Who We Are:
¨
Traut Core Knowledge School (TCKS) is an “option”
elementary school of choice established within Poudre School District (PSD) by
Board of Education decision in April 1993.
Two other schools,
¨ TCKS is a full three-track school, and, starting the 2009-2010 school year, maintains an enrollment of 468 students total in grades K-5. TCKS also hosts an Early Childhood program.
Our
Vision and
¨ Our vision is educational excellence in knowledge, skills, and character with strong parent-teacher-student partnerships.
¨ Our mission is to provide excellence and fairness in education for elementary school children. Excellence in education means raising academic standards and achieving success for all students. Fairness in education means providing equal opportunity to learn for all students.
Our Strategy: To achieve our vision and mission, our parents, teachers, and students work together to promote these “five pillars,” built upon a foundation of choice, to define what TCKS stands for:
¨ Core Knowledge Curriculum: A content-rich curriculum built upon the Core Knowledge Sequence. We believe that both skills and knowledge are important, and that the best way to teach the necessary skills of reading, writing, and thinking is in the context of a rich, interesting, knowledge-based curriculum. The knowledge is not an end in itself, but rather a means to the end goal of an excellent grasp of information and the ability to use that information thoughtfully.
¨ Parent Partnership: At TCKS, our parents are fully involved in all aspects of the school, to the point of full partnership in the decision-making and operation of the school. We believe that every child’s first and most important teachers are his or her parents, and that our school exists to supplement and support the learning that is started in the home. Parent partnership attracts parent involvement, and TCKS has among the highest level of parent volunteer hours in the district. Also, parent participation correlates strongly with program success, as measured by student achievement.[1]
¨ Character Education: We believe that learning to act in a respectful and responsible way is crucial, and we have identified twelve character traits that we incorporate into our classroom instruction. These are: Respect, Responsibility, Citizenship, Self-control, Honesty, Patience, Kindness, Humility, Integrity, Perseverance, Cooperation, and an Appreciation of Individual Strengths and Cultural Backgrounds. We teach these qualities as they fit naturally in the literature of the total curriculum being studied throughout the school day.
¨ Student Responsibility for Learning: Our students are key partners in our education goals, and will obtain the desired success as they recognize and accept their responsibility for their own learning. There is a cost for our students to attend TCKS, and that is the requirement to behave, and to work—both in the classroom during work times as well as at home in completing their homework assignments.
¨ Mature Literacy: Because reading is the most important skill for elementary students to learn, the development of literacy is a primary focus of our school. Literacy skills begin with teaching our students to read (primary literacy) using a phonics first approach, and advancing to reading to learn and for enjoyment (“mature literacy”) through the use of excellent contemporary and classical literature.
Our
Historical Milestones:
¨
Spring 1992 – grassroots effort by several
groups of parents who met to discuss ways they could contribute to improving
public education in
¨ April 1993 – approval of the
“original proposal” by the parent group for a new Core Knowledge school of
choice by the Poudre School District Board of Education (BOE). The school was approved as a two-year pilot
program, and was to be located at the old
¨ August 1993 – opening of Washington
Core Knowledge School (WCKS) as a “one-track” school with 125 students in
grades K-4.
¨
Fall 1993 -
¨ August 1994 – expansion of WCKS to
K-5, with 225 students.
¨ March 1995 – after a thorough
performance review, the PSD BOE approved the recommendation by PSD’s
administration that WCKS be removed from its two-year “
¨
August
1995 – expansion of WCKS to K-6 in the historic Fort Collins High School, with
408 students (three classes at each grade level K-3, two classes for 4-5, and
one sixth grade class).
¨
Spring
1995 – Proposal by a number of key influential founding parents to make WCKS a
charter school. Several public meetings
and numerous hallway and parking lot conversations were devoted to considering
the pros and cons of chartering WCKS.
Finally, it was time to vote. The
parents’ vote was 77% against the charter; the staff vote was 100% against the
charter and in favor of remaining a “partnership school” within
¨ Fall 1995 – A number of options were proposed within PSD to resolve the issue of finding a permanent facility for WCKS. These proposals included:
1)
Splitting
up the school by sending a track of WCKS’ students to other PSD schools with
vacant classrooms. The rationale was
that since interest in the Core Knowledge program was growing, providing a
strand of Core Knowledge at schools with room would attract students and use
the available space more efficiently.
