At their short meeting on Tuesday, the Montezuma-Cortez RE-1 school board discussed ESS and BOCES, school safety training and data from the 2022-2023 school year.
In his report, Superintendent Tom Burris told the board that he is continuing to receive ESS complaints from virtual employees from VocoVision. He said that while he isn’t sure these complaints will help with the process of separating from BOCES, he hopes it will “bring to the forefront our struggles with ESS.”
In total, Burris said the district has nine VocoVision providers, each at a price of over $100,000 each.
“The cost is huge,” he said.
Executive director of ESS Lisa Megel has been working hard to finish IEPs for students at the high school so they can be included in regular classes.
“She has completed this task, and we are completely legal,” Burris said. “She is now working with a handful of our toughest kids.”
There hasn’t been an update about the district's application to become its own AU, but Burris said he heard that there has been discussions happening with BOCES superintendents and the state board of education.
Portable classrooms are now finished, according to Burris, after being set back multiple times because of weather or inspection issues. They are just waiting for the results of the final inspections.
Burris shared that attendance in all district schools is still over 90%.
“The principals are doing a great job motivating kids,” Burris said.
The superintendent said that he has been spending time at some of the district schools, even sitting in on some classes at Montezuma-Cortez High School. He has also visited Kemper Elementary, Lewis-Arriola and Mesa Elementary.
Assistant Superintendent Eddie Ramirez gave an update on soliciting bids to “assess and repair drainage issues” at the middle school structure and said one bid would be presented at the Oct. 19 meeting.
He also reminded the board and those in attendance that school safety training would take place Oct. 24 and 26, covering crisis management for school-based incidents.
He also noted that vulnerability assessments would be given Oct. 23 at the high school and Oct. 25 at the middle school.
Ramirez said the district hopes to purchase nine Opengate detectors, which give automatic screenings to detect threats. The detectors would cost $16,691 each.
Jim Parr, executive director of academic services, shared the 2023 strategic plan updates and student outcomes with the board, saying that students in kindergarten through second grader “will have strong early literacy and beginning math skill.”
Using the Early Literacy platform, kindergarten through second grade students showed 10% growth from the beginning of the 2022 school year to the end in 2023.
They also showed 10% growth using the STAR math program.
Students reading, writing and doing math at grade level increased from 47% to 55%, and students showed one year’s growth on STAR math, with 49% in 2022 and 54% in 2023.
He also noted that a 10% increase equals one year of typical growth.
By May of 2023, students in grades third through fifth increased reading scores from 28% to 36%.
Grades six through eight increased their reading scores by at least 10%, and 65% of students reached the 55th Student Growth Percentile on the EOY STAR Reading Assessment.
2023 MCHS Spring Graduation Rate not available until the end of November.
Executive Director of Exceptional Student Services Lisa Megel gave an update on the strategic plan involving ESS students, which includes progress monitoring, increased inclusion and emphasizing support.
She said they are working to increase inclusion by creating more opportunities for ESS students to participate in regular education classes and be able to be in class with grade-level peers and participate in class discussions, Q&A, study groups and more to “help build strong students that become lifelong learners.”
“Supports are being provided through accommodations, classroom teacher intervention, paraprofessional support in classrooms and special education teacher support in and outside of the classroom,” she said.
Student attendance is being tracked to see if there are any IEP-related concerns, and special education teachers are reporting on a decrease in behaviors for many ESS students who are able to participate in general education classes.
They are also emphasizing community connection through various community groups that help identify and provide options for “youths in crisis” that may need support outside of what the schools are able to offer.
Some of these community connection structures could include developing a parent group, staff recruitment and retention, working with HR to hire and working with licensed professionals to provide services to students in need.
“The special education staff is amazing and doing many great things. They have been silos. Providing professional development that is meaningful for staff to make gains in their work is important,” she added.
The board approved a capital reserve request for CMS trench drain and water conversion for the playground at a cost of $154,700 and a capital reserve request for CMS and Lewis-Arriola’s roof repair insurance deductible at a price of $20,000.
The meeting then headed to executive session.
The next regular board meeting will take place on Tuesday, Nov. 8 at 6 p.m., and the board will have an Indigenous Policies and Procedures meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 24 at 6 p.m.
