School District Superintendent

After an executive session lasting an hour and forty minutes, the Montezuma-Cortez Re-1 School Board on Tuesday unanimously chose Eddie Ramirez as the district’s new superintendent.

At a forum Thursday for candidates for the Re-1 school board, several called for the current board to hold off on its hasty hiring of a new superintendent.

One of three finalists for superintendent of Montezuma-Cortez School District Re-1 pulled her name out of contention Monday night after a public interview session.

After an executive session that lasted nearly five hours, the Montezuma-Cortez Re-1 School Board in a special meeting Tuesday night came up with a list of three finalists for district superintendent.

After a school-board meeting at which more than a half-dozen anonymous letters were read aloud, Montezuma-Cortez School District Re-1 Superintendent Tom Burris says the board may need to consider adopting a policy about such letters.

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.

The Montezuma-Cortez School District will hold its next school board meeting on Tuesday at 6 p.m. It’s expected that the recent conflict around staff changes in the district will be discussed during the public comment portion of the meeting. On April 20, students at the high school held a walk out in response to the dismissal of the school principal by Superintendent Tom Burris. Staff and students allege that Burris has a history of mistreatment of students in the district. According to Jake Myers, who was in 7th grade at the time, in August of 1998, then-Vice Principal Burris instructed him to sit on a large bucket in the multipurpose fields until the end of the school day as punishment for being disruptive in a band class.

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.

Three wildland fires were ignited by lightning on Friday in Mesa Verde National Park. And the Montezuma-Cortez RE-1 School District will be cracking down on student attendance and discipline this year.

Colorado lawmakers are unveiling another effort to help survivors of natural disasters like the Marshall and East Troublesome fires rebuild their homes. And the Montezuma-Cortez RE-1 School District will continue without a superintendent, at least for now.