Dear Cotopaxi School Community,
It is my pleasure to welcome you to the 2023-2024 school year! It feels like just a short time ago we were ending the previous school year, and now we are back at it! We are all excited to see each of you and your children. It has been a busy summer at Cotopaxi Schools. We kicked off the break with our Summer Academy which provided academic and enrichment opportunities to our students. Also, this summer our facilities staff have been working hard on making sure the school is ready and beautiful for everyone. Additionally, we’ve had open-gym/field and sports camp opportunities for our students to build on their skill development, and our staff & teachers have been excitedly preparing classrooms and more for your child’s return. As you may know, we have a new Interim Superintendent, Geoff Gerk. I shouldn’t say he is new, as he was previously at Cotopaxi Schools as a teacher, coach, counselor, principal, and superintendent. He is also a long-time community member. We are excited to have him back aboard our pirate ship! Welcome Mr. Gerk.
This year, I’d like to continue the focus of building meaningful relationships with our students, staff, and families. I speak often of the importance of all of us working together for our students, our future. As part of building relationships we have included staff, student and community voices to continue to develop a strategic plan, and a Profile of a Graduate. We are excited to roll this out this year. Our Strategic Plan will be a focus on the pillars: Core Academics, Student Opportunities, Talent, Recruitment, & Retention, School Culture & Whole Child, and Building “The Cotopaxi Way” Together. More information will be available on registration day, and at our upcoming Welcome Back to School celebration! I look forward to reconnecting with each of you at our upcoming school events.
We have also updated our secondary schedule to an eight period schedule, in which each Wednesday students will be able to have an advisory class to continue their development in SEL (social-emotional learning) skills such as but not limited to; cooperation, communication, decision making, and other self-concepts. We are incorporating a new platform called Xello for student’s ICAP (Individual Career & Academic Plans). In addition, our implemented advisory will assist in expanding on our Paxi P.R.I.D.E. assemblies with less academic interruption.
We will also be introducing Apptegy Rooms, via our School App. This will assist with communications to classroom teachers, and information / resources will be easily accessible from your child’s teacher.
A way to stay abreast of all that is taking place at Cotopaxi Schools, is to visit our website and utilize our school app for current news and upcoming events. Below, I have listed a few upcoming events that you can find on our website (cotopaxire3.org):
August 14th - School start date
August 14th - Board Meeting
August 17th- Meet the Pirates Football Fundraiser
August 17th- Preschool Orientation
August 18th- HS Volleyball vs. Antonito
In closing, we have so many great things going on at Cotopaxi, and I am excited to kick-off the school year and continue with each of you as partners in this work of growing our students. Please don’t hesitate to reach out with any questions. We have an amazing staff and we are all here to help one another. It’s going to be a great year as we continue to Climb Toward Excellence!
Yours in Education,
Jennifer J. Gonzales
(she, her, hers)
Cotopaxi Schools Principal