November 12, 2023
Dear TSD Families,
Gratitude - As we enter
the week before Thanksgiving Break, I want to express my sincerest gratitude to
the the entire community for your support in our Board of Education elections
and ballot measures.
New board
member David Lavender and newly elected incumbents Ryan Robinson and Cheryl
Carstens Miller begin four-year terms this month. These three board members join Stephanie
Hatcher and Jill O’Dell, who each have two years remaining in their four-year terms,
to form our five-member board. I am
incredibly excited and fortunate to work with this board in the upcoming years.
I am extremely grateful for your
support in helping to pass ballot measure 4A, which will provide funds for employee
housing and much needed infrastructure improvements. This will help us to continue to provide the
best possible education for the students of our district. Thank you to the staff and community members
who supported this effort in the weeks leading up to the election.
I also want to express gratitude to the
voters in our community who supported ballot measure 4B, which allows us to
annex the Rico community into the Telluride R-1 School District on July 1,
2024. This provides students from Rico
the guarantee of attending our schools, which they have never had in the
past. Members of the Rico community, the
Dolores County School District, and our own community were instrumental in
providing the information voters in our district and the Dolores County School
District needed to make an informed decision on this issue.
With over 2300 votes cast on each of
our ballot measures, I am grateful to serve in such an engaged community, and
it continues to be my honor to serve as your Superintendent.
Substitute Appreciation Week –
Continuing on the theme of gratitude, Friday, November 17 is Substitute Educator’s
Day. As the saying goes: “There is no
substitute for a great substitute teacher!”.
We are so thankful to the members of our community who dedicate their
time to serving our students and supporting our teachers. In my days in the classroom, I hated being
absent for many reasons, but having a talented and reliable substitute definitely
helped.
New website and communication platform – Many of you have received communication related to
ParentSquare, our new communications platform, and thank you to those of you who
have already subscribed to ParentSquare.
This platform will allow us to streamline our communications and reach
you in the ways that work best for you. If you are not a parent or
staff member, you can click here
to join “Community Groups” at TSD through ParentSquare. Associated with ParentSquare, we will be
rolling out a new website platform with a planned rollout date of November
20. Our new platform should be easier to
navigate and will be easier for us to maintain and update. You can preview the new website, and provide
any feedback, by clicking here.
Weather
Related Procedure for Closing School – We are excited that Winter is
coming, with all of the fun that it brings.
In the event weather conditions are such that the safety of the
children may be compromised when busing students to or from school, the
following procedures will be followed.
MORNING
CLOSING:
1.
Director of Operations (Ken) and Facilities and Maintenance Coordinator
(Brandon) will evaluate the road conditions in the school district, by driving
the roads and contacting the Sheriff and County Transportation Director when
deemed necessary.
2.
If conditions are such that a decision must be made to possibly cancel school,
the Director of Operations will confer with the Superintendent, who will make a
final determination. If the
Superintendent
is unavailable, the Director of Operations will contact Principals. The final
decision will be made by the Director of Operations if the Superintendent is
not available.
3.
A decision to cancel school will be made by 6:00 a.m.
4.
An email will go out to all staff.
5.
Notifications will be sent to all family contacts, subs, coaches, and community
organizations in the contact lists.
6.
KOTO (728-4333) will be contacted to ensure that news of school cancellation
will be broadcast in a timely manner.
7. Family notifications should be completed
by 7:00 a.m.
MORNING
DELAY:
1.
In the event that a determination is made that conditions are unsafe for a
normal start, but they are expected to improve to allow for a safe delayed
start, the process above will be followed to communicate a two-hour delayed
start. Bus routes will run exactly two hours later than normal. Each Principal
will develop a schedule for their building reflecting a two-hour delay.
EARLY
DAYTIME CLOSING:
1.
In the event that developing conditions might prompt early closing of the
school, the above procedures for determination and notification will be in
effect.
2.
Early closing will only take place if it is determined buses will be unable to
travel safely at the time of normally scheduled runs but will be able to travel
safely by leaving earlier.
Illuminate Education Data Breach - In my May
21, 2022 communication, I included information
about a security incident potentially impacting student data involving
Illuminate Education, which is the parent company for the Educlimber student
software that we use for our student data warehouse. We have recently
been informed by Kirkland & Ellis, the legal firm representing Illuminate
Education and their third-party software provider Progress Software, that their
investigation indicates that student data may have been accessed in May 2023 related
to this 2022 security incident. We
sincerely regret any concern or inconvenience this incident may cause. Families of students whose data was potentially
accessed will be notified directly by Illuminate Education or their representatives
over the next few weeks with next steps and support contact information.
This
has been a wonderful Fall in our schools.
Students have been engaged in great learning activities. Besides day-to-day academic instruction in
our classrooms, there have been great experiential opportunities including
field trips, amazing drama productions, athletics, PBIS (Positive Behavior
Interventions and Supports) activities, and more. Teachers are engaged in Professional Learning
Communities, exploring ways to improve teaching and learning. The hard work of our staff (and students) and
the support of our community organizations helps to make our district something
I am proud of. I hope that everyone in
our community has a safe, restful, and enjoyable Thanksgiving.
Sincerely,
John
Pandolfo
Superintendent
[email protected]
970-369-1213