{"id":46546,"date":"2021-05-28T19:29:00","date_gmt":"2021-05-28T19:29:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/new-ute-mountain-charter-school-hosts-meet-and-greet\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T09:32:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T09:32:09","slug":"new-ute-mountain-charter-school-hosts-meet-and-greet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/new-ute-mountain-charter-school-hosts-meet-and-greet\/","title":{"rendered":"New Ute Mountain charter school hosts meet-and-greet"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Officials
Officials hosted a meet and greet barbecue at Veterans Park in Towaoc Wednesday to inform locals about Kwiyagat Community Academy. (Anthony Nicotera\/ The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Planners and staff for the newly created Kwiyagat Community Academy in Towaoc hosted a barbecue meet-and-greet for potential students and their parents on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Attendees were treated to hot dogs and cold beverages in Veterans Park while they discussed the potential of a school that will emphasize Ute identity as the core of its curriculum. The introduction of the school is the first step in planners\u2019 ambitious long-term goal to create a full \u201ceducation quadrant\u201d in Towaoc.<\/p>\n

While the school will start in the existing education building with kindergarten and first grade, officials hope to build a full K-12 campus and college, public library, archives center and vocational workshops.<\/p>\n

Renovations of the current education building, where the school will be this fall, will include the building of two separate classrooms and updated bathrooms.<\/p>\n

In November, the Response Innovation and Student Equity Fund awarded the Ute Mountain tribe $2.7 million to support Kwiyagat Community Academy and to integrate STEAM curriculum into Ute arts, language and culture.<\/p>\n

Kwiyagat also received a $210,500 grant from the Colorado Charter School Program for planning and design. The funding allows for the purchase of curriculum materials, facility upgrades and playground equipment.<\/p>\n

The tribe envisions a new building for the Kwiyagat Community Academy and will embark on a capital campaign to raise the funding.<\/p>\n

Like all charter schools, the academy is bound by Colorado Department of Education standards, and receives state funding. But it will have more flexibility in its curriculum and instruction approach.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we want to do is have our language and culture embedded in our curriculum so that the kids are learning about who they are as a native person,\u201d said school board member Tina King-Washington.<\/p>\n

An additional grade level will be added to Kwiyagat every year.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not stopping,\u201d King-Washington said. \u201cWe\u2019re going all the way.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Dan
Dan Porter, head of school at Kwiyagat Community Academy. Porter has more than 25 years of experience as a teacher, school counselor, principal, human resources director and assistant superintendent in Montezuma-Cortez School District. RE-1 (Anthony Nicotera\/ The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Longtime Montezuma-Cortez School District RE-1 educator Dan Porter, who was recently named<\/a> to head the school, was optimistic Wednesday about what can be accomplished.<\/p>\n

Porter plans to implement a curriculum of \u201cexpeditionary learning,\u201d a project-based type of program in which students spend more than a day on a particular unit. Students may be asked a \u201cguiding question\u201d that they must explore and eventually answer in their studies. This may include include incorporating activities like dance or music into projects.<\/p>\n

Porter believes that RE-1 does a comprehensive job of preparing its students, but a charter school in Towaoc that teaches Ute culture will be especially effective.<\/p>\n

\u201cI absolutely love the RE-1 school system,\u201d Porter said. \u201cBut culturally, it was always tough because you\u2019ve got so much more on your plate. Just having a unit on the Ute culture isn\u2019t enough. There\u2019s a lot of proof that kids who learn in an indigenous tongue and are taught some culture really do well,\u201d Porter said.<\/p>\n

About 20 kids have been signed up. Officials look to start their first semester with 30 students. It will be a public school, open to all students.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnybody that has an interest in having their child around cultural language, music, tradition,\u201d Porter said. \u201cAll those things. It\u2019s open to everybody. It\u2019s not just \u2018Oh, you have to be Ute.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Jennifer Flaherty, who will teach kindergarden at Kwiyagat in the fall, believes that a good school is a source of community and relationships for those near it.<\/p>\n

\"Kwiyagat
Kwiyagat Community Academy will place a strong emphasis on Ute language, music, art and history. \u201cWe\u2019re Utes and we should be speaking Ute,\u201d said language teacher Betty Howe.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cI\u2019m just really excited.\u201d Flaherty said. \u201cI know it\u2019s going to be a challenge. I know that this can be something huge for this community.\u201d<\/p>\n

Betty Howe has been teaching the Ute language for years to kids ranging from grades three to five. But as Kwiyagat\u2019s language teacher, she will adjust her methods to reach kindergartners and first graders.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going to be a challenge at first,\u201d Howe said. \u201cI\u2019ll overlook that and go around the obstacle. Once they start learning, once they start knowing their identity, for me it\u2019s freedom. I am who I am. I\u2019ve been ridiculed for being who I am, but I\u2019ve always stood by what I am.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kwiyagat Community Academy to start kindergarten and first grade instruction in the fall<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":46547,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[21,155,28,29,144,547],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-46546","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-cortez","tag-education","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter","tag-towaoc","tag-ute-mountain-ute-indian-tribe"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46546","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=46546"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46546\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":86925,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46546\/revisions\/86925"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46547"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46546"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46546"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46546"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=46546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}