St. Vrain Valley School District earlier this month was honored for its digital innovation by RTM Business Group Digital.
RTM Business Group “specializes in creating opportunities for professionals in a number of business verticals to come together and collaborate,” according to its website. However, the company also is interested in education.
“Their mission is really to connect business to education and to promote the latest and most innovative practices in education,” said Jackie Kapushion, St. Vrain deputy superintendent.
RTM Business Group recognized the digital innovation happening in SVVSD by presenting Superintendent Don Haddad with the award. Although the award is given to superintendents, Haddad said he accepted the award on “behalf of the entire team.”
“There is no way I can even accept something like this. It’s been the teachers, it’s been our leadership team, it’s been our community” that has made technology educational opportunities possible for students, Haddad said.
“You can’t do this work without a whole team” that pays attention to all areas of technology from maintenance to professional development to ensuring the future upkeep and purchase of devices that have become a major part of students’ education, Kapushion said.
“Digital innovation has really been highlighted during the pandemic for all of us. Clearly we are all having to use virtual conferencing and do our work, our meetings and even our personal interactions with people in ways that we have never had to before,” Kapushion said. “Because St. Vrain, a decade ago, had a lot of foresight to see that the use of technology would really enhance education for children, we soon began implementing the infrastructure and the practices and the professional development and the devices for teachers and for kids. It really prepared us very well for the pandemic.”
The work over the last decade has allowed teachers and students to learn in a blended education model that integrates technology into everyday learning, putting the district ahead of the curve or other districts, Kapushion added.
Some of the innovation recognized by the award includes SVVSD’s Mobile Innovation Lab; the Innovation Center, which includes a virtual reality lab, an artificial intelligence lab and the aerospace and aeronautics program; and PTECH programs at local high schools, including the new cybersecurity program to begin in the 2021-22 school year at Silver Creek High School.
“It’s those kinds of opportunities for students to not only be subjected to a really strong curriculum but also to break down the four walls of what a classroom would have looked like in the past,” Haddad said.
Kapushion said the award is meaningful to SVVSD because “it was provided by a business group. We continue to understand that relationship between public education and the community and how both strengthen one another. It is through strong public schools that businesses thrive and it is through the support of businesses and the resources and the intellectual understanding that businesses give us that allows us to build the next generation of students.”
