Dear STEM School Highlands Ranch Community,
In our effort to improve communication and transparency between the STEM Board of Directors and our entire community, I wanted to share with all of you some exciting news from our monthly Board of Directors’ meeting.
The Board has been hard at work emphasizing and focusing on our Mission and Vision. Our board was not immune to the impacts of the pandemic on completing important tasks during the 2020-21 school year so we are excited to be refocused and reenergized.
As I’ve shared in the past with our entire community, when I took over as Board Chair/President in September of 2021, I outlined three key tasks for the Board in the first part of the 2021-22 school year.
- Bond Issuance
- Policy Review and Restructure
- Evaluation of the Executive Director position
I provided an update in November of our progress so far, which you can read about here. As we head into the new year, the Board is continuing to stay focused. Replication and expansion have been a key goal for STEM for the last 10 years that started with our goal of building out our flagship campus to full capacity.
I am incredibly proud of the work we’ve accomplished over the last several years, from our humble beginnings of just serving 480 students in grades 6-9, to serving over 1,700 students grades K-12 and also adding the P-TECH program for students in grades 13 and 14. Your impact on the students and their families is life-changing.
With the addition of the CHSAA gymnasium and the renovation of key areas of our existing structure, we are putting the finishing touches on the STEM School Highlands Ranch Master Plan that was developed years ago.
Now we are shifting our focus back to expansion and replication beyond our Highlands Ranch footprint in order to fulfill our Strategic Plan promise of “the KOSON Instructional Model for all”. Part of accomplishing that work is getting organized behind the scenes, from making sure that our policies and procedures are refined, to making sure that our flagship campus is the model that all future campuses attain to be.
With that in mind, the Board’s Personnel Committee has taken on the tough task of evaluating and developing the next steps for our Leadership moving forward. The lead for the Personnel Committee, Kelly Reyna, presented the committee’s progress, work so far and recommendations moving forward. I invite you to take a look at the presentation that was shared.
Key takeaways from the presentation are:
- The Personnel Committee determined that the position of CEO of KOSON Network of Schools (our Charter Management Organization (CMO)) needed to be defined and established. (motion that was voted on and approved)
- Based on all the feedback from the community, evaluation data from direct reports, and data from three key areas (financial, academic and operations), Dr. Eucker was identified as having the skill set and track record to serve as the CEO of KOSON Network of Schools. (motion that was voted on and approved)
A new Executive Director is needed for STEM School Highlands Ranch to take over the day-to-day management and operations for the flagship school as Dr. Eucker transitions to her new role at the completion of her contract. - So what does this mean moving forward? There are still a lot of moving parts and work that needs to be done by the Personnel Committee to finalize the roles and responsibilities for both positions. The committee has outlined a proposed timeline (included in the presentation) and a proposed high-level organizational chart of KOSON Network of Schools to provide some additional context.
We want to reassure all of you that Dr. Eucker will remain in her current Executive Director position throughout her contract, which runs until the end of July, before transitioning to this new role. She will also continue to provide leadership as the new Executive Director onboards during the next school year.
We know that you may have lots of questions regarding this news so I want to encourage our community to attend our monthly board meetings to be involved and stay informed. You can also reach out with any questions via the email stem.board@stemk12.org. We may not be able to answer all questions right away, but we are reading them and using them to guide discussion at our Board Meetings.
Thank you for your commitment to and support of STEM. We are Stronger Together.
Respectfully,
Roy Martinez, Board President/Chair