Joseph Garcia, Sr. VP of District & School Services, recently spoke with The Pueblo Chieftain about Global Partnership Schools work with Pueblo City Schools to transform Central High School, as well as five other schools in the district.

Changes to greet Central High School students

Focus will be more on moving on to college.

By GAYLE PEREZ

There will be noticeable changes at Central High School when students and staff return to class on Aug. 23.

For starters, the school will have new leadership with Principal Matt Lane taking over for Fred Trujillo, who left to take a job in New Mexico.

Teachers have gone through intensive training that should result in a different way of teaching in the classroom.

A major focus in the school will be preparing students to move on to higher education.

The changes at Central are coming about as part of federal requirements under the No Child Left Behind Law to improve achievement in lagging schools.

Central is one of three schools in the district, and the only high school, to be deemed a transformation school after failing to meet standards of NCLB.

The other transformation schools are Roncalli and the Youth and Family Academy, a charter school.

Three other schools — Freed, Pitts and Risley middle schools — have been labeled turnaround schools. Changes are being implemented at those schools as well to help improve achievement.

The district has received federal money to make the needed improvements at the schools.

As a transformation school, Central is required to take a number of comprehensive steps toward improvement to include getting a new principal, implementing new teacher training and increasing class time.

The school district with the support of the New York-based Global Partnership Schools, having been working to make the needed changes that will help Central complete the needed transformation.

“Our expectation is that we make real change happen quickly,” said Joseph Garcia, senior vice president of district and school services for Global Partnership.

“We really believe there is tremendous opportunity in Pueblo to raise performance of these schools in a way that catches attention of people in Colorado and across the country,” Garcia said. “These schools have a lot of potential.”

Garcia said work has been under way for months preparing for the transformation that will begin this fall.

There are several high priority areas that have been identified which will be a focus of the school, according to Garcia.

“We really want Central to become a high school where every student aspires to continue his or her education, whether they go to a two- or four-year college or vocational training,” he said.

Currently, Garcia said there are fewer than 40-percent of Central students who plan on attending college.

“There will be greater access to advanced placement courses and that will become a major focus at the school.”

Another focus will be on improving the school’s math scores and getting students more engaged in the classroom.

“Hopefully, students will see a different kind of teaching taking place,” Garcia said. “Teachers will be collaborate more with students and they will be called upon to be much more active learners.

“It’s going to be an active place of learning. That is something that will roll out immediately.”

Many of the other changes won’t be quite as noticeable as they will be more structural than visible, Garcia said.

“We don’t come in with a strategy to replace and put something new in place. We believe the schools have a lot of what they need already, it’s just a question of how they are using it.”

The Central community could see more changes coming in the future if the district is awarded a $11.3 million federal grant to turn the school and nearby Bessemer Academy into magnet schools. Those schools curricula will focus on renewable energy.

The district is expected to know by October whether it has received the grant.

“With that focus coming to the school, I think there will also come a greater use of technology in that school,” Garcia said.