To quote Alice Cooper, “School’s out for summer!” Our last week of this school year was filled with so many activities. Our end of the year transition ceremony was celebrated by a walking parade down Ouray Drive. It was well attended, and the wind wasn’t much more than a breeze. While a few of the kindergarten and elementary students will be moving to area public schools, most of our students are staying with us. With our registration packet available on our website, we have already been receiving enrollment forms. We ended the student’s school year by opening up the Bear Dance. It was exciting and humbling to walk into the Grounds and hear the applause and cheers from those around us. The students had been building up their skills and anticipation all month. We have been opening Bear Dance for at least 20 years; this year felt like that first year! A true renewal was taking place. 

While SUIMA does not participate in the CMAS testing, we do participate in standardized, benchmark testing which is one that the Ignacio School District also uses. Taking into consideration that our 2020-2021 school year was administered wholly online, and this was a year to recuperate skills, the test results are quite promising. In the area of reading, 75% of our kindergarteners demonstrated more than a year’s growth, while 65% of our elementary students demonstrated a year’s growth. Taking into consideration students who are on IEP’s as well as those who are not, one of our other standardized reading assessments shows a median growth of 100 points from the December test to the test that was administered in May. Results from the math assessment 47% of our elementary students demonstrated a year’s growth. In the area of Ute Language, those students who were tested in August, and then again in May, showed a 41% growth in language. 

As a reminder for next year, we will continue with a five-day school week and move our early release day to Friday. As stated in the past article, our decision to stay as a five-day week was based on our parents’ response as well as what will work best for our school.  

Thank you, parents, Tribal Council, Executive Officer Olguin, Education Director Taylor, SUIMA School Board, and the various Tribal Departments, for supporting us this year. As we navigated to what eventually feels like “normal,” I appreciate all that you did for the students and staff. It has been a pleasure to serve you and I look forward to another good school year. See you then! 

REGISTRATION PACKETS ARE AVAILABLE AT www.suima.org 

Nuu’apaghapi – Ute phrases and sentences 

• Spring – tamanatʉ 

• Bear Dance – Mamakwanhkapʉ 
• Sweat- pa̠qháa (perspire) 

Upcoming events 

• Aug. 24 – Open House 

• Aug. 29 – 2022-2023 School year begins