{"id":44461,"date":"2021-09-29T03:40:00","date_gmt":"2021-09-29T09:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/mancos-embarking-on-strategic-plan-progress-for-school-board-meetings\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:19:30","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T09:19:30","slug":"mancos-embarking-on-strategic-plan-progress-for-school-board-meetings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/mancos-embarking-on-strategic-plan-progress-for-school-board-meetings\/","title":{"rendered":"Mancos embarking on strategic plan, progress for school board meetings"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Fourth
Fourth grade Mancos students conduct experiments with electricity Tuesday.<\/span>Kala Parkinson<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

Beginning in October, the Mancos School District RE-6 will follow a new rubric when it conducts its school board meetings.<\/p>\n

As part of its new strategic plan, the district will focus on one or two of 11 outlined objectives, and specific corresponding rubrics, Superintendent Todd Cordrey said.<\/p>\n

Examples of objectives include: \u201cOur district will use Project Based Learning to connect our students with professionals, and place students into our local businesses\/organizations to provide authentic learning experiences\u201d and \u201cMancos School District will upgrade its website for easier access and usability.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re far and above ahead of almost all school districts,\u201d Cordrey said.<\/p>\n

He said the new model will help the district to track performance over the course of the school year.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s fundamentally different than a board that\u2019s reactionary, and focused on the passion of the minute,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is a plan that covers the year. It\u2019s a plan built through our strategic plan with with hundreds and thousands of hours of input from staff and community members, and we\u2019re following it with fidelity.\u201d<\/p>\n

The new strategic plan is updated from the last version, created in 2010, said Edward Whritner, director of Project Based Learning.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere aren\u2019t many school districts with a set way to measure their growth in progress and successes in areas for growth with their strategic plans,\u201d he said. \u201cSchool board meetings can too often become these sort of centers of drama, and the fire of the week that\u2019s broken out.\u201d<\/p>\n

COVID-19 update <\/strong><\/p>\n

Currently, no students in the district have COVID-19, said district nurse Sharon Martinez. The district hasn\u2019t seen a new case in the past four weeks, she said, and no students are quarantined.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re blessed,\u201d she said. \u201cI just hope it stays.\u201d<\/p>\n

About 20% of students wear masks, she said, and parents are expected to monitor their students.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe parents are great,\u201d she said. \u201cI really like working with the parents. If they\u2019re not sure they call because they don\u2019t want to be the one that causes the spread in the school.\u201d<\/p>\n

If children display symptoms like a cough, she said she asks them to wear a mask.<\/p>\n

As of Wednesday, the school began implementing the statewide Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment\u2019s voluntary virus testing program<\/a>, she said.<\/p>\n

Each Monday, a team of three will administer the tests, Cordrey said.<\/p>\n

Martinez is writing a weekly newsletter to share coronavirus updates and other district health news, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re doing super with the COVID challenge, I feel really good with the work we\u2019re doing here, and we\u2019re continuing to add layers of support and intervention,\u201d Cordrey said.<\/p>\n

Cordrey said the district was working on offering counseling to \u201cstudents and staff that that feel any sort of anxiety around COVID.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a challenging situation to be a teacher and to be teaching in front of maybe 100- 150 kids that haven\u2019t been vaccinated,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Suicide prevention <\/strong><\/p>\n

The district is wrapping up its suicide prevention efforts in line with National Suicide Prevention month in September, which included a fundraiser with the sale of $1 paper blue hearts and suicide prevention training sessions, both in school for students and outside, available to parents and the larger Mancos community.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf people feel like they know what to do, then they\u2019re more likely to do something,\u201d said Shanda Stiles, RE-6 behavior analyst. \u201cIf we can bring community and school people all together, then we feel better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Additionally, students are given surveys each September to gauge whether they may be depressed or if they have ever considered suicide, said Mancos Secondary School Counselor Alanda Martin.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe see a lot of kids through the screening that we wouldn\u2019t have reached out to, typically,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd it\u2019s an easy way for kids to come forward, because it\u2019s basically anonymous, except for that only I see see it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The school district, classified as a trauma-informed school, encourages students to find a trusted adult within the school community, and regularly discuss emotions they may be feeling, she said.<\/p>\n

There are \u201ccalm corners\u201d in each classroom where students can \u201cregulate,\u201d and elementary school teachers identify students each week who they think may need check-ins, Stiles added.<\/p>\n

Campus updates <\/strong><\/p>\n

The Mancos schools are enjoying new campus updates after the district\u2019s recent $25 million makeover. The culmination of those efforts was celebrated Aug. 13 with a cornerstone and ribbon-cutting ceremony outside the new performing arts center.<\/p>\n

In addition to the new performing arts center and gymnasium, the cafeteria became connected to the elementary school, a bus loop was installed in front of the school to increase safety, the elementary and preschool each gained a new playground and the football field was revamped.<\/p>\n

A team of nine third, fourth and fifth graders worked directly with architects to help design the elementary school playground, Mancos Elementary School Principal Cathy Epps said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey actually are the ones that put in the feedback and really designed it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Moving forward with project-based learning <\/strong><\/p>\n

The district is in its third year of a project-based learning model, and is focusing on implementing critique and revision techniques in students that make them comfortable with peer review, Whritner said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt starts at the elementary grades where, ideally, by the time they\u2019re in middle school, it\u2019s second nature,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Students are involved in the process of deciding what curriculum to focus on, he said.<\/p>\n

While projects that involved travel outside of school, or bringing experts in, were set back by the pandemic, projects like a partnership with Willowtail Springs will engage students outside of the classroom this year, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur community knows what our students are doing and learning and our students \u2014through the learning they\u2019re doing here \u2014 are contributing to the betterment of our community,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Watch D.O.G.S. <\/strong><\/p>\n

This year, more dads than ever have signed up to participate in the elementary school\u2019s \u201cDads of Great Students\u201d program, which launched in 2015, Epps said.<\/p>\n

In the program, fathers of students volunteer to spend a school day in every classroom, broken down into 30-minute intervals.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe rarely have male role models in school settings, especially at the elementary level,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

District avoids \u2018passion of the minute,\u2019 focuses on learning and challenges of COVID-19 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28774,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[685,155,28,167,392,29,180],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-44461","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-coronavirus-covid-19","tag-education","tag-headlines","tag-local-news-lead","tag-mancos-school-district-re-6","tag-newsletter","tag-schools"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44461","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=44461"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44461\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":86098,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44461\/revisions\/86098"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28774"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44461"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=44461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}