We have turned the corner on the 2025-2026 school year, and our schools are busy with learning, activities and community events. We are also taking time right now to reflect on the progress we’re making this year with our goals in the 2024-29 strategic plan. 

Across the district, our students, staff, families and school community are engaged in meaningful work together. Sopris and Basalt Elementary schools are reading together as a community through “One Book, One School” programs while elementary and middle school students are enjoying spring snow with ski and snowshoe field trips. Parent volunteers are supporting schools with community building activities: family bingo nights, “Ladles of Love” at Crystal River Elementary School, and fundraising to support the class of 2026, and other school programs are on our February and March calendars. Parent mentor volunteers from Valley Settlement continue providing direct classroom support for students as partner educators in district classrooms. And, we continue to celebrate student learning with senior Capstone Project presentations and upcoming art and science fairs. 

We are also wishing the best for the GSHS Air Force JROTC program, which is sending two color guard teams to the 2026 U.S. Air Force JROTC National Drill Championships in Dayton, Ohio next week. As winter athletes head into playoff season, spring student athletes are already brushing the snow off district tracks and fields as spring sports begin this week. Finally, don’t miss Glenwood Springs High School’s musical Newsies, in its final three shows this weekend. 

Alongside all of this activity, the Roaring Fork Schools continue to make steady progress on our 2024-29 strategic plan. At this week’s Board of Education mid-year strategic plan update, we highlighted a number of initiatives that are making positive progress. Our primary goal is to strengthen academic growth and achievement for all students, especially students who are falling behind, which includes students whose family income is below the federal poverty level, emerging bilingual students, students of color, and students with disabilities. Across each of our five strategic priorities, there are mid-year celebrations and important opportunities for improvement.

Students First – we are focusing on increasing student attendance and student perceptions of belonging; students who feel safe, welcome, and supported attend school regularly and learn more. Attendance at most middle and elementary schools is on target, with room to grow at our high schools. We are seeing positive trends at the high school level in terms of student perceptions of belonging and are grateful for student leaders and attendance teams working to strengthen school culture and individualized attendance supports.

Rigorous learning – we have made great strides building consistency around mid-year academic assessments and leveraging 1:1 teacher coaching to strengthen classroom learning environments. Although our mid-year academic assessment data is behind targets, having the data allows us the time to course correct, provide additional support, and importantly, communicate clearly with parents during upcoming parent-teacher conferences in March.

Operational excellence – strong leadership from our new finance team resulted in a clean audit, consistent and reliable financial reporting, and stronger internal accountability systems this year. Although it won’t be easy, we are ready to meet both the regional challenges (due to increased cost of living and health care and declining enrollment) and state- and federal-level challenges (due to instability of those funding streams) in our upcoming budget season. We have also worked hard over the past 18 months to streamline internal systems and structures; in a recent comparable analysis of our district office staffing levels, we were staffed at or below median of comparable districts in every central office department. We are strengthening services, increasing efficiencies, and utilizing public dollars strategically.

Student-centered partnerships – we continue to roll out our new family partnership toolkit through staff professional development. This toolkit provides a guide to strengthen school-family-student partnerships, recognizing that families are the first and most important educators for every child. We look forward to our upcoming annual district parent survey to receive critical feedback on how we can continue to improve those essential partnerships. 

Thriving team – despite being leaders in the state and country in educator housing programs, we continue to face challenges recruiting, retaining, and supporting high quality educators. As part of our strategic plan this year, we published a new staff housing master plan that will guide efforts to provide affordable housing to ~75% of staff over the next decade. Our housing plan demonstrated that without district support, affordability of free market rentals and home ownership is out of reach within the district for the majority of staff. Data shows that the only place a family of two mid-career educators can purchase a home is Parachute – nearly an hour outside our district. 

We know that recruiting, retaining, and supporting high quality educators in every classroom is the #1 lever schools can pull to increase student achievement, which is why supporting a thriving team is essential to our strategic goals. That’s why we formally launched a Mill Levy Override Exploratory Committee to explore a fall 2026 ballot initiative to raise funding to recruit, retain, and support high quality educators and strengthen student achievement outcomes. The community can learn more on our website or attend an upcoming community meeting:

• Monday, March 16, 6:30pm, Basalt High School
• Wednesday, March 18, 6:30pm Glenwood Springs Elementary School
• Thursday, March 19, 6:30pm Carbondale District Office (will be live streamed and recorded, posted on our district website)

These meetings will be available in both English and Spanish, and all are welcome to attend. 

We’re looking forward to a busy spring and strong finish to the 2025-26 school year. Thanks for being a part of the effort!

Dr. Anna Cole is superintendent of the Roaring Fork Schoool District located in Glenwood Springs, Carbondale and Basalt.