Montezuma-Cortez High School (The Journal file)
Montezuma-Cortez High School (The Journal file)du1-i-syn

Finalists for interim superintendent for the Montezuma-Cortez School District RE-1 will be announced Feb. 15 at a special meeting, the Board of Education announced Tuesday.

Letters of intent are being accepted until 5 p.m. Feb. 14. The board must wait 14 days after the special meeting before offering a contract.

An announcement will be made March 1 at the board’s work session.

The process is being undertaken after former Superintendent Risha VanderWey resigned in January, after serving nearly seven months on the job.

Executive directors Kyle Archibeque, Cynthia Eldredge and Jim Parr were officially appointed to fulfill VanderWey’s duties until an interim superintendent is selected. Parr was chosen as the district’s point of contact.

Directors met in an executive session to discuss a “personnel matter” for about half an hour at the beginning of the meeting Tuesday.

The board will host a special meeting Friday to formally accept VanderWey’s resignation.

While VanderWey has not publicly addressed her resignation, a letter from the school board cited “philosophical differences of short and long-term goals” between the board and VanderWey.

Other meeting takeaways:
The board expressed a desire to become more transparent. Board packets will now be published online so the community may follow along during meetings. Information the district deems private will be excluded. Additionally, the district has received a large number of Colorado open records requests, said Cynthia Eldredge, executive director of human resources. There is now a public records request form on the district’s website. Kyle Archibeque, executive director of finance, reviewed allowable uses of incoming ESSER III funds established in a Congress bill. The district will receive $9,751,290. At least 20% of the funds must be spent to remedy learning loss “through the implementation of evidence-based intervention.” The remaining 80% can be used for other needs stemming from the pandemic. The grant cannot be used for salary increases or construction. A family survey has received 264 responses as of noon Tuesday. The board will meet at 6 p.m. instead of 7 p.m. for the remainder of the school year. Discussion continued on whether four-day weeks will continue through next school year.