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During the Winter Break of 1996, Principal Howard Jay and a highly selected staff move into the newly built elementary school. Teachers were hand selected by Principal Jay to join him at Sopris Elementary School. The school opened to students in January of 1997. Sporis was known as the "All Star" school. Only three of the four neighborhoods were used with only two teachers per grade level.
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Sporis Elementary had a majority white student population. According to CSAP data, in 2003, there were less than 10% Latino students, even fewer ELL, so their progress was not being measured.
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After serving as principal for 15 years at Sopris Elementary School, Howard Jay retired. Kathy Whiting was hired as the new principal.
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Principal Whiting was awarded a grant for the Colorado Department of Education to conduct a Diagnostic Review and to facilitate a data analysis of Sopris Elementary School.
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1- Move Classrooms into neighborhoods that allow for collaboration and to share best practices. No more isolation; no more autonomy.
2 - Schedule Change and restructuring of Literacy Block
3 - Bilingual Secretary
4 - Vertical alignment
5 - Use data to drive instruction
6 - Hire full-time interventionist -
Sopris Elementary Schools student population grew to over 700 in 2012.
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From 2012 to the present, Principal Whiting has increased technology from only 6 school projectors to the following:
*All classrooms have a projector, document camera, and Apple TV
*3rd - 5th grade have a 1:1 ratio of touchscreen Chromebooks
*2nd grade - 5 touchscreen Chromebooks and iPads
*K - 1st grade 5 plus iPads to each classroom -
The purpose of the Early Literacy Grant is "to ensure the essential components of reading instruction are embedded into all elements of the primary, K-3 teaching structures in all schools, including universal and targeted and intensive instructional interventions, to assist all students in achieving reading competency" (CDE, 2012)
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1 - Hired a full-time Literacy Coach
2 - Began using Dibels (The Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills)
3 - New K-5 Reading Curriculum: Benchmark -
Crew is a dedicated time the daily schedule to focus on character skills through Habits of a Scholar and social-emotional learning as well as academic goal-setting.
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SES began using Habits of a Scholar to guide our school and classroom behavior expectations.
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*Three day training before the start of the 2014/2015 School year
*Positive Behavior Plans
*Monthly Culture Club Meetings
*Relates to Crew
*Crew Campion
*EXCEL Model
