Petition to remove the current Superintendent of Montezuma-Cortez RE-1 School District.

We, the concerned community members of Montezuma County, are calling for the immediate removal of the current RE-1 Superintendent, Tom Burris.  We believe that under the direction of the current administration, the Montezuma-Cortez RE-1 school district has lost its way.

Under the direction of the current Superintendent, the RE-1 administration has:

• Used district resources to settle personal grudges against community members.
  • Burris is using district resources to sue a community member for shedding light on Burris breaking the law and failing his students.
  • Recent district social media posts show that Burris is using district communications to attack Judge MacLaren and spread misinformation  (https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1AwjQqpa6q/
• Created a culture of not protecting children when the Superintendent did not take accountability for failing to make a mandated report. 
  • Burris was reported to local officials after it became known that he failed to report suspected abuse. As someone who works with children, he is a mandated reporter and is legally obligated to report any suspected abuse. He failed to do so, and after  this became known to the public, instead of taking accountability for his actions, he bullied and spread misinformation about those who held him accountable. 
• Blocked community members from expressing concerns about the district through intimidation as well as disabling the ability to comment on district social media platforms. 
  • After being ignored at many school board meetings, local community members took to social media to express their concerns with current district administration actions. The administrations response to this was to disable comments on all district social media posts. 
• Bullied school personnel. 
  • Teachers and staff are afraid of expressing concerns due to the threat of being fired for doing so (https://www.facebook.com/share/p/179Cncpu5m/
• Implemented harmful policies.
  • The Nondiscrimination/Equal Opportunity Policy AC was amended to remove protections for marginalized members of our community (https://go.boarddocs.com/co/cortez/Board.nsf/files/DGLTCM76B9AE/$file/Policy%20AC%20draft.pdf

These actions are negatively impacting our students, their families, and the community of Montezuma County. We deserve to have a district administration team that uplifts and supports its community and the current administration does not do that. 

We urge our school board members to listen to the voices of our community. A meeting must be called immediately to hold a vote regarding Superintendent Burris' status. We will not rest until the safety and well-being are the forefront of this districts priorities. 

Together, we can advocate for the change that our community desperately needs. 

++Please sign this petition to stand up for our students and hold the current administration accountable++