September 13, 2025 - Open Letter to OUR Community
Yesterday I sent notes of empathy to our staff and to our families regarding state and national tragedies. Our hearts and thoughts are with those whose lives have been impacted by those tragedies.
I went to bed still thinking about the Evergreen school shooting and Charlie Kirk’s assassination. I am still thinking about it. These acts of violence impact us all. I wanted to share our school’s efforts to mitigate suicide and violence, while supporting civil dialogue in the next generation. I believe it is important to work together to provide a safe place for our students to learn, and our community to thrive, so I am writing this open letter. Please hang tight, and offer me the opportunity to use more words than is common on some important conversations. My intent is not to distract from those in mourning, but I feel that it is important to address these topics in a timely manner.
Let me start with this idea--Together.
Together, regardless of our political viewpoints we can ensure that our students, our faculty and staff, and our community is connected and engaging with the integrity that civil dialogue requires. I pray, in our small valley, that we are spared from the consequences of what we have created as a society. If we do face those tragic stories that others are facing today, then I have confidence we would face it together.
The Evergreen school shooting is disturbing, particularly to those of us that stand in the gap in your schools. We constantly imagine the worst-case scenario– preparing through drills and frequent reviews of safety protocol. Yet, the facts are that our schools are still the safest place for children in our community. When we look at the data, the most likely place for a child to be hurt is a car accident (0.0579% probability of teen death each year), normally involving drugs or alcohol. We must remember that we set the example for our youth, with how we present alcohol use and drug use in our home. The second most likely place for youth tragedies is suicide (0.0035% probability of teen death each year). And while school shootings are among the scariest scenarios, they represent a percentage of 0.00000118% probability of death for all k-12 students, not just teens and not just from an annual perspective. This data is since the Columbine incident decades ago (data from chat GPT).
It is uncomfortable to even bring up these facts. It is also uncomfortable to bring up that the teen suicides are completed from instruments of death they get in our homes, not in our schools. The teen suicide phenomena has been amplified by the curse of social media that we allow to prey on children. Thank you to our school board for the move to phone-free schools, with an important goal of minimizing this harmful media. I have received countless “thank yous” for that action, but the majority have come from high school students themselves. Kids appreciate when adults take charge and protect them.
So, what do we do in this community – OUR community - and schools to protect our students from suicide and coupled violence against others? First, Salida Schools invests more than most schools into student support services. We partner with therapists from Sol Vista that offer services to students in our school buildings. We have more psychologists than other districts of our size. We have more counselors as well. We have an SRO (School Resource Officer). We invest our dollars in the services that have the best hope to support a student that is desperate. Yes, that investment competes with classic teacher salaries, but it is critical. Thank you to the school board for investing in support services that help all our students navigate the breakdown of society.
We also invest in small class sizes. You may have heard that once again the Colorado Department of Education named our district a “District of Distinction”. It put us again in the top 10% of schools academically in the state; in addition, when we look at the academic scores since 2013, we are 1 of 9 of the 178 school districts that have achieved this honor seven or more times, or the top 5%. Why and how do we keep succeeding? One reason is our school board invests dollars in support services that others do not.
Success for us is not a test score. Test scores come as a result of our mantra that success means we know our students by name, and by need, and that each and every student has an adult at school that is connected with that student. Small class sizes cost more and compete with teacher salaries. If we ran the same class sizes as Denver Public Schools we could easily pay our teachers more. Our school buildings will not allow larger class sizes. We built them to match our value of small class sizes. And, and with a small class size, or a small case load, we have a chance to know our students. That means we have the best chance possible to address a student in crisis before the crisis - before they take up a weapon to harm themselves and others. Thank you to our school board, current and former directors who have invested in small class sizes as a reflection of this key community value.
We have a comprehensive social emotional learning framework. SEL has been politicized, which is unfortunate and short-sighted. Our job as educators is to focus on learning and Human Development. Human development is the oldest, and most universal concept underpinning any educational effort. The programming used to support human development is called SEL. Salida Schools has systems and programs to help our students grow in their understanding of themselves and how they fit into larger groups. These SEL topics must be directly taught to developing humans. If we do not teach how to accept yourself and play well with others we are more likely to end up with tragedies like we are facing this week. By having a comprehensive framework, we can identify gaps.
Recently, we identified a gap in suicidal ideation programing for our middle school students. So, this year, we went and found the best program according to efficacy data, Sources of Strength, and paid for our staff to become trainers. Then, last week over 40 of our middle school students had a full day conference (just like adults) with a national trainer, so that they could help support a program that directly assists humans in puberty stages to become healthy individuals. Students learned how to support those around them. They learned how to mitigate suicidal ideation. Thank you to our middle school staff and leadership for being one more example of proactively trying to mitigate the fears we all have. Thank you to our school board for investing in these types of grant efforts.
