Families of the Montezuma-Cortez School District RE-1 lined West Main Street Saturday morning to protest recent school closures.
All but district charter schools were closed beginning Wednesday because of a spike in COVID-19 cases and resulting workforce shortages, Superintendent Risha VanderWey wrote in a letter to families Tuesday. More than 700 students were quarantined and five were hospitalized, the district announced.
Among school staff, 21 had tested positive, two had been hospitalized, 12 remained ill, and 13 had been quarantined.
Like many topics in health and education this school year, the closures have been controversial and have drawn support and opposition from the community.
More than a dozen students and their families held signs in protest of the decision, walking down Main Street beginning at 9 a.m. Saturday. Students present said they were struggling with online learning, reporting various levels of synchronized lessons. Signs urged the superintendent to reopen schools, and some called for her resignation.
Kendall Simmons, a student at Montezuma-Cortez High School, said her involvement in not only academics — but on the cheer team and in theater — is suffering.
“Teachers hand out assignments and just expect us to know how to do it,” she said.
For her, video lessons are only utilized for theater practice — not for academic instruction, she said.
Teachers are available to offer one-on-one help in video meetings though, she said.
While Superintendent Risha VanderWey decided to permit outdoor extracurricular activities again Thursday evening, indoor activities remain restricted.
For Simmons, this means virtual rehearsals, which she fears aren’t adequate enough to prepare the cast for an upcoming school play.
Madeline Rooney protested on behalf of her two elementary-age grandchildren, and said that online learning for them is “not effective.”
Cristina Padilla, owner of The Shear Shack Salon, said her job has afforded her an easier time than other parents have had in looking after their children amid the closures, but that it’s still been challenging. Her children are in third and fifth grade.
Shannon Englehart, parent of fifth grader Hunter, is disappointed with several district decisions — coming to a culmination with the closures.
“They need to be around other kids,” Englehart said.
For Hunter, remote learning has been “absolutely terrible,” he said.
Englehart said that before the pandemic, he was testing significantly above grade level. Now, she said, he is “barely above.”
“It’s not for lack of us trying,” she said.
She already pulled her son from Kiva Montessori School because of mandatory masks, she said. Englehart may now transfer him from Lewis-Arriola Elementary School and into the Dolores School District if she isn’t satisfied with district response to critical race theory, she said — which she opposes.
Layne Frazier, who will assume the role of director for School District G in November, held a sign urging the community to “Build up our kids.”
Frazier believes he will work well with the current board members.
“It’s going to be a little bit of a mess, but it’s something we can clean up as a team,” he said. “I feel like we have the same vision.”
Bridgett Jabour, a parent of students enrolled in Mancos School District RE-6, felt compelled to protest as well, stating disappointment with RE-1’s response compared with RE-6’s, she said.
“They’ve got to figure out a way to do this,” she said. “This is not an acceptable response.”
She said there are “way too many healthy kids” to warrant school closures.
Later on, Main Street was taken over by hundreds of trick-or-treaters.
