The Montezuma-Cortez RE-1 Board of Education board discussed teacher salaries and upcoming staff safety training, and heard from lawyer Brad Miller at their April 18 board meeting.
During presentations, the MCHS Family and Consumer Science class told the board about the cooking competition two of their students took part in. The students took home the fourth-place prize.
Students tried out for a spot on the team, and a team of two was taken to the competition in Denver. It was the only team selected from the Western Slope, and it was the students’ first time in an airplane.
The competition, which was similar to the Cooking Channel’s Chopped competition, challenged the eight two-person teams to create dishes to wow the judges, with an allotted time to get it done.
One of the judges was a former Broncos player, and another was the Colorado Avalanche announcer.
Superintendent Tom Burris updated the board on staffing efforts at Montezuma-Cortez high school and middle school. He pointed to districts such as Durango, Pagosa and Ignacio that have raised teacher rates to $50,000 and $40,000, respectively, while Montezuma’s lags notably behind at about $30,000.
Burris noted it would very difficult to raise teacher salaries enough to be competitive with neighboring districts.
“If we only had one employee, that person would get paid $27 million,” Burris said. But since that obviously isn’t the case, he said, “We have to trim down.”
Burris also said available money for salaries declines as enrollment declines. According to his report, the district has lost 150 students this school year, which has caused a deficit of $1.5 million.
“We have to become competitive, but we have to be sustainable,” he said.
He told the board someone was working on the budget, but didn’t give an estimate on what it would look like to “trim down” or what the estimated teacher salaries would be for the next school year.
Although high school Principal Emily Moreland was placed on administrative leave, neither Burris nor the board discussed her leave or other administrators who recently resigned at the meeting.
He also addressed the recent ACT and PSAT testing that took place at the high school, and said they would complete an analysis of the results to see how test results compare with last year’s.
Assistant Superintendent Eddie Ramirez focused most of his report on upcoming safety training sessions that will work to equip teachers and administrators with increased safety knowledge.
The first training, called Safety and Security Habits for Educators, is scheduled for July 26-27. The one-day course will cover the basics of safety and security, teaching participants “personal safety habits and translating them onto campus.”
The second training, called Behavior Profiling Model, is designed to help teachers and other team members learn how to measure potential threats from students and others in vicinity of the school. They will also learn how to “function as a threat assessment team.”
The new director of finance, Jim Grierson, updated the board on financial items that haven’t been discussed since former finance director Kyle Archibeque resigned in February.
He told the board of two recent donations, one of which was $250 worth of lumber for M-CHS from Choice Building Supply of Cortez and a pending donation of $12,400 from Lewis Elementary’s Parent Teacher Organization to Lewis Elementary.
Grierson also provided a list of items for the board to have on their radar for future needs. These included Mesa Elementary summer school supplies, CMS travel ($8,500) and volleyball ($5,613), as well as Lewis furniture ($44,408), M-CHS logo clothing ($5,713), activities jump pits ($10,641), welding equipment ($9,713) and Raptor visitor management/security for the district ($14,610).
Jim Parr, the director of academic services, informed the board of planning sessions for curriculum planning that will take place over the summer, in addition to summer school. Summer school will take place over a five-week span at Mesa and Kemper elementaries, and at the middle and high schools.
Parr also said Student Services would undergo a district diagnostic review with the Colorado Department of Education in May.
Before action items, Brad Miller, a Front Range lawyer working with the district, spoke to the board about staffing and issues teachers face.
“It’s going to be hard to keep employees here and compensated correctly,” he said.
Even on the Front Range, teachers are dealing with a host of issues that he predicted the RE-1 will also will see increase.
“It’s a harder and harder job every single day. We need the best possible teachers in front of the best possible students, and you guys need to figure out how to do that on a very limited economy,” he said.
He noted that many of the issues he sees on a regular basis involve angry parents, student discipline, school safety, open records and cultural issues such as LGBT in schools.
“Be ready for the onslaught here,” he said.
Another piece of advice he gave the board was to be “vigilant to perform well” and to use caution with emails and texts, especially if they were communicating with one another.
He told the board that many schools on the Front Range are getting full-time employees to handle the amount of Colorado Open Records Act requests that they receive.
Miller has been a lawyer for over 20 years, working in about 80 school districts in Colorado.
In action items, the board approved the Lewis-Arriola PTO donation to Lewis-Arriola school. The donation totaled $12,400 and will go toward school furniture. They also approved purchase of classroom furniture for the school, which will total $44,408.51.
Other items that were approved were CMS’s International Thespian Festival trip, a cost of $8,500, and M-CHS staff training called Responsibility-Centered Discipline. The training is a three-year contract, with a $25,909 cost for the first year.
The next M-CHS school board meeting will take place May 16 at 6 p.m.
