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Cortez Schools Superintendent Responds to Durango School District's Decision to Leave San Juan BOCES

Austin Cope
/
KSJD File Photo

KSJD's Austin Cope spoke with Montezuma-Cortez RE-1 School District Superintendent Lori Haukeness about Durango School District 9-R's decision to pull out of the San Juan Board of Cooperative Educational Services, or BOCES.

The transcript of their interview is below. For more on this issue, click here.

Austin Cope: What is your reaction to Durango pulling out of the BOCES?

Lori Haukeness: Obviously I feel like we’re stronger when all of the districts are part of the BOCES, so I’m disappointed that we’ll have one of the largest districts not participating in the collective services that we can provide for our students. It will mean that the other districts will need to come together as a BOCES and really realign and reassess staffing patterns and what do the services need to be for the students in our district. But I am disappointed that Durango will be pulling out, because we are so much stronger with having Durango part of our consortium.

AC: Does it affect Cortez differently than Mancos or Dolores or any of the other districts?

LH: It’ll affect Cortez differently in the sense that usually the larger districts carry more of the fiscal obligation, and so I do know the BOCES has been doing an internal audit on what the costs will be, by doing a projection on the services we will need from BOCES and what the allocation looks like, so we’ll just need to work with the BOCES on that. But usually it does affect larger districts fiscally more than the smaller districts.

AC: Was there anything Cortez could have done to stop them from doing that?

LH: No, it’s every district’s prerogative to petition the Colorado Department of Education to become their own consortium for services. The only requirement is that they petition a year in advance, which is what Durango did. So Durango did follow all the proper protocols, and they petitioned the state. Ultimately it’s the state’s decision on whether Durango can fiscally provide the services to the students within their district, and ultimately if the district can survive without being part of the consortium. So really there wasn’t anything our district or other districts could have done to stop Durango from pulling out and becoming their own entity.

AC: Is there anything anybody can do now to change their decision? Or is it pretty final?

LH: It’s my understanding that the decision that the Colorado Department of Education makes is final.

AC: Ok. And if Durango ever wants to, can they get back in? Or are they kind of blacklisted?

LH: No, if Durango ever decides to rejoin, they can rejoin the BOCES, that’s not an issue at all.

AC: Do you have any other thoughts on the issue?

LH: The best case scenario for all of our districts is that we could work collaboratively and pool all of our resources. […] Moving forward, I know the BOCES will be completing the rest of the audit and we’ll be readjusting, but our focus is to provide the same high-quality services that we always have to the students in our district, and we’ll continue to do so.

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