Battle Rock Charter School, one of Colorado’s earliest charter schools, was built in 1915 and continues to serve local students. The school is celebrating its growth and will host a fundraiser Saturday, Oct. 18, from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. at Sutcliffe Vineyards.
The school serves students from kindergarten through sixth grade and is authorized by the Colorado Charter School Institute.
Karen Casgrain, the school’s financial administrator, said Battle Rock became a charter school in the 1990s after the district planned to close it. Community members formed a board and nonprofit that successfully petitioned RE-1 to keep the school open.
“Our McElmo community did not want our school to close and the students bused into Cortez,” said Moqui Mustain-Fury, Cliffrose classroom lead and Quest Enrichment coordinator. “By becoming a charter, the school could open its boundaries up to include any interested families from surrounding communities – Montezuma, Dolores, Mancos, Lewis area and Towoac … even a few Utah border families.”
Since 2014, enrollment at Battle Rock has quadrupled.
“When I started in 2014, anytime I mentioned our school, people in the community either had never heard of it, or thought it had closed. We have quadrupled the number of students enrolled since that time, and our school performance framework has increased significantly,” said Tegan Lewis, Pinon class mentor teacher and leadership team member.
The school has added a transportation department, built a commercial kitchen, opened a library, received a grant for a nature-based playground, and improved CMAS scores.
The library was designed by Battle Rock graduate Matt Clark, in partnership with Timberage in Durango. The playground, inspired by local landmarks, was funded by the Colorado Health Foundation and constructed with help from Linda Robinson Studio, Hicks Stone and Legacy Tree Solutions.
Though finalized 2025 CMAS scores and state performance frameworks won’t be released until December, Casgrain said the school was “very pleased” to see improvement in math achievement.
“We are very pleased to see that our focus on improving in math achievement and growth had a strong positive effect in the 2025 CMAS results,” Casgrain said. “We will continue that focus on math this year and have built out a math intervention program staffed with a part-time master’s-level teacher that we believe will help our students continue to grow and achieve at even higher levels.”
When Battle Rock chose CSI authorization over Montezuma-Cortez RE-1, it created its own transportation department and converted teacher housing into a commercial kitchen.
“We knew that both food service and transportation would be large hurdles for us to clear and that those services are vitally important to our school community. Happily, everyone in the Battle Rock community rallied together and we were able to build in-house transportation and food service departments,” Casgrain said.
The school’s fleet includes a 14-seat minibus, a 77-capacity bus purchased earlier this year, and two full-time drivers. Casgrain said they received guidance from the state and Mancos Transportation Department.
Paula Fury, also a sixth grade teacher, directs transportation.
The commercial kitchen serves Battle Rock and Kwiyagat Academy students, making them one of only two CSI charter schools that prepare lunch from scratch, according to Lewis.
“We are also partnering with KCA, under a grant written by Dr. Richard Fulton, to incorporate at least one Native food in our lunch menu each month, and are participating in field trips to visit local food sources, such as the Ute Mountain Farm, to understand where our food comes from,” Lewis said.
Under Kanto McPherson’s leadership, students receive home-cooked meals. This week’s menu includes pork chili Verde, French bread pizza, Caribbean turkey pita, BBQ meatballs and a turkey bacon wrap. Breakfast features biscuits and gravy, banana bread, pancakes with pork sausage and a fluffy apple cinnamon oat bar.
“We have added a greenhouse this summer and look forward to preparing fruits and vegetables grown on campus in our meals going forward,” Casgrain said. “Food is so important for fueling learning, for a sense of community, for teaching students about how to care for themselves in the long run.”
Battle Rock will serve lunch to Colorado Sen. Cleave Simpson during his campus visit later this month.
The school will host a fundraiser Saturday, Oct. 18, from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. at Sutcliffe Vineyards, east of the school.
Tickets cost $60 per person and $100 per couple. Community members can purchase tickets by calling Sutcliffe Vineyards at (970) 565-0825 or emailing info@sutcliffewines.com.
More information is available at www.sutcliffewines.com/upcomingevents/battlerock-fund-raiser.
The event aims to offset costs for the commercial kitchen, which is also available for community rentals.
Donations can be made via Venmo at https://venmo.com/u/BattleRock or through PayPal.
