Ben Dutton Starts at Center 26 JT, Where Chronic Absence Fell to 18.3% While Colorado's Rose

Tue, 29 Sep 2026 12:00:00 GMT

Correction (October 8, 2026): Updated state records put Center’s free or reduced-price lunch count at 537 of 588 students, or 91.3%, and the statewide share at 44.7%. The historical series also contains a missing year; the records do not establish why its reported shares changed.

Ben Dutton has learned what to expect when he tells people outside the San Luis Valley where he works.

"Many times when I talk with people outside the community about my role in Center Schools, I get responses like, 'You have your work cut out for you' or 'Good luck, that gonna be tough' and I just laugh at what they are missing," he wrote in response to questions from The COEdTribune.

One of the things they are missing is in Colorado's own attendance file. In 2024-25, 18.3% of students at Center 26 JT^↗ were chronically absent. The statewide rate that year was 28.5%, so Center sat 10.2 points below it. Center's rate had been 24.7% the year before, and the 6.4-point improvement was the 11th largest among the 139 districts with a published rate in both years and at least 200 students in the attendance file. Colorado's own rate moved the other way, up from 27.9%. That comparison uses the attendance file's published population; the eligible districts account for 99.3% of it.

Center has been under the state rate in five of the six school years Colorado has published, the exception being 2020-21. The 18.3% figure is its best since 11.0% in 2019-20, the earliest year in this attendance comparison. None of it is Dutton's doing.

He was named the board's sole finalist after a public search, his contract began before the school year, and he told The COEdTribune that students had returned in August. Every figure the state has published predates his first day.

A rural district was the point, not the compromise

The district's announcement describes his prior work as a secondary principal, as a rural Colorado superintendent, and as a Rural Prosperity Lead Educator at the University of Nebraska. He did not describe Center as a step on a ladder.

"I was originally interested in the Center Superintendent position due to the community's proximity to outdoor recreation and agricultural setting," he wrote. "Both my wife and I grew up rural and love living in small communities, so the size and location of Center is attractive. As I dug into the community and district history and demographics, I liked the opportunity to work and live with a diverse population that was proud of its history and heritage."

The demographics he read are unusual even in a state with a large multilingual student population. In last school year's published 2025-26 figures, 180 Center students, 30.6% of the district's enrollment, were current or monitored English learners. Statewide the figure was 13.9%. That 16.7-point gap puts Center seventh among the 123 Colorado districts with at least 200 students and a published, unsuppressed count, and the ranking does not change when that size floor is removed. Those districts account for 98.7% of published statewide enrollment. Center's share has come down from 39.3% in 2019-20; the statewide comparison above is for last school year.

Dutton named that work directly when asked what a school does in a farming valley beyond schooling.

"Our staff know students and families well beyond the classroom. We work with families to address barriers that can affect a child’s ability to learn—whether that is attendance, transportation, food, language, mental health, or other family needs. We also have a significant role in supporting our English-language learners and making sure families feel connected to the school," he wrote.

The financial picture behind that sentence is visible too. Colorado counted 537 of Center's 588 students, 91.3%, as eligible for free or reduced-price lunch in 2025-26, against 44.7% statewide. The largest observed change between adjacent published years is 23.4 points. A historical year is missing, and the records do not explain the changes, so this article reports the latest published year without drawing a trend through the series.

The number that will follow him into the strategic plan

Center enrolled 588 students in 2025-26. That is the lowest count in the 12 school years Colorado has published, and 40 fewer than the 628 counted the year before. It is also the largest one-year drop in that record; the next largest is 33.

Over the full window, Center went from 649 students in 2014-15 to 588, a loss of 61 students, or 9.4%. Colorado's own enrollment fell 2.0% between the same two years, a smaller percentage decline than Center's. What the record cannot say is why the most recent year moved as much as it did, and one year is one year: the count went up 22 students immediately before it.

The five campuses the district reported in 2025-26 show where the students sit. Haskin Elementary held 283 of them, with the rest split among Skoglund Middle School, Center High School, a virtual academy, and a recovery program. By grade, the 10th was the largest at 59 students. Kindergarten had 33. That is a cross-section rather than a forecast, since families move in and out of a 588-student district in numbers that matter, but it is the staffing and scheduling arithmetic a new superintendent inherits.

A listening year, with a deadline attached

Dutton described a first year deliberately short on initiatives.

"I'm focused on just a couple of things my first year -- engage the community and school staff to build strong relationships, observe and understand how things are working academically and operationally and work with all stakeholder groups to develop a well-designed strategic plan for the next five years," he wrote. "We are in our final year of the current Ownership Plan, so I get the opportunity to engage as many groups as possible to understand the community's hopes and dreams for their school and students."

That is a listening year with a date on the end of it. He said the current Ownership Plan was in its final year, and the enrollment and language-services figures above are the conditions any replacement will have to be written against.

Dutton put the school's role in the community in broader terms than a plan document usually reaches.

"In a community like Center, the school has a responsibility that goes well beyond academics. We are educating students, but we are also helping strengthen the families and community that those students will eventually lead," he wrote. "The school is one of the places where different parts of our community come together. We have families who have been here for generations alongside newer families who have come to the valley to work in agriculture and other industries. The school can be a common ground where everyone has the success of our children as a shared interest."

Asked what outsiders get wrong, he did not claim the district has no difficulties.

"Of course, we have many students that struggle with academics and home life, but the camaraderie and family-like feel at school is awesome," he wrote. "The school board is all about doing what's best for kids. The community is safe and we've really been welcomed."

The enrollment records analyzed here end with last school year, 2025-26. They do not measure Center's enrollment under Dutton. A future count will sit next to 588 and the priorities of the plan he described.

Enrollment, English learner, and chronic absenteeism figures come from the Colorado Department of Education and cover school years ending 2015 through 2026. Dutton answered our questions in writing in August 2026 and supplied the photograph above.

Detailed code that reproduces the analysis and figures in this article is available exclusively to EdTribune subscribers.

Center 26 JT - EdTribune CO - Colorado Education Data

Ben Dutton Starts at Center 26 JT, Where Chronic Absence Fell to 18.3% While Colorado's Rose

A rural district was the point, not the compromise

The number that will follow him into the strategic plan

A listening year, with a deadline attached