{"id":22552,"date":"2025-04-23T23:37:39","date_gmt":"2025-04-24T05:37:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/mancos-school-board-hears-from-people-concerned-about-popular-teachers-status\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T22:14:59","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:14:59","slug":"mancos-school-board-hears-from-people-concerned-about-popular-teachers-status","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/mancos-school-board-hears-from-people-concerned-about-popular-teachers-status\/","title":{"rendered":"Mancos school board hears from people concerned about popular teacher\u2019s status"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"The
The board heard from a plethora of community members, staff and students regarding two staff members at their Monday night meeting. (Screen capture via Zoom)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

On Monday, the Mancos school board heard from residents and students regarding a teacher, received the data on their mill levy survey and discussed their superintendent search.<\/p>\n

The meeting started with a packed board room of parents, staff and students waiting to address the board regarding two staff members whose contracts, they said, were not renewed for the 2025-26 school year. These staff members, Meagan Higinbotham and Jason Coullier, work as a seventh\/eighth grade English teacher and mechanic\/bus driver, respectively.<\/p>\n

Students also voiced sadness that Higinbotham might not teach in the middle school.<\/p>\n

After the meeting, Superintendent Todd Cordrey and board President Emily Hutcheson-Brown cleared up some to the confusion surrounding Higinbotham\u2019s and Coullier\u2019s contract renewals.<\/p>\n

\u201cMegan and Jason will have a position with the school district next year,\u201d Cordrey said. \u201cIt\u2019s just that their positions may be different from their current position. Megan may be moving from a seventh and eighth grade English language arts teacher to a behavioral interventionist, and Jason might just be moving from a bus driver and mechanic to a bus driver solely.\u201d<\/p>\n

Budget recommendations are planned for the board meeting on Monday, May 19. The board will have to vote for these reassignments to take place.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo matter what, we\u2019re really pleased that both of them will be with the district, because they\u2019re both high level people that bring that really advance our culture and really serve our kids well,\u201d Cordrey said.<\/p>\n

People attending the meeting thought that was Higinbotham being let go. Higinbotham\u2019s eighth grade daughter, identified as Poppy, spoke to the board through tears.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am not coming here because she is my mother, but because she has changed so many lives,\u201d Poppy said.<\/p>\n

Other students, Tyla, Riley, Thomas, David, Andreas, Jennifer, Liliana, Mitchell and more echoed Poppy, saying that Higinbotham had helped them go from failing classes to having A\u2019s and B\u2019s and that she was someone they could talk to during their difficult days. Many shared that Higinbotham was the \u201cbest teacher\u201d they had ever had. Some sixth grade students said they were looking forward to being in her classroom.<\/p>\n

Parents and staff addressed rumors surrounding talk about Higinbotham and Coullier.<\/p>\n

Some said they had heard the board was watching teachers \u201cunder a microscope\u201d and more.<\/p>\n

Brad Higinbotham also raised questions, saying Meagan Higinbotham had been a trusted adult at the school and helped to create \u201ca culture of belonging.\u201d<\/p>\n

Seventh and eighth grade math teacher Matt Redford told the board that the decision surrounding Higinbotham was \u201cill-informed\u201d and based on a single performance review and a performance plan was never discussed if improvements needed to be made.<\/p>\n

Tiffany Aspromonte, secondary academic\/registrar, urged those in attendance to look at facts.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are assuming the worst about our family,\u201d Aspromonte said. \u201cDon\u2019t make assumptions that could cause more damage. This isn\u2019t how we treat our family.\u201d<\/p>\n

After citizen comments, board President Hutcheson-Brown said she would \u201cbreak protocol\u201d to allow the board to talk about the comments.<\/p>\n

Both Rachel McWhirter and Victor Figueroa said they wanted to see documentation on the evaluations. Figueroa added that he wanted those spreading rumors to be held accountable.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen they said the board was watching teachers, I want to know who said that, because the board doesn\u2019t do that,\u201d Figueroa said.<\/p>\n

Craig Benally noted the destructive nature of rumors, adding that it was insulting to assume the board was doing questionable things behind the scenes.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can\u2019t let rumors tear us apart,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re not that kind of community. We shouldn\u2019t be.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hutcheson-Brown expressed her pride in students coming and being brave enough to use their voice. She also condemned the rumors.<\/p>\n

The search for a superintendent<\/div>\n

The board then moved to updates on their superintendent search. The board has received seven applicants and 17 responses from stakeholders who wish to be part of the committee who helps select a new superintendent.<\/p>\n

The board heard from Ryan Winger of Magellan Strategies regarding the results of the school district\u2019s ballot measure survey. The survey was active from April 1-15 and 227 registered voters participated.<\/p>\n

Out of the respondents, 68% said they would vote in support of the 10-mill levy for staff salary increases, 23% said no, and 9% had no opinion. According to Winger, the mill levy, if passed, would raise property taxes by $23.70 per household per month for a home valued at $400,000.<\/p>\n

Winger told the board that it was rare to see such a high percentage of people willing to support a ballot measure of this kind.<\/p>\n

The board will meet again for their regular meeting on Monday, May 19 at 6 p.m. They will also hold a special meeting with the potential for an executive session on Thursday, May 1.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

concerns that the teacher\u2019s contract had not been renewed for 2025-26<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22553,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[155,28,83,392,60,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-22552","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-education","tag-headlines","tag-mancos","tag-mancos-school-district-re-6","tag-montezuma-county","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22552","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=22552"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22552\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77760,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22552\/revisions\/77760"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22553"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22552"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=22552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}