Southwest Open Charter School

Southwest Open Charter School operates as a tiny 9-12 campus in CORTEZ, Colorado, run under Montezuma-Cortez School District No. Re-1. Current enrollment sits at 131 students spanning grades 9 through 12. By comparison, Colorado's public schools average about 627 students each, so Southwest Open Charter School sits 79% below that benchmark.

Southwest Open Charter School is one of 10 schools operated by Montezuma-Cortez School District No. Re-1, a district that hosts 2,380 students overall.

On the student-mix side, Southwest Open Charter School reports that the largest single group is White at 47%, but no single group is in the majority. The remainder reads as 28% Native American, 20% Hispanic, 5% multiracial. That is meaningfully less White than the county at large, where the share is closer to 75%.

In terms of school funding signals, On paper, Southwest Open Charter School has 10 full-time-equivalent teachers, translating to a class-load average of around 12.5:1. The state averages around 16.9:1, so this campus is tighter than the state norm typical. About 79% of enrolled students meet the income threshold for free or reduced-price lunch, often used as a Title I proxy. By comparison, Montezuma County runs at roughly 59%, so the school's eligibility rate is higher than the surrounding baseline.

In the area at large, community-level numbers for Montezuma County indicate median household income runs about $65,244, about 31% of the adult population holds a bachelor's degree or above, and census figures put the poverty rate at about 7%. Across Montezuma County's 19 public schools (combined enrollment of about 3,620 students), Southwest Open Charter School is one campus in the mix.

Montezuma-Cortez High School is the nearest neighboring public school, about 0.7 miles from this campus. Within five miles, there are 6 other public schools.

Geographically, the school is in a small-town area. Southwest Open Charter School is a charter school, which puts it inside the public-school system but outside the standard district-managed model.

Over the past 7-year window. Southwest Open Charter School's enrollment has decreased 10% since 2018, when it stood at 145 (now 131). The White share of enrollment fell from 61% to 47% over that span. Class-load math has pulled in: from 15.6:1 in 2018 to 12.5:1 in 2025.

On the community side, recent activity here tends to focus on fundraisers, lost-and-found posts, and report-card season. Posting is open to anyone connected to the school.