The BOE held a town meeting at
2)
Emptying
out an existing school (
¨ January 1996 – Appointment by BOE
of a task force including representatives from Irish Elementary and WCKS to
study the issue of where to locate WCKS.
This task force met a number of times during the 1996-1997 school year,
and eventually brought its recommendations to the Board of Education. These recommendations included preserving
both Irish Elementary and WCKS as intact schools. According to the task force, the best option
was to build a new facility to house the Core Knowledge program. After comparing the viability of two separate
possible locations (
¨ November 1997 – Construction of the
new elementary school building began on the
¨ December 1998 – The Core Knowledge
School made a second move to our third location in 5 years,
¨ May 1999 – Members of the newly
constructed neighborhood subdivisions around Traut went to PSD’s BOE during the
Boundary Committee discussions, and demanded that Traut be converted to a
“neighborhood” school. The BOE heard the
demands, reviewed the BOE decisions regarding the
¨ May 2001 – The Coloradoan featured
on its front page news article the discussions from the Boundary Committee
meeting. During the 2001 Boundary Committee
discussions,
¨ December 2004 – Traut was a topic
of 2004 Boundary Committee discussions.
Two of the four proposals during the Boundary Committee discussions
proposed transitioning TCKS to a neighborhood Core school, and converting
Olander Elementary to a Core alternative school.
¨ February 2005 – The BOE gave
direction to the Boundary Committee that, in its discussions of potential
boundary changes, it should not consider making Traut a neighborhood school
either by gradually admitting only neighborhood children (thus phasing out its
current program) or by moving the 5-pillared program to another building.
¨ Spring 2005 – Boundary Committee
discussion was halted. An Enrollment
Planning Group consisting of staff and principals was formed to look at
under-enrollment in north and west elementary schools and overcrowding in
southeast
¨ Summer 2005 – Student Enrollment
Steering Committee was formed. Members
included some of the elementary principals, district administration, co-chairs
of the boundary committee, a community member and the district demographer. This group was charged with producing
possible solutions based on the findings of the boundary committee and the
Enrollment Planning Group.
¨ September-November 2005 – Moving
Traut to Riffenburgh is presented to the BOE and community as one of two “infeasible”
scenarios in search of a solution to the District’s challenge of
over-enrollment in southeast schools, while experiencing under-enrollment in
the north and west. Three other
“feasible” scenarios are also presented.
Two of the three feasible options, and the infeasible move Traut option,
include the suggested closure of Moore Elementary, a Core Knowledge
neighborhood school.
Traut’s
Contributions to PSD as an
¨
W/TCKS was the first
¨ Stood firm in commitment to partnership with PSD during 1995 attempt of key vocal parents to convert WCKS into a charter school. Support of choice in public education within PSD as an alternative elementary school of choice acts as a deterrent to further charter school proposals.
¨ Draws students into the District from home-school and charter or private school, and continues to be in demand with over 300 students on the waiting list.
¨ 1999 National School of Character – supporter and presenters of character education in schools in PSD, in Colorado, and at national Character Education Partnership conference; supporter of City of Character initiative by Fort Collins City Council.
¨
¨ Identified
by the Colorado Department of Education as an “Accomplished” school after the
2005 CSAP. This rating was based on 90%
of at least one grade of our students scoring proficient and advanced on the
CSAP tests in the areas of
¨ TCKS is the least expensive elementary school to operate; per-pupil funding is 77% of PSD average.[2]
¨ High employee satisfaction resulting in low staff turnover.
¨ Consistently high parent volunteer hours served (over 1300 hours/month based on several years’ history).
[1] “Parent Involvement in Education,” by Kathleen Cotton and Karen Reed Wikeland, NW Regional Laboratory. http://www.nwrel.org/scpd/sirs/3/cu6.html
[2]
“Elementary School Expenditures – June 30, 2005,”