The Montezuma-Cortez RE-1 school board voted to table the 2026-27 salary schedule until an audit of step placements for all director-level and above employees is completed, citing concerns about improper step placements for some of those positions in the past. They also received a presentation about elementary school restructuring and discussed lunchtime clubs.
At the start of the meeting, Superintendent Eddie Ramirez gave a presentation for the two-year plan to restructure the district’s elementary education. The model is titled the “Student-Centered Learning & Workforce Model.”
Year 1 of the “elementary restructuring initiative” will build a foundation focused on consistency, scheduling structures and duel planning systems. Elementary schools will work with daily schedules that provide 120-minute literacy blocks, 90-minute math blocks, content block for science and social studies, and a 45-minute intervention/enrichment blocks.
Ramirez shared that teachers will use the “I do, we do, you do” method, along with common pacing, guaranteed daily curriculum and a system of planning that incorporates weekly team planning and individual prep time. Staffing will remain largely traditional during the phase.
In Year 2, the district will fully transition to a “Power of Three” team-based model. In this model, a lead teacher, two team teachers and an instructional paraprofessional will work with 75-100 students with flexible grouping based on student skill level rather than a fixed roster of students.
Rather than the approach of “My class, my students,” there is a shift to “Our students, our team,” Ramirez said.
The presentation further noted that in Year 1, the aim is to build clarity, reduce variability, establish trust, offset costs of subs, reduce teacher absences and FTE vacancies, reduce student behavior issues, and increase student achievement, while Year 2’s is to leverage structure for innovation, maximize flexibility of staffing, improve outcomes, make less work outside of working hours and allow students to take ownership of their education.
The board then celebrated the nomination of Montezuma-Cortez High School Principal Jennifer Boniface for 2026 CASSP Rookie Secondary Principal of the Year before moving onto student representative reports and public comments.
In citizen comments, Mindy Nielson asked for clarification regarding the board’s conduct and transparency, noting concerns in some board conduct.
The board moved onto discussion items next, where they reviewed on-campus lunch-time club meetings, which was noted in the agenda to have been requested by a group of students.
In 2022, it was decided by the board of education that student clubs could not be held during lunch time, instead requiring clubs to meet before or after school.
Two specific groups impacted, according to the board, were the Fellowship of Christian Athletes and the Gay-Straight Alliance. When asked, a student representative told the board she couldn’t think of any cons of clubs meeting at lunch, but noted a pro was that lunch clubs allowed students who may not normally hang out to meet and form bonds outside of their regular friend groups.
No decision was made.
In action items, the board voted to table the 2026-27 salary schedule after a board member raised concerns about improper step placements for some director-level and executive positions. The schedule will be on hold until an audit takes place.
Board Vice President Laura DeWitt cited a review of hiring records, saying that at least one executive director had been placed several steps higher than board policy allows for outside experience credit. In one case, she said a hire that should have started at Step 8 under the approved schedule was placed at Step 15, creating a roughly $7,000 overpayment in the current year and more than $20,000 cumulatively over three years.
DeWitt proposed tabling the schedule until a full audit of step placements for all director-level and above employees is completed.
The motion to table was approved with a 5-1 vote, with one abstaining due to conflict of interest with his wife’s salary. The board will revisit the schedule once the audit results are presented.
The next MCSD board meeting will be held at 6 p.m. June 16.
bduran@the-journal.com
