The Durango School District 9-R school board issued directions for the Healthy Choices Committee, which will be reviewing the student and activities code and making recommendations.
The committee will be led by Student Advocacy Officer Jackie Oros and Durango High School Principal Leanne Garcia, and it will review the entire code, beginning with drugs and alcohol. The committee will include about 20 members from throughout the community, with a goal of completing its work by June.
“We’re looking primarily at other schools in Colorado and Washington because they were the first to have relaxed marijuana laws,” Oros said.
Also on the board’s agenda:
In its ongoing conversation with various community groups, the board heard from first-responders including the Durango Police Department, La Plata County Sheriff’s Office, Colorado State Patrol and Durango Fire Protection District. The hot issues were overall school safety, dealing with substance abuse, particularly marijuana, and safety for students getting to and from school.
School District 9-R is fortunate in its relationship with the regional Colorado State Patrol, 9-R Superintendent Dan Snowberger said, because many districts don’t have that support.
“The CSP is a traffic-motivated agency, but this is something we decided to do as a district,” said Capt. Adrian Driscoll. “We saw a better opportunity to serve, so you may see a trooper doing paperwork in the parking lot, introducing themselves to teachers or eating lunch with the kids. We want to show there are no soft targets in La Plata County.”
Testing is a matter of ongoing discussion in education, and 9-R is not any different, Snowberger said. The district is working on Common District Assessments.
“We’re trying to find checkpoints along the way,” he said, “At high school, students will be assessed on the content they’re learning, not the grade level. If a middle school student is doing advanced work in math, they’ll be tested on the content they’re being exposed to.”
Many conversations are still underway, he said.
“We want to get away from the test question,” he said. “We want students to be engaged in the assessment.”
The testing would take place during a window rather than having students sit down at a specific time to take a test.
“Maybe Thursdays are lab days and they could be asked to do the lab and write down something they learned,” Snowberger said.
While the process is expected to take two or three years, Board President Andy Burns requested a proposed implementation schedule by the February board meeting.
In other action, after several weeks of negotiation, the board approved a contract with Connections Academy to provide online high school classes for those students who qualify.
“For those families who travel or students who compete, this will be a great alternative,” Snowberger said. “They regard their students as part of the (Mapleton School) District and invite them to walk across the stage at graduation. I think it would be neat if we did that.”
abutler@durangoherald.com
