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Thursday, May 16, 2013 © Berthoud, Colorado
“Covering all the angles in the Garden Spot ... where good things grow” www.berthoudsurveyor.com
TCAP results disappoint
By Susan Richards The Surveyor
TCAP scores continue to confound the Thompson School District (TSD) administration. While our students are still testing above the state average, everyone agreed that it’s not good enough. Assistant Superintendent Judy Skupa presented the preliminary results of the third grade reading segment of the Transitional Colorado Assessment Program at last week’s work session and, while there were successes, the frustration was palpable. Coyote Ridge and Stansberry Elementary Schools were the only two in the district that rated above the district’s goal of 90 percent of students proficient or advanced. Berthoud El scored 87 percent while Ivy Stockwell ranked at 78 percent proficient or advanced — above Colorado’s 73 percent but a significant dip for both schools. Paul Bankes, director of elementary education, discussed the next steps in improving the stats, including professional development and a district-wide monitoring process. “We lost some ground on TCAPs,” said Liz Rayment, District Accountability Committee (DAC) chair, who presented the annual DAC report earlier in the meeting. Based on this report, the TSD board is asked to provide direction for the DAC in the 2013-14 school year.
The top three items the DAC felt were funding priorities in the district were digital materials, devices and software, reduced class sizes, and more STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) programs at all levels. As Rayment steps down after a long tenure with the committee, Director Bob Kerrigan asked her what she’d like to see before she leaves. “Money and materials for math,” she replied. “I think there’s stuff out there today that we could adopt.” Vice Chair Kodi Fidler also encouraged the DAC to become more accessible for the parents in SAC (School Accountability Committee) in order for them to feel more empowered. Rick Frei, safety and security manager, along with Bond Administrator Jay Earl, updated the board on changes and proposals for the district’s security. Many of them had a price tag which will be added to a future agenda before next year’s budget is finalized. Speaking of budget matters, there will be a community forum next week at the Berthoud High School Library, Wednesday, May 22, from 6 to 7:30 p.m. “Analyzing the financial needs of the district is a complex effort that demands a large amount of collaboration and planning,” says Steve Town, district CFO. “We look forward to sharing those plans during the forums.”
More four-legged therapists needed By Kathleen Donnelly The Surveyor Hearts and Horses is in need of some new therapists — the kind with four legs. Several of the current ponies and horses are retiring or moving on to new careers. Ideally, Hearts and Horses would love to find one pony, one small horse and a larger horse. The variety of programs requires a need for a variety of horses and ponies, and it takes a special horse to become a four-legged therapist. “We need horses or ponies between the ages of eight and 16,” said Hearts and Horses Equine Manager Liz De Kock, who is leading the search for the new horses. “They need to
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be sound and healthy. Often people want to give us their retired horses with health issues, but they are underestimating what the horses do here. The horse’s well-being is our first priority, so it’s important that the horse is healthy. That way the horse can be utilized in our broad base of programs.” According to De Kock, who recently moved to Colorado to be part of the Hearts and Horses program, anyone who thinks they have a suitable horse or pony can either donate their animal or lease the animal. No matter which option the owner chooses, at the end of a horse’s career at Hearts and Horses, the owner receives the right of first refusal to get
Volume 10, Number 20
Ivy Stockwell runs for fun and funds
Photo by Dan Strait
Fourth graders begin their race.
