On Monday evening, the Montezuma-Cortez School District announced to staff that Superintendent Eddie Ramirez had submitted his resignation, which became effective on Tuesday.
The email, signed “district administration,” thanked Ramirez for his time in the district.
“We want to thank him for his service to our district, our staff and most importantly, our students,” the email said. “We appreciate the time and dedication he has given to our district and wish him all the best in his next chapter.”
In an email sent to parents and the community on Tuesday, the board gave a statement about the resignation, emphasizing that they are “actively” working to find an interim superintendent until a new superintendent can be hired.
“We recognize that this is a difficult period for our district and community,” the board’s statement said. “We are confident that we will move through this transition because of the dedicated teachers, staff and administrators who remain committed to our students and community.”
The board is expected to formally accept Ramirez’s resignation at their Tuesday night meeting, which will start at 6 p.m.
Ramirez’s resignation follows scrutiny from the public and the school board regarding the adoption of a controversial curriculum called Bluebonnet, which was struck down by the board at a special meeting on Aug. 11 in a 4-3 vote.
Bluebonnet, which kicked off the 2026-27 school year as the district’s K-5 English and Language Arts curriculum, came to public attention after a Chalkbeat article questioned the Texas-made curriculum’s adherence to state education standards and scrutinized the curriculum’s inclusion of biblical stories.
At the special meeting held to discuss the curriculum, board President Joshua Shumway alleged that a memorandum of understanding that was approved in May by the board was different from the one signed and approved by Ramirez, with two additional pages added. The board said that Bluebonnet hadn’t been part of the original MOU with the Houston Independent School District.
There was no clear answer from the school district on how Ramirez’s resignation came about.
The Journal requested Ramirez’s resignation letter from the school district and was told the letter “is not available at this time” because the board has not yet voted on whether to accept the resignation.
The board decided that potential “integrity issues” in the superintendent’s office would be addressed in a later executive session.
Ramirez was one of two finalists for the superintendent position in 2025. He was the former assistant superintendent to prior superintendent Tom Burris, who retired in November 2025.
The unanimous vote to hire Ramirez on Oct. 21 came from the former school board, with current board members Jason Hall and Mike Lynch taking part in the vote. The public largely opposed the hire, with many participants in citizen comments asking the board to wait to hire until the election of the new board in November.
bduran@the-journal.com
