Overview
- Anne Ochs abruptly announced her resignation and walked out during a Pueblo District 70 board meeting after a parent’s public comments.
- Hannah McDowell accused Ochs of voting in June to allow ERBOCES and Riverstone Academy to operate in the district without disclosing she had signed an ERBOCES employment contract on June 9.
- The MOU approved by the board explicitly named ERBOCES and Riverstone, while Ochs said she did not start at ERBOCES until July 1 and did not know Riverstone was one of its programs.
- Reporting differed on paperwork status: Chalkbeat said no formal resignation letter was on file Wednesday morning, while D70 later told KRDO and KOAA it had received it, and KOAA obtained a copy via records request.
- Riverstone markets a Christian foundation and faces scrutiny from the Colorado Department of Education, which warned its students may not count toward district funding, as prior reporting also highlighted an email suggesting the school could serve as a legal test over public funding for religious education.