AURORA | Despite the lingering air of uncertainty at five struggling schools in northwest Aurora, a leader at one of those schools — Crawford Elementary School — has provided cause for optimism.
On Monday, March 3, Crawford Assistant Principal Jennifer Buster was named one of the state’s outstanding assistant principals of the year by the Colorado Association of School Executives (CASE) and a panel of educators from the Colorado Association of Elementary School Principals.
Buster was one of two educators from across the state tapped for the annual award at the elementary school level and the only such administrator in Aurora Public Schools to earn the designation, according to Melissa Gibson, director of strategic partners and membership for CASE.
“I am incredibly honored and humbled to be recognized as a CASE 2016 assistant principal of the year,” Buster said in a statement. “I share this award with all of the staff, students and families at Crawford Elementary and thank them for their kindness, support and guidance. I am both grateful and blessed to represent such an amazing community of learners.”
Each year, the award recognizes individuals across the state who play a hand in the daily operations of Colorado’s PreK-8 schools.
“Assistant Principal Jennifer Buster is a champion of the amazing work staff members do every day to support Crawford students and families,” Rico Munn, superintendent of APS, said in a statement. “It is an honor to be able to celebrate the hard work and dedication exemplified by Jenny and her colleagues at Crawford.”
Now in her fifth year at Crawford, Buster has helped shape a new literacy initiative at the school that has bolstered phonological instruction, student monitoring and professional development for teachers, according to a press release issued by CASE.
“Our staff is now more knowledgable of reading foundational skills, and the impact is evident through our students’ reading and writing … Ms. Buster’s leadership was instrumental in this celebration,”Jennifer Passchier, principal at Crawford, said in a statement.
Crawford enrolls roughly 650 students in pre-kindergarten through fifth grade, about 90 percent of whom receive free or reduced-price meals, according to a press release. About 25 percent of Crawford students come from refugee backgrounds.
In 2014, Crawford was approved by the Colorado Department of Education for a three-year Tiered Intervention Grant (TIG) totaling more than $2 million, according to the CDE website.
Buster will be honored during a ceremony at the school in the coming weeks, a CASE-organized award ceremony later this spring, and a separate CASE convention in Breckenridge later this summer.
About 80 percent of the teachers at Crawford approved of the school’s innovation proposal, which would give the school greater autonomy from state and local regulations, when they voted on the document late last month. After hearing a presentation on the school’s plan last week, the APS board of education is poised to vote on the Crawford outline as well as plans from Paris Elementary School and Boston K-8 during its regular meeting on March 15. If given board approval, the plans will go before the state board of education later this spring.