At their November meeting, the Montezuma-Cortez RE-1 school district heard about happenings in the district, received reports on reading strategies from elementary school principles and were given an update on the search for curriculum for the high school.
The board announced their newest member for District A, Jennifer Sanchez. She was absent at the meeting, but will be sworn into office in December to replace Rafe O’Brien, who resigned this year.
The board spoke of the success of the high school’s performance of the play “Beauty and the Beast,” saying that it was sold out the last three nights.
The board also celebrated Lewis-Arriola Elementary School’s ranking in the top 40% of Colorado elementary schools.
Superintendent Tom Burris thanked voters for passing the mill levy, which passed with 53.8% of the votes, 5,018 to 4,347, according to the Colorado Secretary of State’s update on Nov. 14.
“We will be working on plans to implement this cash into the teachers’ and paraprofessionals’ salary schedules,” Burris said.
A special meeting will be held on Wednesday, Dec. 11 for the certification of the mill levy vote, something that Burris told The Journal is a formality.
Montezuma County Clerk and Recorder Kim Percell added that the mill levy vote certification was expected to be sent at the end of November.
Burris also shared that he and Sherri Wright, who was elected to the Colorado Board of Education, have been discussing recent BOCES rules changes. He said they did not know where the changes came from, and that he would keep the board updated as he and Wright look into it more.
In Mark Knox’s technology report, the technology department is still working on the “deployment” of touch panel displays, as well as enhancing the weapons detection in the high school and middle school.
Since the passage of Colorado’s Free Meals for All in 2022, 29,736 breakfasts and 68,288 lunches have been served to students in the first part of the 2024-2025 school year, according to nutrition service’s Sandy Vanhoutean.
Nutrition services also serves “goodies” at the school board meetings twice a month.
Brad Eldredge, transportation, said they have four openings for bus drivers.
Elementary school principals from Lewis-Arriola, Mesa and Kemper provided their plans to continue improving the reading scores of elementary school students in the district, with an emphasis being put on reading intervention, small groups, phonics and more.
One of Kemper’s first grade teachers also spoke, saying she didn’t like how people say, “After third grade you are not learning to read, you are reading to learn.”
She said students, no matter what age, are capable of reading if given the proper help and resources to do so. She noted that their goal continues to be closing “reading gaps” and getting students to grade level.
MCHS Principal Jennifer Boniface shared that the high school has been actively working on acquiring curriculum options, and these options have been reviewed by teachers and parents.
So far, 10 parents have come to the school to look over the curricula in the running at this time.
Right now, they have three possible curricula for all subjects except for English, which has two options. All options include physical and online resources, with Boniface noting that it was important for the high school to have both.
The high school will be providing the curricula to the board to review during their December work session. Boniface added that the community will be able to review the curricula as well.
The special meeting to certify the mill levy will take place on Wednesday, Dec. 11 at 6 p.m., and the regular meeting for December will be held on Tuesday, Dec. 17 at 6 p.m.
