{"id":50748,"date":"2020-10-28T01:01:56","date_gmt":"2020-10-28T07:01:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/ute-mountain-ute-reservation-school-approved-by-charter-school-institute\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:53:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T09:53:11","slug":"ute-mountain-ute-reservation-school-approved-by-charter-school-institute","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/ute-mountain-ute-reservation-school-approved-by-charter-school-institute\/","title":{"rendered":"Ute Mountain Ute reservation school approved by Charter School Institute"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"The
The Kwiyagat (Bear) Community Academy logo and mascot, chosen by youth from the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe.<\/span>Kwiyagat Community Academy<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The Colorado Charter School Institute\u2019s board of directors unanimously approved an application for a charter school on the Ute Mountain Ute reservation Tuesday afternoon.<\/p>\n

The board will work with the team behind the new school, the Kwiyagat (Bear) Community Academy, to finalize a contract between the two entities.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe whole team is really excited,\u201d Tina King-Washington, education director for the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, said in a phone interview with The Journal after the vote.<\/p>\n

King-Washington said there is more work to do, but it will be \u201cmore exciting\u201d now that the school has been approved.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can get ready for the kids,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Richard Fulton, retired dean of the Fort Lewis College School of Education and former charter school principal, is helping the tribe with the charter school application process.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a significant step forward,\u201d Fulton said in a phone interview. The conditions for approval of the contract and the milestones the Colorado Charter School Institute requires serve as a \u201cclear indicator of what else we need to do,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The approval of the application comes soon after the tribe heightened COVID-19 restrictions because of an increase in the number of cases on the reservation. Under pandemic restrictions, most tribal students are unable to travel to Cortez schools.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are excited to continue on this journey with them,\u201d Terry Crow Lewis, CSI executive director, said during the meeting.<\/p>\n

The institute authorizes charter schools in Colorado, but Kwiyagat Community Academy is the first to be authorized on a reservation in the state.<\/p>\n

The application process has been different because it is the first time CSI will enter into a contract with a sovereign nation. Board members wanted to ensure the charter school would be held to the laws and financial transparency standards of public schools in Colorado.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a lot of learning on both sides,\u201d Lewis said, but an authorization from CSI ensures high academic and operational standards at the school.<\/p>\n

Kwiyagat Community Academy focuses on Ute and Nuchiu language, and would hire Native teachers to instruct Ute Mountain Ute elementary students. The school is also an opportunity for families, elders and other community members to pass on knowledge of their culture to a new generation.<\/p>\n

The core values of the school, such as healthy minds and bodies, were developed through surveys of the community.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are offering an educational option that does not exist in the region,\u201d Janet Dinnen, chief of staff at CSI, said during the board meeting Tuesday.<\/p>\n

The school has received at least 14 letters from parents planning on enrolling their children when it opens \u2013 about half the desired number of students for the first year.<\/p>\n

The Kwiyagat Community Academy aims to open in fall 2021 with a kindergarten and a first grade class. The school will add a new grade each year until it has the K-5 grade levels.<\/p>\n

The school will rely on grants for adequate furniture, technology and other supplies, but it has received interest from organizations willing to provide support, Fulton said.<\/p>\n

The team applied to a RISE grant, open to all public schools, from the Gates Family Foundation.<\/p>\n

The NACA-Inspired Schools Network is also partnering with the academy to provide access to resources and grant opportunities, as well as create a safety plan for the students.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur connections with NACA help us leverage people and potential funding,\u201d Fulton said.<\/p>\n

For CSI board member Antonio Par\u00e9s, the support from NACA, provides \u201ca lot of reassurances\u201d for the quality of the academics.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat they want to do culturally and linguistically rings clear throughout the application,\u201d Par\u00e9s said.<\/p>\n

The academy will partner with the San Juan Boards of Cooperative Educational Services to provide services for students that are available at other public schools.<\/p>\n

King-Washington is organizing a drive-by celebration event on the reservation in November to congratulate the team on their hard work.<\/p>\n

ehayes@the-journal.com<\/a> <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

School will start with kindergarten and first grade<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":50749,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-50748","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50748","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=50748"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50748\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":87820,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50748\/revisions\/87820"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50749"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50748"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=50748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}