Mary Rubadeau is hitting the ground running.

Speaking at her first school board meeting since taking over as interim superintendent for Montezuma County School District Re-1, Rubadeau said she sees both qualities and areas that need to be addressed within the district.

“A lot of work I’ll be doing is what I was previously looking at doing as a consultant to the district,” Rubadeau said.

Rubadeau is taking over for Stacy Houser who departed last month. The board has reached an agreement with Houser and is in the final stages of the separation process.

Rubadeau said she has visited nearly all of the schools in the district and now wants to start addressing district goals and look for ways to bring more quality to Re-1.

“It’s the same process I’ve used in Juneau (Alaska) and Telluride. If we can get that embedded in the Cortez system and get that carried on by the next leader that comes in to lead the school district, there will be a change. There will be an escalation in student achievement,” she said.

Rubadeau was hired to finish out the school year and help find a permanent superintendent for the school district. Two thirds of her $66,000 salary as interim superintendent comes from the Target District Improvement Plan grant, approved by the Department of Education.

She said her process is research-based and effective, and that she is committed to inspire people to follow her lead.

While the superintendent search gets underway, Rubadeau is taking steps to improve the state of the school district. She suggested going after grants like the Race to the Top Memorandum of Understanding. The grant comes from the Secretary of Education, who awards funding for making significant progress balancing teacher distribution, increasing data collection and overall improving education.

Bill Cito of the Colorado Association of School Boards met with the board and is consulting with Re-1 on the search for the next superintendent. The position will be filled by July 1.

In other school board business, eight candidates for the Montezuma-Cortez High School principal position will be screened on Feb. 15. A community reception for the finalists is scheduled for Feb. 26. The district hopes to name a new principal by the end of the month. Current principal Gordon Shepherd announced his retirement last fall.

Five teachers from the school district will take part in the Colorado Legacy Integrative Project. The nonprofit project works in conjunction with the Colorado Department of Education to implement recent legislation for school standards, and also improves evaluation of teacher, students and principals. The teachers, two from the high school and three from the middle school, received access to software to cross reference their lesson planning with state and core standards for learning. Rubadeau said that it helps match reading and writing levels with courses of study for the students.

“The project has the potential to increase writing skills across the board,” Rubadeau said.

Bill Grimm of the District Accountability Committee presented a final survey to collect information regarding the four versus five day school week. The survey will go out to students to take home to parents, and is also available at the Cortez Public Library and online at www.surveymonkey.com/s/3BHX92M.

Reach Brandon Mathis at brandonm@cortezjournal.com