Our school board took risks and changed our high school graduation requirements five years ago. It was a large change and required citizens to support a tax to bring CMC to our community. It required all our high school faculty to rethink how they engaged in the human development stage in high school. Advisory is commonly marginalized in any high school schedule. We invested more into it. In that space our faculty are learning to help students independently design a four-year plan that extends beyond high school to support their dream. That process develops ‘purpose’ in an adolescent. An adolescent, without purpose, is in a dangerous place, and has an increased likelihood to hurt themselves and others. An adolescent without purpose gets stuck. I will speak more about this change to graduation requirements, but every citizen should be aware that this change was difficult and significant. Because of this work, though, we saw a 20% increase in matriculation of our graduates last year to some additional training beyond high school.
Advisory is also the place we work to ensure that every student has belonging. That is why the high school added clubs during the school day. It is an intentional effort to ensure that every student is engaged with an adult and other students. Without belonging adolescents, and all citizens for that matter, go to dark places. Therefore, student participation in activities outside of school is essential—and at SHS participation is at its highest level ever. Participation in activities is a key strategy to ensure all students are known by name and by need and by connected adult. That intentional strategy is an investment of time and tax dollars to ensure we are in the safest place possible. It is also why we continue to be the best academic option in the state. Thank you to over a hundred local businesses that offer real life internships to our older students, ensuring that purpose and connections are nurtured in our community. Thank you to CMC for helping design and facilitate that program.
Thank you for sticking with me as I shared those details to ensure that our community knows how the school is intentionally investing and working together to ensure suicide and violence does not occur in our community. These thoughts are just a highlight-I did not mention all of the programs and efforts at all of our schools. Nor did I mention the other partnerships with DHS, Salida PD, and our non-profits that are daily trying to help us with this overwhelming task that would take a novel to detail. These community partnerships are also important in the process.
We have 250 staff. They show up every day and wonder if they are going to put their life on the line for your child. And, they have done it for decades now. Please, please, please take some time and write them an old school note of gratitude. The burden of responsibility takes its slow toll on their courage to stand in the gap, a gap which we have collectively created. If they give up, America will fail.
Before I switch to the next tragedy. I know that I have not discussed gun control. It is outside of my work. Others will have to lead and navigate that complex topic. My locus of control is over how we develop the next generation of healthy adults that can handle opposing viewpoints in civic dialogue.
Charlie Kirk was assassinated. I am not taking political sides, I am as independent as I can be. I do know this. Our nation will fall if public education fails. Also, our nation will fall if we do not have leaders. No society can succeed without leaders. We habitually destroy our leaders and the most talented frequently abdicate the opportunity to lead. Why would they lead? To lead today is a sure way to have your person and/or family attacked. We must learn to honor leaders. When I say that I am not even sure exactly what I mean by honoring leaders. Maybe I need to rediscover some ways of old, or maybe I need to find some fresh ways. I just know I need to grow in this space if I am going to attract the leaders I hope for. Let’s be clear, I do not personally agree with all of my leaders. Yet, I must get better at honoring those that are willing to sacrifice their time and effort to lead me.
I think there is something that may be important for you to know about how your schools are trying to help the next generation learn how to have civil dialogue—disagreement on topics, but not hate towards people. The School Board five years ago reset the graduation requirements. This year the last course, which the school board envisioned, is finally in place. It is required of 100% of the student body. It is called “Senior Seminar”. The purpose of this course is to require all students to learn to engage in civil dialogue on issues that are not simple or easy. The course requires students to gain proficiency in how we engage others that we don’t agree with. It is a foundational skill of America. We will no longer pass out a diploma to anyone that cannot demonstrate fluency in civil dialogue. Thank you to the non-partisan League of Women Voters for helping us create this new course. Thank you to our School Board for requiring it. Thank you to our faculty member Brady Hines for being willing to help pioneer this course that has no state standards to guide it.
We must honor leaders that are willing to stand in the gap, just like we must honor teachers that are standing in the gap. We must learn and require each of us to have civil debate. I don’t agree with all of you. Not all of you agree with me. You are still my neighbor. You are still my friend.
In closing, we are a county of retirees. Many of our retirees stood in their proverbial community gaps for many years. I would challenge you, as you reflect on the events this week to also reflect on the reality that one can retire from a profession—but one can never retire from community life. I can name so many amazing retirees that have helped me the last 15 years lead our schools. We need more of you. Please pick back up your tools and your experience and help us ensure that while other communities may struggle, Salida does not have to. If you are not sure how to engage, then become a mentor. If we all just became the one support for one person that needed it in our community, then we would not need any other solution. Be that “one” for someone.
Sincerely,
Dr. David Blackburn,
Salida Schools
Superintendent