Leaders Gather in Breckenridge, CO for the Rural Summit!

On July 24 and 25, more than 150 rural school leaders, supporting organizations, and legislators met in Breckenridge, CO as part of the annual Colorado Association of School Executives Conference to share successes, identify opportunities for collaboration, and synergize efforts around problems of practice. Topi cs addressed included the teacher shortage, social emotional learning (SEL), the Student-C entered Accountability Program (S-CAP), college/career pathways, 5th day learning opportunities, teacher and leader efficacy, and STEM.

According to Denille LePlatt,  the past  Facilitator of the Colorado Rural Education Collaborative, "It was great to see the type of collaboration that took place at the event. Bringing rural together and giving them the opportunity to connect and collaborate is what we were going for!" The event featured Colorado rural districts and BOCES sharing their work, including Campo, Dolores, Dolores County, Santa Fe Trail, and Peyton leaders as keynote speakers, along with Dr. Rich Roberts who gave an international perspective on SEL. Michelle Murphy of the Colorado Rural Alliance remarked, "We are grateful for everyone who came together to make this a successful event: the sponsors, districts, legislators and the planning committee."

Important message to the attendees: 

All attendees, thank you for your attendance at the summer Rural Summit at the end of July in Breckenridge. We had a great turn out for this great day of planning, sharing, learning and education. The information that was gathered and is being culminated. Though the Mapping exercise was a great way to share information on current practices, the planning group would like to be completely transparent that these documents are working documents and upon reviewing the captured information we discovered that there is a need to continue to analyze the data and we are working to identify the best way to present the data in a concise and clear fashion that will support districts interested in replicating the work in other areas of the state. The planning group, will be meeting to brainstorm next steps along with our partner organizations. In the meantime, we encourage you to reach out and provide us any feedback, on work you are doing and would like others to know about. As well as any recommendations for next steps you would like to see!