Campbell Elementary looking for new principal
Chanda Fleckenstein appointed interim principal for remainder of the school year
Campbell Elementary is looking for a new leader. At a school board meeting Monday, RE-1 Valley Superintendent Dr. Martin Foster announced that Principal Cathy Pacheco-ogle has resigned.
The board accepted her resignation effective June 30, 2024, with a transfer to administrative leave effective Jan. 30, 2024. Pacheco-ogle took over the principal position at the beginning of the school year after the previous principal, Brenda Kloberdanz, was promoted to assistant superintendent. Following discussions with staff, Dr. Foster has designated Campbell’s current assistant principal, Chanda Fleckenstein, to serve as interim principal for the remainder of the school year.
He has also put together an aggressive timeline for the search for a new principal. Next week, he will meet with staff again to discuss what they’re looking for in a principal and who they want to be on the search committee, which will be made up of classified staff, licensed staff, administrators and parents. After that, the position will be posted with the hope of having a hiring recommendation to the school board by April 1.
In addition to the search for a new principal, Dr. Foster has also met with all of the school principals and the special education director to talk about staffing for next year. He plans to meet with the maintenance and food service directors as well.
“The issue here when we’re looking at the schools is trying to hold what we have in place, if we can, with the projected number of students that we’re going to have for next year,” Dr. Foster said.
At this time, Ayres Elementary is jammed with a lot of kids coming in, which may mean they need an additional teacher next year. Campbell is not as packed as Ayres but “looking good” and the district is closely watching a couple of grades at both Ayres and Campbell, preparing a contingency plan in case more students than anticipated come in. At Sterling Middle School and High School, “we’re going to try to hold the line with current staff,” Dr. Foster said and Caliche Schools may need to add one FTE position that will be a combination K-12 position for the Smartlabs.
“In the long run, we’ve been really frugal anyway, we aren’t overstaffed,” he said.
There also may be some people retiring at the end of this year, which will be discussed and Dr. Foster said “We can do some things for attrition as well, if we feel like we need to.”
In regards to the Smartlabs, the superintendent shared that Ayres and Campbell will have their labs installed over spring break and the remaining schools will get their labs in June.
Dr. Foster also informed the board that the district’s Calendar Committee will have its first meeting Wednesday. At the meeting, drafts of possible calendar options will be presented that will allow staff to take advantage of some Northeast Colorado BOCES professional development opportunities.
“That’s going to be a pretty big difference in what the calendar involves this year,” Dr. Foster said.
Right now, the district has partnered with Centennial BOCES, but Northeast Colorado BOCES offers training opportunities right here in Sterling, so teachers don’t have to travel to Greeley and Dr. Foster and Kloberdanz feel teachers are missing out on a great opportunity.
After the committee’s first meeting, draft calendars will be sent to staff with a survey and there will also be a survey sent to parents. The goal is to have a calendar recommendation to the board by their Feb. 19 meeting or the March 4 meeting at the latest.
Technology Director Dennis Klein gave an update on the district’s move from one to ten gigs, which was originally supposed to be completed by mid-january. The move has yet to happen and RE-1’S provider, ENA, cannot give a timeline for it.
“There’s restrictions on the back end, there are unexplained reasons why they can’t upgrade and longterm fixes that they need to be done, nothing on our end,” he explained.
Instead, Klein shared that ENA has offered to move the district from one gig to two gigs by the end of February with no additional charges. The district has agreed to that because it needs to increase its bandwidth in order to handle state testing coming up in April, plus internet issues are affecting instruction right now.
RE-1 has a contract with ENA through the E-rate program, which helps ensure schools and libraries can obtain high-speed internet access and telecommunications at affordable rates. The contract was awarded several years ago through a bid-out process, the district is currently trying to determine how long the contract with ENA is for and they are talking to Spectrum Business about what they could do. If a change is made there would need to be another bid procedure.
Klein reported that if the district were able to have two providers of internet at the same time, Spectrum said it would still be 90 to 120 days out to move from one to ten gigs.
Dr. Foster pointed out that RE-1 has been bringing this issue to ENA since last fall and the company’s response has been lacking. He suggested having the district’s legal counsel review the contract and district personnel research other options for internet providers.
“I don’t really see a lot of light at the end of the tunnel with our current provider, very disappointed,” he said. “I think we’re at a point now where we’ve just got to look at other options.”
Under action items, in addition to accepting the resignation of Pacheco-ogle and the transfer of Fleckenstein, the board approved staffing changes including new hires Katie Hatch and George Riley, districtwide substitute teachers; the transfer of Mike Negley from Six12online substitute teacher to longterm sub; the resignation of George Cruz, Hagen custodian, Carter Erb, Campbell sweeper, Brannan Hoff, SHS custodian and Kendra Hooten, Ayres paraeducator; the termination of Victoria Blecha, Ayres paraeducator; new hire Janeli Jaquez, SMS sweeper; and rehires Martha Nash, Hagen Early Education Center teacher assistant, and Rena Polly, Iliff Head Start special education paraeducator.