{"id":66240,"date":"2020-02-02T20:31:21","date_gmt":"2020-02-03T03:31:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/ute-mountain-ute-charter-moving-forward-in-towaoc\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T05:36:57","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T11:36:57","slug":"ute-mountain-ute-charter-moving-forward-in-towaoc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/ute-mountain-ute-charter-moving-forward-in-towaoc\/","title":{"rendered":"Ute Mountain Ute charter moving forward in Towaoc"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Tina
Tina King-Washington is one of the leading proponents of a new Ute Mountain Ute charter school in Towaoc. In this photo from 2015, King-Washington gives new teachers for Montezuma-Cortez School District Re-1 a tour of the Ute Mountain Ute education center.<\/span>The Journal file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

A prospective Ute Mountain Ute charter school is moving forward, and Towaoc educators may now apply to the Charter School Institute for authorization.<\/p>\n

At its regular January meeting, the Montezuma-Cortez school board approved a resolution allowing the application and removing the Montezuma-Cortez School District Re-1 as the charter\u2019s authorizing agent. The district wanted to avoid another step in the process of establishing the school, according to Tina King-Washington, K-12 education director for the Ute Mountain Ute tribe.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s kind of streamlining the whole process,\u201d King-Washington told The Journal<\/em> Friday.<\/p>\n

The vote was 6-1, with board member Jack Schuenemeyer as the lone dissenter.<\/p>\n

The school would emphasize a group-based style of learning and incorporate language and culture into its curriculum, according to King-Washington. She said they plan to follow a \u201cMontessori-type\u201d curriculum\u201d \u2013 although not fully Montessori \u2013 with an open classroom and a focus on working in teams.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to get them from the start to be able to work with anybody and work out differences, and work on projects and listen to each other for ideas,\u201d King-Washington said.<\/p>\n

Another key component will be having a room for tribal elders, King-Washington said.<\/p>\n

\u201cElders are the key to keeping our kids knowing about cultures and tradition,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd we\u2019ve gotten away from that. And when you get away from cultures and tradition, then you lose part of your learning and part of who you are in your history.\u201d<\/p>\n

At first, the school plans to open for just kindergarten, first and second grades, and then expand every year until they serve students all the way through 12th grade. In addition to working with the Charter School Institute and the Colorado Department of Education, school founders are collaborating with the NACA Inspired Schools Network<\/a>, an Albuquerque-based nonprofit that supports Native American communities that want to form their own schools.<\/p>\n

NACA is the Native American Community Academy, a public charter school in Albuquerque.<\/p>\n

The resolution approved by the Re-1 school board at the Jan. 21 meeting allows for the establishment of \u201cone brick and mortar charter school serving students in grades K-12 and ancillary programs.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Board is willing to allow the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe to apply to CSI subject to the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe\u2019s compliance with the Rules for Administration of the State Charter School Institute and other applicable law,\u201d the resolution reads.<\/p>\n

Schuenemeyer voiced concerns that the charter would isolate students on the Towaoc reservation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a high percentage of at-risk children in the Ute Mountain Ute reservation,\u201d he said. \u201cIn some ways \u2013 in many ways \u2013 it\u2019s fairly isolated; you\u2019ve got people living in a pretty small community, many of them work in a small community. I think children learn better when they have broader experiences.\u201d<\/p>\n

But others said the tribe should be given the chance to offer a new educational option for their children.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe talk about wanting to be an innovative community and putting out great educational experiences,\u201d said board director Regina Lopez-Whiteskunk. \u201cWell, I think that includes even from our board level. We speak of that all the time: We learn from one another, we learn from other communities. And I think it\u2019s worthy to say we can engage in this conversation.\u201d<\/p>\n

King-Washington and other charter school leaders have until December to apply to the Charter School Institute, otherwise the resolution expires. Next steps, she said, include figuring out where the school would be located, and securing grants to move ahead with the process.<\/p>\n

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

Educators can now apply for authorization<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":46712,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[1183,21,155,13,28,216,29,144],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-66240","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-charter-schools","tag-cortez","tag-education","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-headlines","tag-montezuma-cortez-school-district-re-1","tag-newsletter","tag-towaoc"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66240","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=66240"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66240\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":90423,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66240\/revisions\/90423"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/46712"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66240"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66240"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=66240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}