Friday, January 25, 2013

Sign up for OMS and AHS Parent Teacher Conferences

A-PAGE has once again worked with the Alamosa School District to be able to pre-schedule parent-teacher conferences online. The feedback we received from parents and teachers for the OMS trial of this system in October was very positive and so we have worked to add AHS to the pre-scheduling lineup for this next round of parent-teacher conferences. 

You can now sign up for conferences at either school by visiting these links to sign up:
OMS: http://ptcfast.com/schools/A_PAGE_OMS_School
AHS: http://ptcfast.com/schools/A_PAGE_AHS_School

If you don't want to sign up online (or can't for some reason), call the school directly and the secretary will sign you up. Sign-ups will be open until the day prior to the conference.

Instructions for how to schedule a Parent Teacher Conference online can be found by clicking this link.

We will again be soliciting feedback on this process from both parents and teachers to use in improving the process in the future. If you would like to leave us feedback directly, you may either leave a comment on this post or email us directly at alamosapage@gmail.com.

Wednesday, January 23, 2013

January District Accountability Meeting (DAC)

The DAC met on Jan 14th.  Key items of discussion were:

Presentation from Andy Lavier on the Block Schedule (which was moved away from several years ago) and how the amount of planning time for teachers is insufficient.  No high performing schools have as little planning time as we have.  High performing schools have planning time to teaching time ratio of approximate 25% (as compared to our 16%).  This is not an issue just at the high school, but at all grade levels - especially with the changes in curiculum in the last several years.

NWEA Mid-year test scores.  K-8 on track in 13 out of 18 categories.  No mid-year testing was done at AHS.  The categories NOT on track to meet end of year goals are:
  • Math all grades 5th grade and up
  • Reading in grades 7th and 8th 
Parent/Teacher Conference Pre-scheduling will be available at both OMS and AHS for the February conferences.  A-PAGE is setting up the conference system for both schools.

School Board Meeting 1/14

The Board of Education meet on Jan 14th - A-PAGE was in attendance.  Key items of parent interest were:

  • Community Gardens has been funded $10,000 to continue to provide classroom instruction at AES. 
  • Athletic and VoAg complex planning continues - the VoAg complex will now be a separate facility across Carroll Street on the south side of AHS.

Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Alamosa Elementary is a finalist for a $50,000 grant from Clorox to build a greenhouse at the school.


You can help make this a reality by voting here: http://www.tinyurl.com/alamosagarden

There are only 7 more days to vote and you can vote EVERY day. 

We need your help spreading the word! Tell your friends, family, and neighbors! Post it on your facebook page.  This is an easy and free way to help your kids and your community.

Follow this link to view the proposal and vote: http://www.tinyurl.com/alamosagarden

Monday, December 10, 2012

School Board Meeting 11/19/12

APAGE attended the most recent BOE meeting on 11/19/12. The Valley Courier did a very nice write up of the most important aspects of the meeting, free lunch for AES students and the National Clean Diesel Rebate Program. To read the article, click here.

Thursday, November 15, 2012

School Board Meeting (Nov 5)


A-PAGE attended the School Board Meeting on Nov. 5th.  Notable parent related items were…

Group of parents of Gifted and Talented students addressed the school board concerning the inadequacies in the GT program from planning to communication to the spending of GT funds.

Community Gardens requested funds to continue to teach K-5 students garden science and nutrition.  The community gardens are also pursuing funding to build a year round greenhouse at the K-5 schools.  Everyone can vote at www.tinyurl.com/AlamosaGarden

District Accountability Committee (Nov 5)


District Accountability met on Nov. 5th.  Topics covered were:

Reviewed the Districts Improvement Plan and made recommendations regarding section 4 - Parent Engagement to include activities for various parent groups (ELL, SpEd, GT) and community partnerships (ASU & TSJC) as well as discussed ways to keep parent engaged through all school levels.

Discussed Parent Teacher conferences and the results of the pre-scheduling at OMS.  Brainstormed on ways to improve the process further including the recommendation that all teachers be available for PT conference along with a discussion on ideas to make this happen.  More discussion on this topic at the next meeting.

Discussion on the use of funds the district received for the sale of Boyd & Evans.  BAC recommended textbook purchases and will continue this discussion at the next meeting as well.