{"id":25613,"date":"2024-09-19T15:50:41","date_gmt":"2024-09-19T21:50:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/cortez-school-board-discusses-core-curriculum-for-mchs-at-september-meeting\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T05:21:47","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T05:21:47","slug":"cortez-school-board-discusses-core-curriculum-for-mchs-at-september-meeting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/cortez-school-board-discusses-core-curriculum-for-mchs-at-september-meeting\/","title":{"rendered":"Cortez school board discusses core curriculum for MCHS at September meeting"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Superintendent
Superintendent Tom Burris and Montezuma-Cortez High School Principal Jennifer Boniface said the high school is in need of core curriculum. The board asked them to begin acquiring potential curricula for discussion. (Screen Capture via Zoom)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

At their Tuesday meeting, the Montezuma-Cortez RE-1 school district heard updates about the district\u2019s BOCES withdrawal status, the approval of the mill levy ballot language and the need for core curriculum at the high school.<\/p>\n

Superintendent<\/strong> report<\/strong><\/div>\n

Tom Burris told the board that the playset at MCMS is complete and construction around Kemper and Mesa is \u201cessentially complete.\u201d<\/p>\n

Burris updated the board on the district\u2019s second attempt to pull out of San Juan BOCES, sharing that they preparing their financial submission, which is due Oct. 1.<\/p>\n

They are also testing a technical design at the high school that will help keep all the rooms warm this winter.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are looking forward to a much more stable system this winter,\u201d Burris said.<\/p>\n

Last, Burris said the mill levy ballot language has been submitted to the county clerk for the November election. He plans to visit all the district schools to provide more information about the mill levy.<\/p>\n

Citizens address the board<\/strong><\/div>\n

During the public comment period, Lisa Passell told the board that she and others have repeatedly asked human resources for data about resignations, terminations and hires, most recently at the last meeting.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe promise was made that we would get a copy of the report. I could not find that anywhere for the last month, so I made a CORA request,\u201d Passell said.<\/p>\n

Passell added that her request had been made on Sept. 9 and the district had three business days to get back to her.<\/p>\n

When the district did not reply, she reached out and was told that Burris had rejected her request.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I asked for was the number of hires, regular and J1 provider breakdown by each type, the number of resignations and the number of terminations by month for 2024. I didn\u2019t ask for personal information, department \u2026 anything like that. I just asked for the numbers, and it was denied,\u201d Passell said.<\/p>\n

Passell said this lack of transparency with the community concerns citizens about the upcoming mill levy.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou are asking millions from this community on a mill levy, and yet we don\u2019t have any trust in you,\u201d Passell said. \u201cI hear over and over and over that all of us support our teachers, we all want them to have raises, yet they don\u2019t want this administration and this board to be in charge of the mill levy, because they don\u2019t trust you.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Thursday, HR Director Justin Schmitt told The<\/em> Journal<\/em> that Passell\u2019s request was denied because the record she had requested did not exist. \u201cCORA laws do not compel agencies to create documents,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Nikki Crowley, who spoke about Tuesday\u2019s lockdown at the high school and how parent communication was handled by the district.<\/p>\n

Crowley said she had email notifications turned off, but did not receive a text alert, like previously.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe did not receive phone calls, we did not receive texts. Last year, we did.\u201d she said. \u201cI don\u2019t know what has changed in our program, but I feel we need to get that back. Not everybody is connected to email at all times.\u201d<\/p>\n

She also disputed the district\u2019s claim that it cannot livestream all meetings, including special meetings and work sessions, because it does not have the technology.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have seen tech support here at every single meeting,\u201d she said. \u201cAll of our other governing bodies that we elect broadcast all of their meetings, and I would like to advocate again that this board do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Action<\/strong> items<\/strong><\/div>\n

In action items, the board discussed the district\u2019s need for curriculum. According to high school Principal Jennifer Boniface, teachers are using their own money for their own curriculum and sixth grade-level books are being used in advanced English classes because they don\u2019t have the appropriate books.<\/p>\n

Boniface and Burris said they were seeking the board\u2019s approval to get started, and hoped to pick a curriculum before Christmas.<\/p>\n

The board said that the high school did not need the board\u2019s approval to start the process, but still needed to go through the proper channels. Asking for $250,000 before the curriculum was even selected felt like approving a \u201cblank check.\u201d<\/p>\n

Board President Sheri Noyes expressed surprise that the topic of the high school\u2019s curriculum had not been brought up sooner.<\/p>\n

The curriculum was removed from action items with the rejection of the money request, but the high school was asked to acquire and present curriculum to the board for approval.<\/p>\n

\u201cA key component in improving student outcomes is having curriculum aligned to state standards. Some of the curriculum we have at the high school is over 15 years old, which means the alignment is questionable,\u201d Burris told The<\/em> Journal<\/em> on Thursday. \u201cWe want to be able to put a book in every student\u2019s hands within the classroom and have an e-book for every student.\u201d<\/p>\n

in a statement provided to The<\/em> Journal,<\/em> Boniface said the lack of curriculum and similar resources keeps the high school from meeting the updated Colorado State Standards that were established between 2018 and 2022.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a result, teachers have had to take on the additional responsibility of creating their own curriculum, often relying on outdated materials and online resources,\u201d Boniface said. \u201cIn some cases, they have even purchased these resources out of their own pockets. We are committed to attracting and retaining high-quality teachers; however, we currently have limited resources to provide them upon their arrival at our school.\u201d<\/p>\n

Administrators will collaborating with teachers, parents and students to find curriculum, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur primary focus will be on English and math, as these are the subjects assessed in the SAT\/PSAT. Additionally, we aim to develop curriculum for social studies, science, and our Career and Technical Education programs,\u201d Boniface said.<\/p>\n

Boniface acknowledged that the high school has raised its test scores to the \u201cimprovement\u201d level, but noted that overall, scores have remained fairly stagnant. She added that staff was optimistic they would \u201cachieve steady progress in the coming years.\u201d<\/p>\n

The next school board meeting is Oct. 16 at 6 p.m.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

not have a curriculum in use, according to superintendent and principal<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25614,"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-25613","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\/25613","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=25613"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25613\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":79017,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25613\/revisions\/79017"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25614"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25613"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25613"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25613"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=25613"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}