It’s homecoming season in the Roaring Fork Schools. Last week Glenwood Springs and Roaring Fork High Schools celebrated school spirit, and this week, Basalt High School will.  

Although homecoming looks different in each community, there’s something really special about these school traditions in our small communities. It’s a week when students, staff, families, alumni, and community members come together to celebrate their school community and one another. From spirit days, dances, and parades to packed stands and big games, homecoming is a fun display of school and community pride. Our small communities rally around the home team, rain or shine, win or lose. We show up. We cheer for our students. 

Homecoming is one of the many ways we take pride in our community schools. These big visible moments are important. They bring us together and remind us what our schools mean to our communities. Based on the community support we saw last week for the Demons and Rams (and anticipate this week in Longhorn country), we are doing well! 

We also look at many other less visible ways to see how our students, schools, and district are doing. As we move into October and toward the end of the first quarter, we’re also looking at measures that may not draw a crowd, but still tell us a lot about the health of our schools: Are students showing up? Do they feel like they belong? Are they learning and growing? Are we using our resources responsibly and putting as much as possible toward students and classrooms?

So far this year, we have some important things to celebrate.

Recent data shows that student belonging is improving. Students who feel safe, seen, valued, and included in their school community have stronger attendance and stronger academic outcomes. In recent student perception data, more of our high school students report feeling connected to their schools and affirm that they have adults who know and care about them. 

We’re also seeing positive trends in student attendance this year. Every day in school means more time learning, building relationships, and participating in the experiences that make students feel connected to their school.

Behind the scenes, I want to highlight our operational teams who are doing the careful, consistent, critical work of stewarding public dollars. Our Finance Team is deep in audit season and working hard to ensure public dollars are used wisely to support our students, staff, and schools. RFSD continues to show responsible stewardship of public dollars: we’ve earned two consecutive clean audits, allocate 85% of our dollars directly to schools (state average is closer to 75%), and continue to operate with central staffing at or below the median in every department compared with similar districts. In other words, we run a very tight ship. 

With external funding factors further squeezing our already tightened budget, we continue to seek additional solutions. One local solution on the November ballot is a Mill Levy Override to support teacher and staff salaries, retention and recruitment, and our students’ academic outcomes. I hope voters read the pros and cons of this proposal at rfschools.com and reach out with any questions. 

There are always things we need to improve. That is part of our work. But it is also important to recognize progress when we see it. Sometimes that progress is easy to spot: a packed stadium, a homecoming parade, or a 5–1 win over local rivals. Other times, it shows up in a student who comes to school more consistently, feels a stronger sense of belonging, or has the support they need to succeed. It shows up in the less-visible work of our staff and in responsible decisions about how we use our resources. All of it gives us reasons to cheer for our schools.

This October, I hope you feel proud of what’s happening across Roaring Fork Schools, and not just in the big moments we celebrate together, but in the everyday progress we see for our students, schools, and district.

Anna Cole is superintendent of the Roaring Fork Schoool District.