{"id":21790,"date":"2025-06-18T00:55:39","date_gmt":"2025-06-18T00:55:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/montezuma-cortez-high-school-honors-student-teacher-of-the-year-for-2025\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T04:09:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:09:08","slug":"montezuma-cortez-high-school-honors-student-teacher-of-the-year-for-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/montezuma-cortez-high-school-honors-student-teacher-of-the-year-for-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"Montezuma-Cortez High School honors student, teacher of the year for 2025"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><figure class=\"wp-block-image naviga-inline-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=a506378d-73f5-5421-b304-e995203d5769&amp;function=cover&amp;type=preview&amp;source=false&amp;width=2000\" width=\"1600\" height=\"891\" alt=\"Shawn McAllister was named Montezuma-Cortez High School student of the year for 2024-25. The newly graduated student was involved in choir and theater. McCallister (middle) is seen performing in a high school play in 2022. Lindi New was named teacher of the year. (File photo)\" class=\"naviga-image\" loading=\"lazy\"><figcaption><span class=\"caption\">Shawn McAllister was named Montezuma-Cortez High School student of the year for 2024-25. The newly graduated student was involved in choir and theater. McCallister (middle) is seen performing in a high school play in 2022. Lindi New was named teacher of the year. (File photo)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n<p>Montezuma-Cortez High School has announced that Shawn McAllister was named student of the year and Lindi New, teacher of the year.<\/p>\n<p>Shawn McAllister, a senior from the Class of 2025, earned the honor through his \u201cexceptional\u201d academic record and school involvement. McAllister graduated in June with a GPA above 4.0 and a nearly perfect SAT score. Additionally, McAllister excelled in advanced coursework and concurrent enrollment college classes.<\/p>\n<p>His talents was also noted in theater arts and choir, and he has received multiple scholarships.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAbove all, he is known for his kindness, respect for others and commitment to excellence, qualities that embody the true spirit of a Montezuma-Cortez Panther,\u201d the district said.<\/p>\n<p>Lindi New, a science teacher, was named teacher of the year for her passion and impact. New leads hands-on lab experiments and supports student-led forensics projects. Her commitment extends beyond regular hours, as she assists students with exam preparation and makeup work during lunch and after school.<\/p>\n<p>The district also shared that she mentors new teachers and contributes to curriculum development in an effort to elevate science education at the school.<\/p>\n<p>The recognition highlights her influence on the MCHS community, and the district shared that her innovative teaching methods inspire students and fosters a love of learning science.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHer dedication, leadership and positive spirit make this honor not only well deserved, but a reflection of the profound impact she has on our school community,\u201d the district said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>district recently selected teacher and student<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21791,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[21,155,28,60,36,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-21790","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-cortez","tag-education","tag-headlines","tag-montezuma-county","tag-montezuma-cortez-high-school","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21790","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21790"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21790\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77461,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21790\/revisions\/77461"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21791"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21790"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21790"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21790"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=21790"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}