{"id":22365,"date":"2025-05-07T18:11:33","date_gmt":"2025-05-07T18:11:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/montezuma-cortez-district-accountability-committee-releases-results-of-parent-survey\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T04:12:58","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:12:58","slug":"montezuma-cortez-district-accountability-committee-releases-results-of-parent-survey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/montezuma-cortez-district-accountability-committee-releases-results-of-parent-survey\/","title":{"rendered":"Montezuma-Cortez District Accountability Committee releases results of parent survey"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"The
The Montezuma-Cortez School District Re-1 administration building.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

A recent survey created by the Montezuma-Cortez District Accountability Committee for Montezuma-Cortez school district parents revealed mixed sentiments about school communication, leadership and support for educators, highlighting both strengths and areas for improvement in the district\u2019s engagement with families.<\/p>\n

The survey garnered 179 responses with an 87% completion rate, and parents from Montezuma-Cortez High School, Cortez Middle School, and Kemper Elementary School made up the greatest number of participants. MCHS parents made up 32.2% of respondents with 57; CMS made up 32.77% with 58 participants; and Kemper, 23.16% with 41 respondents.<\/p>\n

Parents generally agreed that the district\u2019s schools adequately prepare students for their next steps while praising teachers for their dedication. Out of those who responded to this question, 34.83% (62) agreed that their students were being adequately prepared and 28.65% (51) strongly agreed. Those who disagreed made up 14.04% of responses with 25.<\/p>\n

Many noted that schools like Southwest Open School and Lewis-Arriola Elementary have excellent communication and school environment, with one parent saying, \u201cSWOS does a great job making students and parents feel welcomed,\u201d and another noting SWOS\u2019s recent high test scores.<\/p>\n

About Lewis-Arriola, a parent said, \u201cLewis is the best elementary school regarding communication and support for families.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, communication gaps were seen as a significant concern. Parents reported confusion over where to find information, with one parent noting, \u201cI feel like I miss a lot because I\u2019m not sure if information will come via text, email, Alma, Facebook or what.\u201d<\/p>\n

Perceptions on the school\u2019s leadership also varied. While some schools were praised for their engagement with student families, district-level leadership faced criticism. Parents described the administration and superintendent as unapproachable and expressed distrust in the school board, with one sharing, \u201cThe school board needs to increase their transparency with parents, especially on difficult issues.\u201d<\/p>\n

Support for educators was another point of focus. Parents highlighted that teachers are overwhelmed, with overcrowded classrooms and other struggles, like retention, impacting student learning.<\/p>\n

When asked about barriers to supporting their children\u2019s education, the majority of responses pointed to issues such as scheduling conflicts, lack of communication, insufficient notice and feeling unwelcome. Some shared their concerns with school environment, noting issues like difficult access for handicapped individuals and a lack of support for programs like gifted education.<\/p>\n

Parents, however, expressed their appreciation for the positive atmosphere created by teachers and the impact they have on the students in their classrooms, saying the teachers positively impacted their learning.<\/p>\n

Many felt their children were safe and welcomed in their schools, with 35.39% (63) agreeing that their students felt safe and welcome, and 32.02% (57) strongly agreed.<\/p>\n

Some parents also expressed their desire for more family engagement and help in learning the best way to support their child\u2019s education at home.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

had 179 respondents<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15994,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[21,155,28,60,216,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-22365","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-cortez","tag-education","tag-headlines","tag-montezuma-county","tag-montezuma-cortez-school-district-re-1","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22365","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=22365"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22365\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77680,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22365\/revisions\/77680"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15994"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22365"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22365"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22365"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=22365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}