The Archuleta School District (ASD) Board of Education (BoE) heard an update from Superintendent Rick Holt on the district’s strategic initiatives during its regular meeting on Oct. 7.
Holt explained that the district has been sticking to its key principles of having research-based curriculum, strong collaborative culture, intentional culture building, social-emotional supports, common assessments, observation/feedback coaching cycles, and common instructional practices and language.
“We haven’t strayed from those; we’re still staying focused on those,” Holt said.
Holt then explained “summative” and “formative” data to show what areas the district is showing growth or progress.
“For the first time in the last five years, all of our schools, this includes San Juan Mountain School, are all on a performance plan,” Holt said.
Colorado schools receive performance ratings from district and school performance framework reports form the Colorado Department of Education (CDE).
Holt noted that a “performance plan” is the highest rating a school can receive.
“My desire is to become a district of distinction,” he added, explaining the district needs about 10 more points in its state reports to achieve that.
According to Holt’s presentation, ASD received 64.6 points from CDE’s report, making ASD an “accredited district.”
Holt’s report also shows that ASD has increased its score from the CDE over the past five school years, beginning in 2021-2022 with 52 points.
“We’re very fortunate that we have such dedicated building principals and staff who continue to be focused on teaching and learning,” Holt said.
He also explained that part of the high school building’s rating is based on matriculation data.
“This is what our students are doing once they leave us,” he said, noting that data is two years behind.
“What you’ll see is that consistently at the high school over time, our students who graduate are going on to do other things,” Holt said, explaining that the data tracks students that go on to attend two-year and four-year institutes, career and technical education programs, and military enlistments.
Holt indicated that the number of total students successful at one of those endeavors has reached 61 percent with the graduating class of 2025.
“That is higher than the state average,” he said.
Holt mentioned that the high school has been “slowly progressing” in its rating over the past few years, but it “goes a long way to say that this system is producing students who are able to go on and be successful, and that number of students is growing.”
Teaching and Learning Conditions Colorado survey
Part of Holt’s strategic initiative update included information on the Teaching and Learning Conditions Colorado (TLCC) survey that the district takes part in every other year.
He noted that the district has now taken part in the survey three times since his tenure as superintendent began.
The TLCC was initiated in 2008 by House Bill 08-1384 and “is a statewide, anonymous survey intended to support school, district, and state improvement planning, as well as research and policy,” according to the CDE.
“We’ve shown strong trends in areas that are important to us to improve,” Holt said, explaining that the survey has shown increasing trends in five specific categories.
According to Holt’s presentation, 2025-2026 survey results indicate that 92 percent of respondents say ASD is a good place to work and 94 percent of respondents say ASD is a good place to learn.
“It’s a place that they want to teach and work,” he said.
That compares to 2021-2022 survey results that showed 75 percent and 81 percent for those two categories, respectively.
Other categories highlighted in Holt’s report that show consistent growth from 2021-2022 include the professional development category, time, staff leadership and professional climate.
“All of these indicators really stack up together to say it feels ... teachers feel like things are improving,” Holt said.
He added, “So, that feels like we’re making progress on the front of creating a collaborative working environment for staff to continue to contribute to the learning of students in our community.”
Student outcomes
Holt also reviewed charts demonstrating the district’s student outcomes in the Colorado Measures of Academic Success (CMAS) test in English language arts (ELA) and mathematics.
Holt’s presentation provides CMAS results for the past five school years.
Holt mentioned that it’s important for the district to continuously expand the “met” category for CMAS tests.
“This year did not live up to that expectation,” he said, explaining the “met” category percentage for ELA dropped slightly, going from 35 percent for 2024-2025 to 32 percent for 2025-2026.
Holt noted that the percentage also dropped in the “met” category for the mathematics CMAS exam, going from 26 percent in 2024-2025 to 25 percent in 2025-2026.
“While performance has slid slightly, our growth measures have been good,” he said.
Holt explained that growth data measures how students are doing when compared to their peers.
He mentioned that ELA proficiency is “hovering around 40 percent,” while noting the state average is at 44 or 45 percent.
“So, I feel like we got room to grow there for sure,” he said, adding, “and we still continue to be about 10 percent behind the state in mathematics.”
According to the presentation, the state’s math proficiency rate is 37.7 percent.
Holt explained that the district’s middle school is doing “an enormous amount of work” this year around students’ needs and intervention programs for math.
Holt also reviewed PSAT and SAT score scales, mentioning that “we are meeting the mean now in reading and writing in both the ninth grade and the 11th grade.”
He explained that the high school initiated a practice SAT exam as part of its curriculum last year.
“That made a difference for our students,” he said, noting the same results were seen in mathematics, as well.
Student engagement
Another part of Holt’s update included data on how the district has been minimizing student distractions and tracking student behaviors over the past few years.
Holt noted that cellphone-related incidents were excluded from a chart showing the number of student incidents over the past three school years.
According to Holt’s presentation there were a total of 593 incidents, excluding cellphone incidents, for the 2025-2026 school year. That is down from a total of 887 incidents in 2024-2025, and a total of 1,119 in 2023-2022.
Holt’s report notes there was a 33 percent decrease in incidents in the 2025-2026 school year compared to the 2024-2025 school year.
Holt also pointed out that there was a 15 percent increase in tobacco related incidents when comparing the 2025-2026 school year to the year before.
Holt explained that vaping is “still a prevalent problem.”
He then explained that, following the district’s implementation of its new cellphone policy adopted in 2025, there were a total 304 cellphone related incidents at the high school involving 184 students.
Holt highlighted that there were 65 incidents in September 2025, compared to just 15 reported incidents this September.
“That’s a successful implementation,” he said.
Holt also commented on chronic absenteeism and the district’s attendance rate, noting that the attendance rate went up 1.1 percent, describing that as “not insignificant.”
He mentioned the district’s chronic absenteeism rate dropped to 4.7 percent.
Holt credited the work and progress done toward the ASD’s strategic initiatives to a “concerted effort by a large group of individuals.”
BoE president Bob Lynch commented, “It’s come a long way from the beginning, from when we first started the idea of strategic initiatives” during Holt’s five years as superintendent.
He added, “Certainly the team that makes that happen is really impressive.”
clayton@pagosasun.com
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