At their Monday meeting, the Dolores RE-4A school board heard from Montezuma County Sheriff Steve Nowlin about law enforcement services to the town of Dolores and the status of school resource officers, as well as approving acting Superintendent Alesa Reed as interim superintendent.
In board reports, Clay Tallmadge told the board that because school board meetings have moved from Thursday to Monday, BOCES meeting updates will now be given the month after, as the BOCES meeting takes place on Wednesday.
During their last BOCES meeting, the group set their first set of strategic goals for the first time in San Juan BOCES history, something that Tallmadge shared would be pivotal for the organization as they continue to move forward.
Reed told the board in her superintendent report that the details and ballot language had been finalized for the mill levy override and the information had been dropped off at the county clerk’s office in preparation for the November election.
The Dolores District Accountability Committee proposed their new members of the DAC, and said the DAC meeting will take place every third Monday of the month at 5:15 p.m. in the Dolores school district board room.
Some of the responsibilities the DAC said they would like to be part of are helping lead and interpret SCAP results, as well as provide suggestions on family engagement. They also expressed their goal of having a DAC member on the parent focus group for SCAP onboarding, among other suggestions.
Before the board approved the DAC’s new members, they asked whether there were seats still to be filled. While two seats are open, the board and the DAC decided to move forward with the approvals, as there are no interested parties in the open seats at this time. Board President Maegan Crowley said new members can be approved later on, if needed.
Toward the end of the meeting, Nowlin updated the board about Sheriff’s Office budget cuts and the sheriff-provided school resource officers.
Nowlin told the board that ever since 2015, the Sheriff’s Office has had a contract with the town of Dolores to provide law enforcement services. Because of budget cuts from the Montezuma County Commissioners to the Sheriff’s Office, Nowlin said that the commissioners wanted to increase the amount Dolores paid for the sheriff’s services, wanting to raise it from $220,000 per year to $370,000 per year, something the sheriff called “extortion.”
When the proposed amount was not accepted, the commissioners lowered the number to $250,000, but that amount was also not agreed upon, so there is no contract between the Sheriff’s Office and Dolores. Despite that, and the office losing 10 deputies, Nowlin said he would continue to provide services to every part of the county, as well as SROs.
Nowlin said no one could tell the sheriff where to assign his deputies, and he would continue to make sure that Dolores had SROs, noting that they were important and had taken part in specialized training to protect local schools, staff and students in the event of a threat.
He assured the board there was “nothing to worry about,” and that the school wouldn’t have to pay for the SRO and sheriff services.
In discussion items, the board went over the SCAP strategic plan, a proposed coaching pay schedule and new hires.
In action items, Reed was approved to become the interim superintendent of the Dolores school district. The board thanked her for her willingness to fill the role and for doing a great job. The board then approved her contract.
The next Dolores school board meeting is Oct. 14 at 6 p.m.
