{"id":42733,"date":"2022-01-14T02:02:14","date_gmt":"2022-01-14T09:02:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/pinon-project-engaging-re-1-students-amid-new-four-day-weeks\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:09:22","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T09:09:22","slug":"pinon-project-engaging-re-1-students-amid-new-four-day-weeks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/pinon-project-engaging-re-1-students-amid-new-four-day-weeks\/","title":{"rendered":"Pi\u00f1on Project engaging RE-1 students amid new four-day weeks"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"The
The \u201cMesa Dancers\u201d performed for a Montezuma-Cortez school board meeting in 2019. Pi\u00f1on Project is hosting \u201cFriday Fundays\u201d at Mesa Elementary School beginning this week, in-part to take pressure off working parents amid the Montezuma-Cortez School District RE-1\u2019s shift to four-day school weeks.<\/span>Journal file photo<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Pi\u00f1on
Pi\u00f1on Project is hosting \u201cFriday Fundays\u201d at Mesa Elementary School beginning this week, in-part to take pressure off working parents amid the Montezuma-Cortez School District RE-1\u2019s shift to four-day school weeks.<\/span>Montezuma-Cortez School District<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

With the recent shift to four-day school weeks in the Montezuma-Cortez School District RE-1, Pi\u00f1on Project is stepping up to offer activities for students beginning Friday.<\/p>\n

Sixty kids signed up for Friday\u2019s first fun-filled day. There are more on an already budding waiting list, said Pi\u00f1on Project Assistant Director Kelli Hargraves.<\/p>\n

With four leaders, the current registration remains in line with an ideal ratio of 15 kids to each adult, she said.<\/p>\n

Staffing and corresponding capacity may increase as the program progresses.<\/p>\n

Drop-offs and pickups are at Mesa Elementary, and the program will run from 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. each week.<\/p>\n

Hargraves and other Pi\u00f1on Project staff want to support parents, especially those who cannot otherwise look after their children on Fridays.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know it\u2019s a really difficult time in the country \u2013 not just Montezuma County,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Not only this, but Pi\u00f1on Project staff want to be there as \u201ccaring adults\u201d students can trust.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want kids to have people in their lives that they can lean on,\u201d Hargraves said.<\/p>\n

Hargraves believes guiding children in community service, prosocial and other fundamental learning activities helps to achieve this.<\/p>\n

Students ages 5 to 17 can expect to partake in origami, slime making, painting, kickball and other outdoor activities on the debut of the weekly festivities.<\/p>\n

The program will continue to evolve with feedback.<\/p>\n

\u201cReally, we want to know what the kids want to do,\u201d Hargraves said.<\/p>\n

She\u2019s already looking ahead to the future of the program, hoping to involve other organizations like the fire department in teaching students.<\/p>\n

She also mentioned the possibility of scavenger hunts through Hawkins Preserve.<\/p>\n

Breakfast, lunch and snacks will be provided. While breakfasts will be fairly simple, consisting of muffins and cereals, Pi\u00f1on Project hopes the school district will aid in supplying lunches long-term.<\/p>\n

\u201cEither way, Pi\u00f1on Project will find a way,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The organization is appreciative of the school district\u2019s support and allowance of the use of Mesa Elementary to host the Friday events.<\/p>\n

The board of education unanimously voted for the four-day calendar Nov. 16.<\/p>\n

In a survey gauging public opinion, just over 87% of staff participants expressed favor for the shortened school weeks, and about 77% of responding parents endorsed the new schedule.<\/p>\n

To register your child, call Naomi Wood with the Pi\u00f1on Project at 970-739-4074.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u2018Friday Fundays\u2019 to take place at Mesa Elementary each Friday<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":42734,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,167,1855,216,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-42733","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-local-news-lead","tag-mesa-elementary","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\/42733","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=42733"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42733\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":85439,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42733\/revisions\/85439"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42734"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42733"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42733"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42733"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=42733"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}