On Tuesday, May 25, 2010 State Champion Awards were presented as part of the opening session of the Region VII Head Start Association Leadership Conference.  The award recognizes leadership on issues that positively impact young children.  The state of Kansas chose to recognize Laura Cano, Jim McDaniel, and Dr. Robert Morton as their champions.  The three recipients are administrators with the three school districts involved in the Demonstration Learning Communities project funded by the Kansas Early Childhood Block Grant.  Mary Baskett, Executive Director of Kansas Head Start Association, introduced the recipients and presented the awards.

Laura Cano currently serves as the Director of Federal Programs for Liberal USD 480.  Her duties include overseeing the Title 1, ESL, Migrand and Preschool Programs for the district.  She has been a preschool classroom teacher, ESL teacher, and school principal.  Mrs. Cano knows education is the key to success and strives to be an advocate for children of underrepresented groups.  As an immigrant herself, she believes dedication and perseverance are important traits to instill in children.  Mrs. Cano leads the school district's partnership with Head Start and child care partners in Liberal. 

Jim McDaniel has been a Kansas Superintendent of Schools for 10 years, providing leadership in three districts, currently Kaw Valley Schoold in St. Mary's, Kansas.  Before becoming a superintendent, Mr, McDaniel was an elementary teacher and principal whose goal has always been to provide quality services and opportunites for all children.  Mr. McDaniel works with a number of community partners on the Demonstration Learning Communities project in Rossville.  He sees the benefits of proactively doing things right from the beginning with children to prevent the many reactive educational interventions that provide far inferior results.

Dr. Robert Morton is the Superintendent of Schools for USD 445 in Coffeyville, Kansas.  He taught science, coached and sponsored many activites before moving into school administration.  Teaching continues to be a passion on his and he implemented a Superintendent's Leadership Class which meets every other day.  Dr. Morton has been very actively engaged in early childhood education over the past three years.  He has worked with a number of partners to implement the Demonstration Learning Communities model in Coffeyville.

More information about the Demonstration Learning Communities project and its partners can be found at kspreschoolpartners.org.