Groundbreaking Ceremony
Left to Right: Superintendent Cimarron School District: Adan Estrada; Village of Angel Fire: Councilman Brinn Colenda; Moreno Valley High School Governing Council President: Tammy Devine; Moreno Valley High School Director: Greg Vincent; Angel Fire Chamber of Commerce Executive Director: Jo Mixon; Moreno Valley Education Foundation President: Carl Nelson; Vice-President: Johnese Turri, Secretary: Samantha Weeks; and Moreno Valley Educator, Alexandra Sternhagen Back Row; Project Superintendent, Kirk Woodruff.
Once a Vision – Now a Reality
For thirteen years the students of the Moreno Valley High School have attended classes in temporary housing. Last year we passed a school bond that will finance permanent buildings.
Carl Nelson has been the number one champion in bringing this vision into reality. He literally got the ball rolling. He worked endlessly to get it put on the ballot. He organized committees, he went door-to-door. He pushed unwavering, never letting up, to educate the community on the importance of this project. NO, was not in his vocabulary!
We want to say thank-you to Carl for his tireless efforts! We also want to share the thank-you speech he read at the Groundbreaking Ceremony:
Moreno Valley Education Foundation
I have several people I want to recognize:
To everyone and every organization who has donated money or time or pro-bono services to this venture and our other ventures, thank you. We sure do appreciate your gifts. To the Allen family and the Angel Fire Resort for donating us this wonderful piece of land in the first place. Dan Rakes and Christy Germscheid played a huge role in helping me get thru some of our title and covenant problems and the proper releases from AFR required by the Cimarron School board, thank you.
To Mayor Cottam and the Village Council who have helped me with my presentation skills and done us countless favors over the last several years, thank you.
Thank you to the founding members of Moreno Valley High School and Moreno Valley Education Foundation and everyone involved in those two organizations from the beginning. Without your vision for a very unique approach to education, (our Paideia curriculum) we wouldn’t be standing here today. We have one of the most wonderful, awesome, funky, high ranking, high scoring, nontraditional high schools in America. Moreno Valley High School has become one the cornerstones in our community. I hope we can hold on to our style as we progress into the future.
Adan Estrada…the greatest superintendant ever to Govern Cimarron School District. We have unprecedented communication and cooperation with the district because of Adan and the Cimarron School Board.. Thank you Adan, Annie, Brett, Ron and Valerie.
The Public…we passed this GO bond with over 90% of yes votes in Angel Fire of the total votes cast, without your votes we would not be standing here. I can’t remember exactly who helped those last few weeks before the bond election while we were putting the hammer down on all fronts. There were several of you, Thank you.
Moreno Valley Education Foundation- our goal has always been two fold, #1 to support professional development for our staff. Our teachers at Moreno Valley High School are very special people and I have enjoyed working on this project to support your efforts for our youth in the Moreno Valley and surrounding communities. We are going to have a kick ass campus for you! Our second front-Capital Improvements….I think we rocked this one beyond any of our expectations! Thank you Mary, Jacque, Joyce, Larry, Samantha, Johnese and all that came before us.
My wife Debra Ledford deserves the biggest thank you of all. She has put up with my highs and lows on this project for over two years and has kept me on target the best she could when I wanted to quit…. which was more than once.
It’s all worth it, Moreno Valley High School is unique.
Carl A. Nelson – President
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