Over the past three years, the number of expulsions in the Montezuma-Cortez Re-1 District has fallen, but the number of total discipline incidents has stayed about the same.
The Indian Policies and Procedures report includes details about discipline, attendance and test scores provided by the district and the Colorado Department of Education. The district released the report in October.
The report reveals the amount of disciplinary actions taken by the district on all students from the 2013 to 2016 school years.
Districtwide, 270 behavior incidents during the 2015-2016 school year resulted in five expulsions and 265 out-of-school suspensions, according to CDE. Those numbers include Southwest Open School and Children’s Kiva Montessori charter schools.
Re-1 Assistant Superintendent Dan Porter, who handles district discipline, said the number of expulsions and suspensions varies over the years. The consequence for a violation may vary depending on a student’s situation.
“The intent is to provide good, safe education for all kids,” he said.
Administrators tailor consequences to individuals to have the most impact, said M-CHS Principal Jason Wayman.
At Montezuma-Cortez High School during the 2015-2016 school year, 112 behavior incidents resulted in four expulsions and 108 out-of-school suspensions. The incidents involved 77 students.
Current enrollment at M-CHS is 682 students.
Two expulsions were attributed to drug and marijuana violations and two were attributed to code of conduct violations.
Two of the four expelled M-CHS students were Native American, one was Hispanic, and one was Caucasian. Porter didn’t identify races of students who were involved in more than one incident, saying that doing so might identify the individuals involved.
SWOS reported five behavior incidents, resulting in one expulsion of a Native American for a marijuana violation and four suspensions.
Current enrollment at SWOS is 144 students.
No students were expelled from Cortez Middle School in the 2015-2016 year, but 96 incidents resulted in out-of-school suspensions for 73 students.
Current enrollment at CMS is 538 students.
District officials are working to improve their communication with the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, Porter said.
Superintendent Haukeness last week signed a memorandum of understanding with the tribe, allowing the district and the tribe to share student information in order to better use resources from both organizations, Porter said.
“Our communication with the tribe is only getting better,” he said.
Ute Mountain Ute Tribe K-12 Education Director Tina King-Washington said Re-1 Superintendent Lori Haukeness and Porter have been helpful.
King-Washington hopes that the MOU will allow the tribal education department to be proactive in dealing with students’ issues.
Previously, a parental release was required, and tribal officials sometimes didn’t know about discipline incidents until students were already in expulsion hearings, she said.
Counseling and treatment services are available for free to tribal students, including a full medical staff and child psychologist, she said. There are lots of resources available for students, she said.
“Talking about issues before they happen to get a head start before they show up as a discipline issue – that’s one thing we need to work on,” King-Washington said.
