Impact on Education is proud to announce Sue Taddeucci as the recipient of the 2020 Blake Peterson Lifetime Achievement Award. Sue is a Special Education Multi-Intensive Learning Center Teacher at Southern Hills Middle School.

Sue exemplifies what Blake Peterson valued most in educators, an extraordinary heart for the students she works with. This commitment is best exemplified by how she individualizes her approach to working with each student’s needs and strengths to optimize their potential. Her endless enthusiasm in working with families, pioneering new teaching approaches, facilitating the groundbreaking peer tutoring program, and mentoring an incredible number of educators in special education, has changed the lives of countless individuals in our district and throughout the state.

Sue has served the BVSD community since 2007 when she joined the Creekside Elementary preschool program. She’s been catalyzing and innovating within the Special Education department at Southern Hills Middle since 2010, and building a norm of inclusivity in the process. Her tireless dedication to partnering with all of the positive influences and roles in a student’s life – parents, caregivers, families, student classmates, paraeducators, colleagues, district administrators – with only the goal of that student’s growth as the focus had led to progression and learning that is truly transformative. 

Equally important, her sphere of positive impact extends beyond her classroom walls and BVSD. Sue drives a Peer Tutoring Program that caught the eyes of the Colorado Department of Education, and her energetic, inclusive teaching style is a positive model for special education teachers and programs across the state. 

Thank you, Sue, for bringing out the best in your students and in all those around you!

Click here to read an article about the 2020 Blake Peterson Lifetime Achievement Award Winner, Sue Taddeucci, in the Daily Camera.

Things are starting off strong in 2020, and we are diving into some exciting new work to prepare all students for a promising future. In alignment with BVSD and consistent with the District’s  Strategic Plan, Impact on Education is funding two new initiatives this spring that will help students in our community meet the challenges and opportunities that await them. 

First, we are proudly piloting a new career exploration tool in five BVSD middle schools. We believe that providing students with many opportunities to explore careers from a young age will inspire and excite them. This program is unique because it features jobs that are projected to be in high demand in the future and allows students to explore these careers virtually through videos with actual Coloradans working in the field. Eighty-five percent of those featured on video are from underrepresented groups, and the program features information about clubs or electives that might help interested kids gain more opportunities to build their skills. We will gather information from students and teachers to determine if using this program achieves its goals and will use that data to inform future investments. 

Second, we’re developing an action plan with BVSD designed to reimagine the ways we are preparing students for their futures . Options for students to build skills, gain college credit or technical certifications, and access work-based learning opportunities while in high school are not as abundant in BVSD as they are in peer districts. Building upon successful best practices and then harnessing the talent and knowledge of our local community, Impact on Education expects that we’ll be able to offer new and exciting choices to all students K-12 in the coming years.

According to the World Economic Forum, 65% of children entering school will work in jobs that don’t yet exist. And another recent ManpowerGroup survey cites 45% of Human Resource Managers who say they are unable to find qualified workers for available jobs (“Talent Shortage Survey”, 2018). Ensuring that our schools are preparing students for successful futures is a focus of BVSD, so we are proud to fund both of these new efforts and look forward to seeing all of our students graduate and succeed in the future. 

With the incredible partnership among Impact on Education, Education Foundation of the St. Vrain Valley, and both Boulder Valley and St. Vrain Valley School Districts, the Crayons to Calculators program is a key component in tackling the achievement gap most schools in Colorado face.

Every once in a while, we have the privilege of meeting some of the families who are recipients of the C2C backpacks. (Each school is the primary distributor to their families). On a stifling hot day in early August – a week before the official Back to School Nights, a mother and daughter stopped by the Impact on Education office to pick up the needed five backpacks for Annika and her siblings. As Annika sifted through the massive selection of PreK through high school backpacks, searching for the perfect style to fit her brother’s and sisters’ personalities, her mother, Joy, expressed her gratitude for the Crayons to Calculators program.

“You always have the right supplies – it is exactly what each of my kids needs from the school lists. I am grateful that you pay attention to this, as it allows for my kids to be like all the other kids on the first day of school”

She explained that she loved coming to the Impact on Education office to pick up their bags because her children loved to have the supplies early.

“I love watching them spend time together, personalizing their backpacks and organizing all their supplies. It is such a stress relief to see my children walk confidently into the school building for the new year already prepared, and nobody knows that I cannot afford to get them this basic need.”

Then Joy’s face started to glow with the look of a proud mother. She said, “My oldest daughter is a senior this year and with the support of BVSD and programs like Crayons to Calculators, she is doing very well.”

Tears started to form in the crease of her eyes. “My Dana has a 4.0, and colleges are asking her to apply to their school – she will be the first in our family to go to college.”

After an exchange of hugs between Joy and the Crayons to Calculators Coordinator, Annika stood up with the five bags in her hands with a huge smile on her face and she proudly announced, “And I am going to be the second.”

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