Lone Tree
Voice
October 18, 2012 A Colorado Community Media Publication
ourlonetreenews.com
Douglas County, Colorado • Volume 11, Issue 40
Teachers facing unique ratings
GOING OLD SCHOOL
Administrators cite reasons not to use statewide system By Jane Reuter
jreuter@ourcoloradonews.com
Fall festival attendees take a hay wagon ride around Schweiger Ranch Oct. 14. Activities for kids and adults during the free event included hay bale throwing, butter churning, scarecrow making, a pumpkin patch and petting zoo. Tours of the ranch highlighted its place in Douglas County’s history. The ranch is located east of Interstate 25, just south of RidgeGate Parkway. Photo by Courtney Kuhlen | ckuhlen@ourcoloradonews.com
Service puppy a real class act Dog in training accompanies Highlands Ranch High student By Jane Reuter
jreuter@ourcoloradonews. com Five-month-old Flynn pads through the halls of Highlands Ranch High School with a calm that belies his age, his furry blond brow wrinkled in what appears to be studious concentration. In fact, his teenage trainer believes he’s scanning the floor for scraps of food. It’s among the most challenging aspects of bringing a guide dog puppy-in-training to a high school. But a high school — rife with sudden movements, noise, food, odors and the loving hands of students — is an ideal place to train an animal that must learn to filter distraction, believes junior Melissa Petrick. Petrick, whose family has raised two other guide dogs, also likes the novelty. “I bring him to school because it’s fun,” she said. And not only for Melissa. Despite a vest that clearly identifies Flynn as a trainee, many students can’t resist the lure of a puppy. “Some kids don’t understand they’re not supposed to pet them,” Melissa Petrik said. “But most of them are pretty
Melissa Petrick checks on guide puppy Flynn during her algebra class at Highlands Ranch High School. Photo by Jane Reuter good about him being here.” Flynn is a candidate for future service with Guide Dogs for the Blind, a Californiabased organization that provides guide dogs to the blind or visually impaired. He is the third guide dog the Petrick family has raised, each time returning the dog to the agency after about a year of housing, training and loving it. The young dogs then are enrolled
in formal training; only about 60 percent graduate and are placed with people who need them. Melissa Petrick hopes Flynn is among that group. “You want them to make it through the program,” she said. “When they graduate, we get to meet the blind people. They’re so cool and so thankful. That’s such a nice feeling.” Melissa Petrick first had to
get permission from Principal Jerry Goings to bring Flynn to school. Goings didn’t hesitate. “You can say ‘no’ to a lot of things, but then you miss out on some many educational opportunities,” he said. “What kinds of opportunities are there for high school kids to have that kind of impact on society? The responsibility, the whole idea of paying it forward? I think it’s pretty amazing.” So does Melissa’s mom, Tina, who readily agreed when her daughter asked to take a lead role in Flynn’s upbringing. “I think volunteering and working for a greater good is an important lesson,” she said. “I feel it’s important for Melissa to do that, and to model it at school.” The Petricks are co-raising Flynn with Cindy Barnard, who also lives in Highlands Ranch. The three of them meet regularly with Lone Tree’s Dru Anne Marshal, a guide dog puppy-raising leader who guides and assists volunteers. There is little she can do, though, to prepare them for the day the puppies return to Guide Dogs for the Blind. “I will tell you that it never gets easier,” Marshal said. “That could be why I’m raising my 19th puppy. It takes a bit of the sting out of it to give up a puppy and get a new one right away.” For more information on the volunteer program, visit www.guidedogs.com.
Douglas County school officials say their new teacher and principal evaluation systems are more focused than the state’s, and will be easier for staff to use and understand. Under Colorado Senate Bill 191, adopted in 2010, school districts statewide must adopt new teacher and principal evaluation programs by the 2013-14 academic year. The Colorado Department of Education has created a system available statewide, which it’s piloting now in 27 school districts, but the CDE also allows districts to build their own program. The Douglas County School District opted to craft a plan, also planned for use as a pilot this year, and administrators say they had solid reasons for doing so. “We were really hoping the state would have a good tool, but it’s just not,” said Dan McMinimee, assistant superintendent of secondary education. “It just seemed like way too much, and it didn’t seem like it was going to be a fit for Douglas County. Our teachers and principals deserve to have an instrument that is usable and effective, and give them accurate information to develop.” By comparison, the CDE’s user guide for teachers is 105 pages; the district’s equivalent, 25. The district’s proposal also is tied to its world-class education targets, 11 educational goals it’s setting for teachers designed to prepare students for an international market. Because those targets are unique to Douglas County, the state’s system doesn’t include them. DCSD took issue with language in the CDE’s document that says elementary school teachers must be experts in literacy and mathematics, as well as all other content they teach. Secondarylevel teachers, while not required to be experts, also must have “knowledge of literacy and mathematics, and be an expert in her or her content endorsement area.” District leaders saw that language as overreaching. “If I’m a PE (physical education) teacher, and I’m responsible for students exceeding expectations in reading, writing, speaking and listening, that doesn’t
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