The Mancos RE-6 Board of Education on Monday discussed improved communication in the district, student success and election results.
Vice President Tim Hunter stood in for the absent President Emily Hutcheson-Brown.
After updates about the District Accountability Committee, Colorado Association of School Boards and San Juan BOCES, the board heard from Superintendent Todd Cordrey.
Cordrey talked about a Department of Education tool that will help educators teach students responsible use of artificial intelligence while emphasizing the detriments of over-reliance on AI resources.
He also spoke of the district’s partnership with the Southwest Education Collaborative, which has a new executive director, and the opportunities the partnership offers Mancos students.
Thirteen Mancos students attended a health care workplace learning forum at Southwest Memorial Hospital, and Cordrey shared that out of the $500,000 worth of equipment available to the district because of the partnership, $300,000 of it is on Mancos’ campus.
He also reported that during a recent visit to Mancos’ he saw all nine welding bays were full of students and one asked to show Cordrey what she was working on.
Rosalinda Phillips, a student representative on the school board, told the board they were learning a lot in the class, such as how to read reference lines and identify symbols as if they were on a job site.
“He’s teaching what we would want to know in the real world,” Phillips said.
Cordrey’s self-evaluation will be finished by Dec. 1, and the board will evaluate and have reconciliation of his evaluation in January.
Cordrey provided an election update to the board, noting that Sherri Wright of Cortez had been elected to fill a seat on the Colorado Board of Education.
Out of 40 districts who had a bond of mill levy on the ballot, 21 passed, including Montezuma-Cortez and Dolores. No schools with 500 or fewer students were able to pass their bond or mill levy, and two out of nine schools with 1,000 or fewer passed, according to Cordrey.
The board also discussed whether item 1B in their strategic plan was at standard.
Item 1B’s objective states, “The Mancos school district consistently communicates with all stakeholders in various ways.”
Hunter said he was impressed with the strides the district has taken in its communication and that he was really proud it had happened.
Victor Figueroa said there has been a “tremendous” amount of improvement in this area, and Craig Benally echoed that the communication has been “really good” from the perspective of a parent.
“I think we’re really on track,” Benally said.
The board unanimously agreed through a vote that item 1B was at standard.
At the end of the meeting, Hunter said they needed to put a special meeting on the schedule “to approve the mill levy,” and the board approved selling four buses through a closed bidding process.
The process of selling the buses will be managed by the district’s transportation manager.
The next Mancos school board meeting is Monday, Dec. 16 at 6 p.m.
