{"id":30323,"date":"2023-12-04T01:40:56","date_gmt":"2023-12-04T08:40:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/state-decides-montezuma-cortez-schools-will-not-be-permitted-to-leave-boces\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T01:17:05","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T07:17:05","slug":"state-decides-montezuma-cortez-schools-will-not-be-permitted-to-leave-boces","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/state-decides-montezuma-cortez-schools-will-not-be-permitted-to-leave-boces\/","title":{"rendered":"State decides Montezuma-Cortez schools will not be permitted to leave BOCES"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Sam
Sam Green\/The Journal<br><br>The Montezuma-Cortez School District budget is expected to rise next school year, but district officials say it still won\u2019t be enough to address staff salaries, transportation and other district needs.<\/span>du1-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

The Montezuma-Cortez School District on Thursday received the Colorado Department of Education\u2019s decision that the district will not be permitted to leave BOCES.<\/p>\n

In a text Thursday night, Superintendent Tom Burris told The Journal<\/em> that the letter said, \u201cWe could not make a compelling case that BOCES would subsist without us.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the letter from CDE provided by Superintendent Burris, the CDE provided more information on their decision to deny the application for the district to become their own AU.<\/p>\n

In the letter, CDE Executive Director of Exceptional Student Services Paul Foster said that while the district\u2019s application demonstrated that the AU would be able to meet the obligations needed for special education services and students, the application \u201cdid not demonstrate that the existing administrative unit (SJBOCES) would be able to continue to meet its obligations to provide special education services under state and federal law.\u201d<\/p>\n

The district has been attempting to leave BOCES and become its own administrative unit since this summer.<\/p>\n

\"Superintendent
Superintendent Tom Burris<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Boards of Cooperative Educational Services, or BOCES, helps provide special education services to schools in its care, providing teachers, therapists and other resources. BOCES also provide support through grant funding and other initiatives.<\/p>\n

During Burris\u2019 report at the board meeting July 22, he spoke about the district\u2019s efforts to withdraw from BOCES.<\/p>\n

To qualify for a withdrawal from BOCES, the RE-1 Board of Education had to meet several state-mandated requirements. First, the board was required to have a discussion about BOCES in open session. The board also was required to sent their request to the Colorado Department of Education before Sept. 1. The board also was required to conduct a third-party audit showing what the financial impact would be on the remaining districts in BOCES.<\/p>\n

The board also was required to provide proof that the district could run its own administrative unit and meet all state and federal requirements.<\/p>\n

BOCES provided its input before the state board made its final decision. The other districts in San Juan BOCES include Dolores, Mancos, Dove Creek, Archuleta\/Pagosa, Bayfield, Ignacio and Silverton.<\/p>\n

Durango also was once part of the organization.<\/p>\n

Had the Cortez board\u2019s request been approved, the district would have become its own AU on July 1, 2024.<\/p>\n

Parents in the Montezuma-Cortez district expressed discomfort and disappointment in the district for attempting to quit BOCES when the district announced its decision.<\/p>\n

Speaking during citizen comments at the board meeting, one mother, who identified herself as Sarah, asked the board to reconsider its decision, saying that the loss of BOCES would negatively impact her son\u2019s well-being.<\/p>\n

She told the board she was frustrated that they board members had not held a public forum to hear from parents and other education experts before making the decision.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou didn\u2019t ask parents or seek public comment,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Another citizen said the board showed \u201ctotal disrespect for teachers and kids\u201d by not having an open discussion with those who would be affected by the decision.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will take care of the kids and provide the services we need,\u201d Burris told the parents.<\/p>\n

Board member Sherri Wright also spoke, but did not provide plans or idea of what the district would look like without BOCES. She did say, however, that she had three years of experience in special education, and she helped raise a stepdaughter with special needs.<\/p>\n

At the end of that meeting, the District Re-1 Board of Education voted unanimously to begin the process of ending the district\u2019s services with BOCES.<\/p>\n

Other local districts involved in BOCES \u2013 Dolores, Mancos and Dove Creek \u2013 all expressed their concerns over what would happen to the San Juan BOCES financially should the district withdraw.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

District had applied to leave BOCES and become their own AU earlier this year <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28528,"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-30323","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\/30323","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=30323"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30323\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":81041,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30323\/revisions\/81041"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28528"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30323"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=30323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}