The Montezuma-Cortez RE-1 school district schools are all showing a 90% attendance rate or above as they near the middle of the semester, up from 87% last year, according to the district.
According to a chart provided by the district, the middle school is at 91.21%, Kemper Elementary 92.51%, Lewis-Arriola 97.5%, Mesa Elementary 93.64%, MCHS 90.66% and Beech Street Preschool 98.98%, for an average of 92.44%.
The district has been hosting attendance committee meetings on Tuesday mornings to help come up with solutions for attendance issues in the schools. Students who habitually miss school will be referred to a check and connect system intended to help students “who are continuing to be an attendance challenge.”
If the check and connect system doesn’t work, then students will be referred to Kelly Hargraves of the Montezuma County Department of Social Services, according to Superintendent Tom Burris.
Before the beginning of this school year, Burris said he sent 1,284 letters to parents and guardians of students who had more than 12 absences last school year. In total, there are 2,122 students in the district.
“I chose 12 absences because statistically, if a student misses more than 10 days of school, their chances of being proficient in that subject are pretty slim,” Burris said. “Over half of our student population missed 12 days of school.”
The district has started conversations with parents and guardians surrounding how to make school a place children want to be.
“How can we better serve kids to help get them to school than we’re doing right now? What can we do better in school? How can we make it more attractive with class offerings?” Burris asked.
The district also said they went into this school year wanting to make school more engaging.
“I hope they want to come to school because they actually feel challenged and they actually feel part of a classroom,” Burris said.
The district and Piñon Project hosted a “We Care Fair” at the beginning of September for students who had 30 to 50 absences last school year.
About 100 students were invited to the fair, and 30 attended with parents or guardians. In total, there were between 65 and 70 people present to eat, win door prizes and to talk about the importance of education and school.
Last year, the district averaged an 87.1% attendance rate. Burris said his goal is to end the 2023-2024 school year with an average attendance rate of 90%. He said the next step would be to have the attendance rate improve 4 percentage points for the 2024-2025 school year, ending with an attendance rate of 94%.
Statewide, only Huerfano School District RE-1 recorded a lower attendance rate for the 2023-2024 school year, at 86.3%. The average attendance rate statewide was 90.8%
In Montezuma County, Dolores School District RE-4A was at 87.5%, and Mancos School District RE-6 was at 92.2%, according to the Colorado Department of Education.
