At their Tuesday meeting, the Montezuma-Cortez RE-1 school district heard from residents about the loss of the school's athletic trainer and discussed the mill levy effort and a board vacancy in District A.
Superintendent Tom Burris announced Phil Casper as interim executive director of human resources, saying that Casper “comes with a long line of experience.”
He also announced that HVAC issues in three schools would be mediated.
Executive Director of Student Academic Services Jim Parr addressed focus objectives for the new school year and provided information on the upcoming principal leadership retreat.
Parr shared goals including developing and weaving RELAY systems and processes into regular processes, developing and refining curriculum and curricular guiding resources, developing common assessments that support curriculum and identifying and sharing best practices with common assessments.
According to its website, RELAY’s programs “prepare teachers and leaders to build a more just world where every student has a clear path to a fulfilling life” using “practice-based, equity-centered and ongoing professional learning.”
The district is working with RELAY to provide coaching and best practice support for administrators and school leadership.
“We will have a ‘coach’ from RELAY working with each of our schools administrative teams for the next year and they will be tailoring the support around data driven instruction, data meetings and observation and feedback to support classroom instruction,” Parr told The Journal.
The principal leadership retreat is July 22-24 at the Echo Basin Lodge. The Colorado Department of Education and RELAY are helping plan the event’s agenda.
Participants’s discussions will include safety and incident command teams, RELAY and CDE development of various protocols, lesson planning review, data driven instruction and backward planning.
Public comment centered on the athletic trainer position, but others raised other grievances.
Pamela Robison told the board about an encounter with Burris that underscores the “culture and climate of our current school district.”
According to Robison, the previous administration asked to obtain her master’s of education in school counseling so she could be a counselor at Manaugh Elementary on “an emergency basis.”
While working toward the degree, Robison said, she was called into Burris’ office, put on administrative leave for an investigation of her transcripts, then fired.
“He was very aggressive and demeaning to me, and said, ‘I should take back every penny I ever paid you,’” Robison said.
According to Robison, the investigation showed no issues with her transcripts, and an email from the lawyer who was part of the investigation said she had done nothing wrong.
Since then, she has gone on to work in child abuse prevention. She said that bringing up past and present trauma can help prevent further trauma.
“We are bringing hope,” Robison said. “I want us to look at this as we are bringing hope to the Montezuma-Cortez school district. In order to do that, unfortunately, we have to look at the negative that has come into our school district recently.”
Former RE-1 school board candidate JJ Lewis addressed the board, saying that Burris had contacted his employer “numerous times” in an attempt to “alter my career.”
“I ask you, Mr. Burris, to please stop,” Lewis said.
Lewis spoke of the loss of teachers and staff and noted that incoming international teachers wouldn't adequately fill the gaps.
“This is just a Band-Aid to a larger problem,” he said.
To conclude citizen comments, Burris’ daughter Abby Burris spoke, praising her father for his work in the district.
“I've heard Mr. Burris is the most unprepared superintendent in the history of Cortez,” Abby Burris said. “This could not be farther from the truth. As someone's who's so closely observed his work, I can attest to the incredible, positive change he has brought back to our schools.”
Abby Burris shared that Tom Burris had fostered a “supportive and encouraging” learning environment in the district, and his dedication had resulted in “real, tangible results for our students.”
“The district was struggling, academically, financially and structurally, with different departments acting independently, creating inefficiencies and hindering progress,” Abby Burris said. “The board asked him to fix it, and that's exactly what he's done.”
- After citizen comments, the board spoke briefly of the mill levy effort, which was discussed in their June meeting.
The survey regarding the potential mill levy was sent out to the community received a 60% positive ranking from the nearly 1,000 respondents.
“We're going to march forward with the mill levy effort,” Burris said.
If passed, the mill levy would help raise teacher salaries to around $50,000 for teachers in the district.
- The board announced that Rafe O’Brien resigned from his board seat in District D. Canddates’ letters of intent to fill the seat are due to the board by Aug. 5.
- Board member Mike Lynch was nominated to be secretary, and the board thanked the LOR Foundation for a donation of $21,000 to purchase video editing software for the high school.
- President Sheri Noyes briefly addressed those who had spoken to the board.
“We will take all this to heart … and try to move forward,” she said.
