We hope everyone enjoyed a fun and safe holiday break!  We look forward to welcoming you all back to school tomorrow, Monday, January 2, 2017.

• In honor of Veteran’s Day, Riverview Elementary and Miller Middle School will be collecting used cell phones. The collection period is for the month of November. When you donate to the “Cell Phones for Soldiers” program, you will provide troops with free calling cards to stay connected with their loved ones. Please help our troops to call home by donating used cellular phones. Phones can be dropped off at either school.

When looking at the performance of Riverview students against standards (did a student demonstrate academic skill that meets state standards) there are a number of areas to celebrate. Overall, we saw an increase in the number of students who are meeting or exceeding standards from 2014-15 to 2015-16. Riverview continues to perform above both state and local averages. For example, in math, our 3rd grade scores rose from 45% to 46% (holding steady); however, in that 46%, we saw our ‘Exceeds’ percentage rise from 5% to 11%, indicating effectiveness in supporting our advanced math learners. Our ‘Did Not Meet’ scores (lowest category) decrease from 20% to only 9%. This indicates improve effectiveness in supporting struggling math students. At grade 4, the meet/exceed percentages rose from 26% to 34%; 5th grade saw math meets/exceeds percentage rise from 36% to 54%. Keep in mind these are grade level comparisons, so not the same students. When we look at the same group of students from year to year, we see, for example, that last year’s 5th graders scored, in math, 26% meets/exceeds in 4th grade and 54% meets and exceeds in 5th. That is phenomenal improvement, more than doubling the number of students who meet the high standards. Riverview shows a similar trend in English Language Arts. In Science our 5th grade meets/ exceeds scores improved from 36% in 13-14, to 56% in 14-15, to 75% in 15-16. That is incredible improvement.

Today, the Colorado Department of Education released the state’s Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers, or PARCC. This marks the second year that the PARCC assessment has been administered in the Durango 9-R school system and parents will soon receive score reports that detail how students performed on last spring’s assessments in English language arts, math and science.

Fun Run fundraising is looking GOOD! We've nearly met last year's amount in corporate sponsorships and directory advertisers - and we've still got two weeks to go! This will surely be our best year yet and our team is so very excited and GRATEFUL! We are thrilled to have so many familiar businesses on board and are loving the new faces in the crowd, too. Here's a list of who's committed so far. Be sure we show our gratitude to these generous companies by using them when needs arise - show your love to those who've shown love to our awesome kids with their kind donations.

Today our schools celebrate the service of the men and women who have served our country. Happy Veterans' Day!

We are migrating to all new websites, as this migration occurs you may have trouble accessing some of our sites and/or pages, or experience broken links. If you need immediate assistance, please contact the District Office at (970) 247-5411 or contact your school directly.

Durango School District 9-R would like to remind families that Daylight Savings Time will end at 2am on Sunday, November 6th. Clocks will turn backward one hour at that time.

The Fire Station located at 1235 Camino Del Rio is hosting an open house on Saturday, October 15th from 10am - 2pm. Come meet your local firefighters and medics, tour the station and trucks, watch live demonstrations and meet the board of directors.

Through a Durango Education Foundation (DEF) core academic grant, the Durango 9-R Title VI program has been able to partner with the Durango Public Library to bring author Dr. Evangeline Parsons-Yazzie to Durango for a special cultural literacy enrichment program. Dr. Parsons-Yazzie will also be visiting some of our schools and reading her book to our students.