TELLURIDE, Sept. 14, 10:21 a.m. - Telluride R-1 School District Boardmember Jenny Patterson remembered former athletic director and French teacher Liz Palmer, who died September 4 in Ridgway from Amytrophic Lateral Sclerosis. “We will miss her smiling face,” added Technology Director Chris Delaney-Haynes, who went on to praise Palmer, a member of the Fort Lewis College Hall of Fame for her stint as captain of that school’s girls volleyball team, who “brought volleyball play at the Telluride schools to a new level” in the 1990s. Palmer came to Telluride in 1979.

Sports News

A Golf Scramble will take place September 22 to raise funds for the district’s new Booster Club and Positive Coaches Alliance, being organized by TM/HS Athletic Director Mike Hughes and Telluride Ski and Snowboard Club Director Justin Chandler. It costs $150 to play – a bargain, Superintendent Mary Rubadeau observed, in today’s market – and sponsors are being sought for $100 a hole. To sign on, call Hughes at 369-1210. On the soccer front, Boardmember Margaret Cruzzavala reported “only two coaches” for the 34 boys playing soccer this season, and no coach signed on, to date, to for girls’ soccer this spring.

Curriculum Adopted

The district has wrapped up its two-year process of revising its language arts, social studies and math curricula. “The board was really involved in this whole effort,” Rubadeau said, of creating what she described it as a “dynamic document.” Delaney-Haynes walked the board through an online sample of the new curriculum; it will be posted on the school website, and accessed by grade through the main menu. “Our teachers’ handprints are all over it,” Rubadeau said of the new document; printed out, she said, it has “hundreds and hundreds” of pages. It includes a revised science curriculum for grades K-6, as well as the K-12 social studies and language arts curriculum; math revisions are ongoing, and expected to be ready for review in December.

News Flash: Enrollment Is Up

Due to large class size, two out-of-district families were told last month “that we would not be able to enroll” their children, Telluride Elementary School Principal Trish Scherner reported to the board, adding that “both families took the news lightly, and said they had expected this outcome and appreciated the communication.” The elementary school’s 239 students include 68 in kindergarten, 66 in first, 46 in second and 59 in third grades. Upcoming TES events: Open House, Wednesday, Sept. 19, 5:30-6:30 p.m.; Parent Teacher Student Organization Lip Sync Thursday, Sept. 20 and Parent-Student-Teacher Goal-Setting Conferences Wednesday, Sept. 26. Telluride Intermediate Middle School Principal Steve Smith reported a total of 278 students, with 52 in fourth, 19 in fourth-fifth, 56 in fifth, 50 in sixth, 53 in seventh and 48 in eighth grades. Colorado Student Assessment Program results “have arrived and will be mailed” to parents of students who took those test, Smith reported. The intermediate/middle school Open House will be held Wednesday, Sept. 19, 6-7 p.m. Telluride High School has 183 students, with 43 in ninth, 38 in tenth, 48 in eleventh and 54 in twelfth grades.

Southern Bus Route Discontinuation Protested

Parents of school-age children in San Bernardo and Ophir protested the discontinuation this year of last year’s southern school bus route test run for students in San Bernardo and Ophir. “It didn’t make sense,” Board President told the four families in attendance, “with just four kids riding the bus.” A driver’s log showed an average morning ridership of 3.89 students from San Bernardo and 1.72 from Ophir from Jan. 23-March 16, 2007, and tallied an average cost per ride for those dates of $9.85 (not counting the $40,000 cost of the new bus). On Feb. 23, the log recorded zero riders (and an editorializing “ouch”). Compounding the low-ridership problem: “We can’t get a bus driver,” Patterson said, which is, she added, true outside of Telluride, as well. Rubadeau urged the affected families to marshal their troops for a transit meeting early next year. State funding for the bus is determined by the number of riders.