Durango School District’s meeting Monday night focused largely on test score data, school accreditation rates, funding, goalposts for the district and current and future projects and initiatives.
The so-called State of the District meeting, held at the IMPACT Career Innovation Center, set out to address “statewide misinformation about schools circulating on social media,” according to a release by the district.
The evening began with a presentation led by Board President Kristin Smith and Superintendent Karen Cheser. A question-and-answer followed, where the roughly 30 community members in attendance were given the floor to bring up any inquiries they had for the district – including what the release called “the hard questions.”
Two questions were posed: one regarding how the district plans to respond to chronic absenteeism, and one related to funding for a future district construction project.
After the Q&A, attendees were free to roam the area, where teachers, principals and staff were poised to answer additional questions. Posters were on display describing the successes, challenges and next steps for each school in the district.
“(We) really wanted to let you know about some of the things that (we have been) successful (in) as a district, but also, what are some of the challenges?” Cheser said to the crowd. “What are some of the next steps? What (are) some of the areas that we know we’re not growing fast enough?”
A large portion of the presentation focused on explaining and discussing recent test scores, including the data from the most recent round of Colorado Measures of Academic Success, or CMAS, testing. Cheser said CMAS testing has changed since 2015, and that current iterations are more difficult. Cheser also made a point to highlight the district having been the only rural district to make Colorado’s top 11 in testing this year.
Blank CMAS test packets were passed out for attendees to view.
“I wanted to make sure everybody understood that we're not just sitting passively by, just seeing what the kids’ scores are, and hopefully they'll succeed,” Cheser said. “Over the last four years, we’ve made some huge, huge adjustments.”
In the past, Cheser said student autonomy was a prominent facet of the way the district’s schools operated, which created barriers at times to accessing “a guaranteed, vital curriculum” and “really strong interventions accountability.” Large-scale changes have been made in this realm over the past few years, Cheser said.
Cheser also highlighted some of the district’s current and future projects, such as the recent purchase of a 35-unit apartment building at Lightner Creek Village to act as staff housing, and the district’s plan to replace Florida Mesa Elementary with the brand-new, unofficially named Three Springs Elementary by 2028.
The district has been in communication with the Ignacio and Bayfield school districts, and tentative plans are coalescing to eventually turn the old Florida Mesa Elementary building into a shared workforce development center, pending board approval and an official sign-on by the two other districts.
Cheser also described the district’s funding issues and the cuts that have been made to all departments and to the overall school budget in response.
Community member and former Durango High School substitute math teacher Mary Kay Stewart said she expected negative comments and questions to arise at the meeting, specifically in relation to school board elections, and wanted to be present to bring some positivity to the room. No negative comments arose.
Stewart’s daughter, Katie Stewart, is a school board member.
Mary Kay Stewart provided one of the few questions posed during the Q&A, and said the topic she brought up – what the district plans to do in response to chronic absenteeism rates – was the main topic she wanted the district to address.
“I did want them to address the absenteeism, because all of these wonderful things (the district is) doing ... if the students aren’t there, the students can’t take advantage of them,” she said.
Vanessa Giddings, executive director of Student Support Services, responded to Stewart’s question during the presentation by clarifying what determines chronic absenteeism – 10% or more of school days missed in a year – and describing the attendance plans and interventions the district has in place for chronically absent students.
Cheser told The Durango Herald that the main goal of the meeting was to address online discourse involving individuals dubbing the district’s schools as “failing” based on recent test scores.
“We actually are seeing growth,” Cheser said. “We’re seeing kids doing amazing. Teachers are working really hard. We have some of the strongest curriculum, programs, projects. … It’s harmful when people just say, “failing schools” and they discount everything, or don’t look at all the numbers. And so we wanted to make sure that (people had the whole picture).”
Cheser said that had any questions arisen surrounding school board elections or recent social media discourse on the subject, she would have been “an open book.”
“I will answer any question,” Cheser said. “I have to be political in the sense (of) understanding the political landscape, right? But I’m not going to be partisan. My party is taking care of my kids, and the teachers. Anytime there’s an election, I think I try to just ignore the noise. I’ve got to move our district forward, and support our teachers, support our staff, our community.”
epond@durangoherald.com
