grade Rep.)
  • Rainy LaVenture (4th/5th Grade Rep.)
  • Debbie Stricker (4th/5th Math Rep.)
  • Dawn Miller (Librarian/Technology Teacher representing our Specials Team)
  • Maria Dutmer (Parent Rep.) and
  • Chris Powell (Parent Rep).

Resume Reviews

  • On Monday, April 4th the PC met to review resumes.  33 candidates were reviewed for this position.  From these, we prioritized the top 6 to invite to interview.

Interviews

  • On Tuesday, April 5th, the PC committee met and interviewed six 4/5candidates and moved three candidates forward for classroom observations and reference checks.  An offer/acceptance was then made to the top candidate on April 8th.

Based on the interviews, references and classroom observations, the committee agreed upon a recommendation to hire Mrs. Laughlin.  Thank you all for welcoming her  to our team!

The Personnel Committee is still in the process of hiring a candidate for the part-time 3rd grade position and ESL Resource Position, with hopes to have these hires on board in time for our upcoming Auction so you can meet them in person!  Keep an eye out in the next week for an announcement regarding these positions.

In partnership,

Jennifer Harris, Principal
jennifer_harris@dpsk12.org