Opinion

Our district is improving every year and we are excited to offer new opportunities for our student to learn, grow and explore their future careers.

We only grow better with participation, ideas, and support from our families and community. I’m excited to share with you some updates on our progress and future plans.

Our district and our schools are improving. The district is improving its accreditation. We are awaiting our final district accreditation from the state, but we are hopeful that our district will improve in our overall accreditation level enough to get off the “accountability clock.”

This would be a huge milestone for our district and something few other districts in our situation have achieved. We are proud of our teachers and students and their efforts, and I would like to take a moment to recognize and celebrate all their hard work.

We have raised our overall accreditation by 6 points. This is due to all the hard work of our principals, teachers, and, most importantly, our students. This year, we have seen improvements in accreditation at Montezuma-Cortez High School, Southwest Open School, Cortez Middle School, and Mesa Elementary.

We are providing our students with more opportunities to learn, grow, and explore than ever before. The high school continues to expand opportunities for students to explore potential career paths through hands-on learning, including culinary arts,emergency medical technician training, fire science, auto body, advanced placement and college prep classes. Moving forward, we are exploring the option of offering computer science and coding in the middle school and high school through our partnership with the Nathan Yipp Foundation.

All of these classes are designed to help students explore their interests, deepen their academic learning, and identify potential career opportunities for their future. We are passionate about helping students reach their potential and achieve their dreams.

None of this would be possible without the dedication of our teachers, who go above and beyond to support student learning. In a time when teachers face increasing demands, we appreciate all of our teachers who show up daily and give their best for our students, because they are making a difference in student lives every day.

We are committed to continue to find ways to recognize, support, and reward their efforts. We are also committed to recruiting and retaining the best teachers available.

We recognize the hard work of all of our students who come to school every day with their questions, curiosity, and desire to learn. Our students persevere even when the work is challenging and work to achieve their goals.

We also recognize their families who support them in their learning every day, including the many families who volunteer in our schools, attend parent-teacher conferences, and support their children in sports, activities, and academics.

We are a community, and together we are working every day to grow, improve, and achieve our dreams. Thank you for your support of our schools and students.

Lori Haukeness is superintendent of Montezuma-Cortez School District RE-1. Reach her at lhaukeness@cortez.k12.co.us.