Montezuma-Cortez High School

Showers and mountain snow continue today with temperatures rising. Local events include the Montezuma Cortez High School National Honor Society induction and a kindergarten open house in Mancos.

An investigation is ongoing into a report of a student with a gun in the vicinity of Montezuma-Cortez High School on Tuesday. Cortez police are asking local high-school students and their parents for help in the matter.

On Tuesday evening, the Montezuma-Cortez School District held a board meeting where parents and educators voiced concerns on staffing upheaval and a subsequent student protest. Though the latest conflict in the district wasn’t officially on the agenda, about 25 people showed up to the meeting. Jarrett Watkins, a teacher at the high school who spoke at the meeting, says many other educators and staff are afraid to openly discuss the concerns they have around the dismissal of their principal.

On Thursday morning, students walked out of Montezuma-Cortez High School in protest of the recent changes to administrators and staff. The principal of Montezuma-Cortez, Emily Moreland, was placed on administrative leave following a meeting with Superintendent Tom Burris on Tuesday afternoon. Another administrator, Assistant Principal Lauren White, who was also in the meeting, quit. It’s still unclear as to exactly why Moreland was put on administrative leave. But three current teachers at Montezuma-Cortez – who spoke with KSJD under the condition of anonymity in case of reprisals – say that the swift departure of Moreland and White ultimately occurred because of a larger pattern of disrespect and bullying from Burris.

On Thursday morning, about 30 students and several parents stood outside the high school and held signs, protesting the swift departures of two administrators. Some teachers at Montezuma-Cortez say that the two left, in part, because of a pattern of disrespect and bullying by Superintendent Tom Burris.

The festival visited the high school as part of its 2023 "Othello" tour, and conducted workshops with theater students on improvisation, performing Shakespearean texts and fight choreography.

The housing markets are slowing in Utah, Arizona, Colorado and New Mexico. And the principal of Montezuma-Cortez High School is leaving his position after only a few weeks on the job.

The Montezuma-Cortez High School Homecoming parade was almost cancelled this year...again. But the community came together to make it happen after all. And with so much controversy and division in society these days, homecoming was a reminder of how important it is, both for students and the community, to come together.

The Montezuma-Cortez High School Homecoming Parade has been rescheduled for this Saturday; Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser and twenty four other attorneys general showed their support for the US Justice Department’s challenge to the new abortion law in Texas; Colorado Governor Jared Polis married first gentleman Marlon Reis on Wednesday.

An individual at Montezuma-Cortez High School has been diagnosed with COVID-19; The Colorado Independent Redistricting Committee has released preliminary maps and is currently taking comments from the public.