{"id":100909,"date":"2018-03-20T19:52:27","date_gmt":"2018-03-21T01:52:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/mancos-school-board-discusses-safety-calendar-and-walkout\/"},"modified":"2018-03-20T19:52:27","modified_gmt":"2018-03-21T01:52:27","slug":"mancos-school-board-discusses-safety-calendar-and-walkout","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/mancos-school-board-discusses-safety-calendar-and-walkout\/","title":{"rendered":"Mancos school board discusses safety, calendar and walkout"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Member
Member of the Mancos School District Re-6 board receive invitations, made by the children, from the Early Childhood Development Center to visit them and see what they do.<\/span>Emily Rice\/The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Mancos School District Re-6 covered a lot of ground in its regularly scheduled meeting on Monday: security measures, test opt-outs, its four-day calendar, its walkout, and its response to a recent lockout. The district also revisited the previously debated subject of arming qualified staff with guns.<\/p>\n

To improve security, the district is adjusting to a new buzz-in system installed in its schools.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat spurred us was the shooting in Florida,\u201d said Superintendent Brian Hanson. \u201cIt was all along supposed to be part of the construction upgrades, but we decided to go ahead and do it now.\u201d<\/p>\n

The system is working smoothly, according to Cathy Epps, principal of pre-kindergarten through grade 5.<\/p>\n

Hanson also thanked board members for being on campus on Feb. 23, when a fabricated threat was called in to the Mancos School District office, resulting in a lockout.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe person involved is in the court system,\u201d Hanson said. \u201cThere are no federal charges that can be brought against them, but there is state, and they are pursuing them.\u201d<\/p>\n

Secondary Principal Adam Priestly reported that about 20 high school students participated in the National School Walkout on March 14.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were very respectful,\u201d Priestly said. \u201cWe had some community members join as well and stand out on the front lawn. Everything went well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Priestly rebutted rumors that he had threatened to suspend students who participated. \u201cWe just said if they want to, we provided a place for them,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Priestly also said that hoped students work toward positive change every day.<\/p>\n

\u201cDo not make it just this day to bring their ideas or what they would like to see change. Start trying to make that an everyday occurrence,\u201d Priestly said.<\/p>\n

He also said the school is holding various events to improve morale after the Feb. 23 lockout.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe did the positive post-it notes the teachers did. That and the students,\u201d Priestly said. \u201cJust trying to get students to realize stuff happens, we can get back on track, and it seems like it has been a pretty positive atmosphere.\u201d<\/p>\n

Finally, he reported that the opt-out rate for CMAS testing at Mancos Schools is still high. According to Priestly, only hree elementary and 10 middle school students plan to take standardized tests. The high school will take the PSAT and SAT.<\/p>\n

Hanson said that the high opt-out rates will not affect the school this year.<\/p>\n

The board also unanimously approved the 2018-2019 calendar.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do think it is important that we give the four-day calendar at least one more year before we do anything,\u201d Hanson said. \u201cWe need more than one year to determine that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Accountability Committee member Emily Brown mentioned in her report that while she does not agree with the four-day week, teachers and students are happy with it. She asked for more robust programming on Fridays to keep kids productive.<\/p>\n

Brown also asked the board for clarification on the difference between a lockout and a lockdown. \u201cNo one understood how to react,\u201d Brown said, referring to the Feb. 23 incident. \u201cCommunication is key.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cJust Brian saying, \u2018The district has a plan, there are people that are trained to execute this plan,\u2019\u201d Brown said, \u201clifted a weight off of my shoulders as a parent.\u201d<\/p>\n

Parents who attended Monday night\u2019s meeting spoke in support of a new discussion on school safety and arming qualified staff. They argued for protecting students \u201cfrom the inside out.\u201d<\/p>\n

The group felt that the last time the issue was discussed, it was one-sided and lacked research.<\/p>\n

\u201cI do not think it is viable discussion unless you poll every single staff member on this campus as well as as many parents as possible,\u201d Brown told the board.<\/p>\n

School board president Blake Mitchell called it a response issue, not a security issue.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was not just a short-term discussion that led to the decision,\u201d Mitchell said. \u201cIt has been talked about quite a bit in the past, and there are so many pros and cons to each side.\u201d<\/p>\n

The board did not move to add arming qualified staff to next month\u2019s agenda. However, Mitchell assured parents that \u201cWe hear you, this is not going to get swept under the rug.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

continues to be a concern at Mancos school board meeting<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":100910,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[13,83,961,37,1074,392],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-100909","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-mancos","tag-mancos-elementary-school","tag-mancos-high-school","tag-mancos-middle-school","tag-mancos-school-district-re-6"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100909","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100909"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100909\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/100910"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100909"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=100909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}