Special to the Surveyor Ivy Stockwell Elementary finished their Stallion Stampede on May 7 with a big exclamation point. Students surpassed the school goal again this year with a record-setting number — $14,641. The annual “a-thon” is the main fundraiser for Ivy Stockwell’s PTO. This fundraiser is organized each year and it continues to receive a great response from the school community. The students at Ivy Stockwell were scheduled to run/walk their laps mid-April amidst our spring snow storms. The event had to be postponed a few times. We finally completed the jogathon on Thursday, April 25. All but two students participated (they were on crutches), out of 320 students currently attending Ivy Stockwell. Ivy Stockwell PTO would like to thank the students, teachers, staff, families, friends and the Berthoud community who not only helped support this great event but who volunteered their time to make it such a great success. We would also like to recognize our sponsors — Healthy Kids Club for providing a t-shirt to all of the students and staff, discount coupons from Dick’s Sporting Goods, granola bars from Two Moms in the Raw and jump ropes from Modern Woodmen. the horse back. The process of finding just the perfect equine is an involved one. “When someone approaches us about adopting a horse we first send out a questionnaire for the owner to fill out. This has a list of questions about behavioral issues, health issues and age. Most often we decline horses because of health or age,” explained De Kock. “We then visit a horse at their current home for an assessment. I have the owner ride the horse and then I ride the horse. I bring toys with me to see if the horse is spooky. I sit off balance, jump off unexpectedly, and anything else I can think of to
see if there is something that might upset the horse. If that goes well we bring them to Hearts and Horses for a 60-day trial period. I will ride the horse for a couple of weeks and then we will introduce the horse to the ramps, having lots of people around the horse leading them as that can upset many horses, go through the sensory trail, and put the horse through some mock situations. We track the horse’s training and how they do every day and keep in-depth training records.” If at any point the horse shows signs of stress, or is not faring well , the trial period ends and the horse
is returned to their owner. While some horses will be used in all the programs, other horses will specialize in certain programs. For example, the larger horses are excellent for the veterans program, where they might have a tall rider, versus the ponies used for children. De Kock and some other local dressage trainers school each horse once a week in classical dressage. If you have a horse that you would like to let Hearts and Horses adopt as a therapist, please contact Liz De Kock at liz@heartsandhorses.org or call 970-663-4200 ext. 303.
Berthoud library to get new look
By Heidi Kerr-Schlaefer The Surveyor
Photo by Kathleen Donnelly
Some of the great horse therapists at Hearts and Horses out on the sensory trail.
Look who’s in the news! Tucker Skoric Emma Degnan MyKaela Hughes Hanna Kirk
Colby Schultz Anna Megenhardt Mimi Garcia
Classified ................................... 3 Crossword .................................. 7 Legal notices .............................. 3 Opinion ...................................... 6 Sports ........................................ 4 Then & Now ............................... 5 Weather ..................................... 2
The Berthoud Community Library is getting a major facelift, and it is the community that will benefit the most from the library’s new, youthful look. The renovation involves a lot of small things that add up to big changes to the overall appearance of the library. It’s not just about looks, however, because these changes will make the library more efficient and more able to adapt to the 21st century technology that is so imperative to a modern-day library. From 2007 to 2012, the library’s circulation increased 117 percent, but nothing has been done to the building to accommodate this growth. During the process of putting together the institution’s Long Range Plan (2011-2016), it became apparent to all involved that in order to implement the plan, changes were going to have to be made; more specifically, the current configuration of the library just wasn’t going to cut it. “We have the resources now, so we decided that instead of shuffling things around piecemeal, we would do it right and make a library of 2014, so to speak,” said Sara Wright, director of the Berthoud Community Library. “One of the things we really wanted to do was make the most out of the space we have right now. We really needed to make the space we have work more efficiently,” she added. The library hired Group 3 Planners, a company specializing in space optimization. Group 3 Planners has worked on many libraries around Colorado. A Space Optimization Plan was created by Group 3, with the input of library board members and staff. The 12-page plan outlines the changes that will take place at the library over the next four months. The entire look of the library will be altered. In fact,
the current configuration will no longer exist and, ultimately, the library will resemble a bookstore rather than a warehouse. “Today, we don’t have to allocate as much space to warehousing books. With more and more being available online, or in digital format, we are able to do more and more with less space,” said Wright. The library is paying for this project from reserved funds. The Long Range Plan provided detailed insight into the financial stability of the library, currently and in the future. They decided to refine their financial policy and set limits on how much money can be kept in reserve, and this means the library currently has money they need to spend. Where did these reserve funds come from? “Every year that we’ve been a district we’ve spent everything we’ve taken in on our annual operating budget,” explained Wright. “However, when we became the library district and separated our funds from the town’s funds, there was money that was in the town’s general fund that was raised through property taxes for the library. “Once we became a district we had control over those funds. That money had been collected for the benefit of the public, so we want to spend it and give people the library of the 21st century,” added Wright. The project is scheduled to be finished in mid-October, and the library will remain open during the entire process. “Very little money is going into the nonpublic areas,” said Wright. “The staff and I are excited because we think the library is going to be even more community friendly than it is right now.” If you have any questions or concerns about the library’s facelift, contact Sara Wright at the Berthoud Community Library District.