On Tuesday, the Montezuma-Cortez RE-1 school district held a special meeting where the allegations against Superintendent Tom Burris were addressed, as well as discussions on the mill levy.
District attorney Brad Miller gave a brief statement on the allegations against Burris and provided the notes from his statement to The Journal after the meeting.
Miller expressed appreciation for the Cortez Police Department in their work to investigate allegations about a relationship between a teacher and student.
Burris is scheduled for arraignment in Montezuma County Combined Courts on Sept. 25. According to the police department, he was cited for allegedly violating Colorado Statute 19-3-304, “Persons required to report child abuse or neglect,” on Aug. 12.
“In this case, the public record informs us that two individuals, an ex-employee who was recently terminated for unlawful behavior, and a member of the community who unsuccessfully ran for this board, made claims that the superintendent was made aware of inappropriate sexual behavior between a student and a staff member,” Miller said, referring to the reporting party, Jonathan “JJ” Lewis.
The public record does not include any “allegations or claims” that point to inappropriate sexual behavior or sexual behavior of any kind taking place, Miller said.
The Journal spoke with police on Friday about this statement, and the department said, “We would prefer that you refer to the official redacted police report and investigation.”
According to the police report, former Director of Human Resources Cyndi Eldredge provided police with a video recording of a phone conversation with Burris. The recording was given to police on July 18.
“Cynthia (Cyndi) Eldredge provided a video recording of a phone conversation between herself and Harry ‘Tom’ Burris,” Detective Shane Fletcher said in his report. “I listened to the recording, and in the video, I heard Tom state that a parent of a student came in to report an inappropriate relationship between her son and a teacher. ... In the video Tom said the parent reported her son had been over to (the teacher’s) house possibly drinking and the parent was afraid the son was going to get laid at her house. Tom added he made that statement to the board in an executive session.”
The call between Burris and Eldredge took place on June 13 around 10 p.m., per the report, and Eldredge told police she thought Burris was intoxicated.
“And, as we know, the mandatory reporting laws create a duty when the allegation or information is that a harm has occurred, not just because there is a fear regarding a person’s motives,” Miller continued. “Nothing presented so far in any context supports the idea that what was conveyed to Mr. Burris was a claim of actual bad behavior by a staff member.”
Miller went on to say that the termination of one of the employees amid the allegations had nothing to do with the conversation between the student’s parent and Burris, noting that what was said to a staff member in a “surreptitiously recorded meeting” did not have the appropriate basis for a DHS report.
With these pieces of information from the public record, Miller advised the board to wait and see if more is uncovered in the investigation and public record before making any decision.
“It remains the case that there is not a legal duty or policy basis for taking any form of disciplinary action. There is no reason to even consider that further, so I advised that we do not need an executive session or other action,” Miller told the board. “This is the extent of what I would have shared in an executive session, so I genuinely do not believe you have a need for such a session.”
Lewis told The Journal on Wednesday that the community was concerned with the way things unfolded.
“Any individual working for the school system is a mandatory reporter, and it is concerning that it took a mandatory reporter outside of the school system to expose this suspected behavior,” Lewis said.
Lewis added that the community was disappointed in the lack of discussion regarding the incident and that it was causing mistrust.
“The community is disappointed that there was no discussion following Brad Miller's presentation,” Lewis said. “This lack of action not only perpetuates the reputation of a passive board but also underscores the urgent need for research and education.”
“While it has not been determined that abuse did take place, the lack of action when concern had been reported is problematic. Not only does this set a precedent of disregarding any concern of neglect or abuse, but it continues to erode the trust that exists between this administration and our community,” Lewis said.
The board primarily talked about their mill levy, discussing whether or not to keep the levy at the proposed 3.9 mills or to raise it to 4.99 mills to give staff a raise.
The board said they were given less money from their mills than was originally intended, and they have not been able to reach County Assessor Leslie Bugg to find out why.
“This was a huge surprise for me; it’s kind of hard to cope with,” said Mike Lynch, a board member. “We had high expectations and we weren't able to deliver because of things out of our control.”
The next Montezuma-Cortez school board meeting will take place on Tuesday, Sept. 17 at 6 p.m.
