{"id":43738,"date":"2021-11-15T20:15:00","date_gmt":"2021-11-15T20:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/ribbon-cutting-ceremony-is-thursday-at-kwiyagat-school-in-towaoc\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T09:15:29","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T09:15:29","slug":"ribbon-cutting-ceremony-is-thursday-at-kwiyagat-school-in-towaoc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/ribbon-cutting-ceremony-is-thursday-at-kwiyagat-school-in-towaoc\/","title":{"rendered":"Ribbon-cutting ceremony is Thursday at Kwiyagat school in Towaoc"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Redsky
Redsky Lang, 5, holds her drawing that she did on her first day of school at the Kwiyagat Community Academy on Monday in Towaoc. Photo by Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald<\/span>Jerry McBride<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
Ute Mountain Ute academy is state\u2019s first reservation charter school<\/div>\n

The Ute Mountain Ute Tribe will host a ribbon-cutting ceremony Thursday to honor the leaders, funders and various stakeholders who made the opening of the Kwiyagat Community Academy a reality, according to a news release from the Keystone Policy Center.<\/p>\n

The ceremony will include Tina King-Washington, K-12 Education director; Goldlin Wall, Ph. D; Lyndreth Wall, Ute Mountain Ute Tribal Council; Daniel Porter, head of school; and Millie Hamner, Keystone Policy Center.<\/p>\n

Attendees may tour the school after the ceremony, which runs 4 to 6 p.m. at 450 Sunset Blvd., in Towaoc, about 12 miles south of Cortez.<\/p>\n

\"Teacher
Teacher Jennifer Flaherty at Kwiyagat Community Academy, gets students to lineup to go back inside after recess on Monday during the first day of school. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>Jerry McBride<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Students
Students lineup for recess Aug. 23 during the first day of school at Kwiyagat Community Academy in Towaoc. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>Jerry McBride<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Keystone Policy Center has worked with Ute Mountain Ute leaders to help develop a comprehensive cultural approach to education on the reservation. Kwiyagat is the first school to be located on the Ute Mountain Ute reservation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis long-term initiative creates a comprehensive educational master plan that integrates Ute arts, language, and culture into all levels of education curriculum; provides a strong focus on science, technology, engineering, (Native) arts, and math; and will offer wrap-around services to support youth and families on and off the reservation,\u201d according to a news release from Marquez Chavez of the Keystone Policy Center.<\/p>\n

Kwiyagat Community Academy, the new Ute Mountain Ute charter school, opened its doors in August to 23 kindergarten and first grade students.<\/p>\n

In January, the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe was awarded a grant from the RISE Education Fund to support the initiative. The RISE Education fund was launched in Sep. 2020 by the State of Colorado to support high-needs school districts, charter schools, and public institutions of higher education to address the learning challenges related to the economic, social, and health impacts of COVID-19 in a manner that creates sustainable innovations that improve student learning, close equity gaps, and enhance operational efficiency.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Redsky Lang, 5, holds her drawing that she did on her first day of school at the Kwiyagat Community Academy on Monday in Towaoc. Photo by Jerry McBride\/Durango HeraldJerry McBride Ute Mountain Ute academy is state\u2019s first reservation charter school The Ute Mountain Ute Tribe will host a ribbon-cutting ceremony Thursday to honor the leaders, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":43739,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-43738","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"Website Administrator","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43738","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43738"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43738\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":85820,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43738\/revisions\/85820"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43739"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43738"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=43738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}