The charges against Mancos School Board member Beverly Humiston-Scott were officially dropped Tuesday morning in Montezuma County Court, but not before a lecture from the judge and a visit from the district attorney.<\/p>\n
Montezuma County Court Judge JenniLynn Everett Lawrence signed off on District Attorney William Furse\u2019s motion to dismiss the charges with a word of caution.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe state can choose not to prosecute a case,\u201d Lawrence said. \u201cI certainly hope these incidents will not be repeating themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n
The July arrest occurred after Humiston-Scott and the board were discussing her public rebuke, or censure, that accused her of bullying, intimidating and harassing administrative and support staff.<\/p>\n
She was asked to stay on topic several times when she accused the board of violating state sunshine laws by deciding to censure her without a public discussion.<\/p>\n
She was reportedly asked to leave multiple times, and when she refused, she was arrested by a Mancos marshal.<\/p>\n
Furse agreed with Lawrence.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is an isolated incident, and we won\u2019t see this in the future,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
But just in case, before Tuesday\u2019s morning in court, Furse attended a Mancos School Board meeting and took the floor shortly after the meeting started.<\/p>\n
Furse told the board not to forget why they serve.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are all part of this great machine, and that machine is purposed in furthering our kids,\u201d Furse said. \u201cSometimes issues and personal feelings can distract us from that mission.\u201d<\/p>\n
Furse offered his service to help the Mancos School Board in the future.<\/p>\n
\u201cI beg everyone here tonight to be mindful of the purpose of this board,\u201d Furse said. \u201cTonight\u2019s meeting and every other meeting to follow is not to further someone\u2019s individual agenda.\u201d<\/p>\n
The motion to dismiss charges against Humiston-Scott were filed last week.<\/p>\n
\u201cMs. Humiston was acting in her official capacity as a school board member when attempting to respond to these complaints. Such was well within her purview as a board member,\u201d the motion stated.<\/p>\n
After Tuesday morning\u2019s court appearance, umiston-Scott and her attorney declined to comment.<\/p>\n
Furse made sure to tell Lawrence that the Mancos marshall had probable cause to arrest Humiston-Scott.<\/p>\n
School board president Monty Guiles agreed with Furse.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is our goal as a board to never forget why we are here,\u201d Guiles said.<\/p>\n
The Mancos Times
\n Also Monday night, the Mancos School Board of Education discussed the annual audit.
\n Outside auditor Chris Majors presented his annual report to the board and said that everything looked good, except for the school lunch fund.
\n \u2018The lunch fund lost $8,956,\u2019 Majors said. \u2018If I did have any concerns, it would be the lunch fund.\u2019
\n Majors said the loss was most likely because of the rising costs of food and milk.
\n In addition, the district is being tasked to make meals healthier.
\n \u2018You have a double whammy. Increased costs, and I don\u2019t know if the kids are that interested in eating the food that is healthier for them, so you get increased costs and decreased demands.\u2019
\n School Board President Monty Guiles said the board will have to look closer at the issue.
\n Board member Boe Hawkins announced that the Masonic scholarships this year will go from $27,000 to $40,000. This scholarship has typically been awarded to Mancos students.
\n In addition, board members discussed meeting elsewhere. The music room, they said, is problematic because equipment has to be moved and put back for each meeting.
\n Homecoming week is Oct. 13-18 in Mancos, as reported by the student council representatives with a theme of Comic Con.
\n Board members also discussed that the district is only eight percentage points away from being \u2018accredited with distinction,\u2019 an honor reserved for the top percentage of schools in the state.
\n \u2018That is out goal for the upcoming year,\u2019 said Superintendent Brian Hanson.
\n Board members recognized the new staff in the district Monday night and honored Alexander Mykytiuk for earning a 100 percent on his third-grade math TCAP score last school year.
\n \u2018We are very, very proud of you,\u2019 said principal Cathy Epps.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
an appearance at meeting, cautions school board about incident<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6371],"tags":[13],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-117657","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mt-news","tag-frontpage-lead"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117657","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=117657"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117657\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=117657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=117657"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=117657"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=117657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}