{"id":21873,"date":"2025-06-11T20:02:23","date_gmt":"2025-06-12T02:02:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/montezuma-cortez-school-district-shares-information-about-new-executive-director-of-student-academic-services\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T22:10:17","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:10:17","slug":"montezuma-cortez-school-district-shares-information-about-new-executive-director-of-student-acade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/montezuma-cortez-school-district-shares-information-about-new-executive-director-of-student-acade\/","title":{"rendered":"Montezuma-Cortez School District shares information about new executive director of student academic services"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><figure class=\"wp-block-image naviga-inline-image naviga-align-left alignleft\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/imengine.public.prod.dur.navigacloud.com\/?uuid=0517635f-796e-4ec8-be20-600109234d77&amp;function=cover&amp;type=preview&amp;source=false&amp;width=2000\" width=\"926\" height=\"1046\" alt=\"Justin Schmitt, currently the secondary dean for the Dolores School District Re-4A, has been hired as principal of the secondary school, as long as he is not found guilty of anything more than a misdemeanor in a California lawsuit he has been named as a defendant.\" class=\"naviga-image\" loading=\"lazy\"><figcaption><span class=\"caption\">Justin Schmitt, currently the secondary dean for the Dolores School District Re-4A, has been hired as principal of the secondary school, as long as he is not found guilty of anything more than a misdemeanor in a California lawsuit he has been named as a defendant.<\/span><span class=\"credit\">The Journal file<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n<p>The Montezuma-Cortez School District unveiled a staff adjustment via email on Tuesday, sharing that Director of Human Resources Justin Schmitt is being reassigned to the position of executive director of academic services position. This position was formerly held by Jim Parr.<\/p>\n<p>The district didn\u2019t address why this change was being made in their letter, instead sharing that Parr would stay on to help with the transition through August of 2025. The district also wished him the best on his \u201cfuture endeavors.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The board cited Schmitt\u2019s expertise in curriculum and instruction, adding that he would help drive the district\u2019s instructional goals and support the strategic plan.<\/p>\n<p>The current human resources role will be restructured as a generalist of human resources position, and applications are open.<\/p>\n<p>Multiple departments will be also be realigned under current executive directors, and the assistant superintendent \u201cwith an eye toward maximizing internal expertise and maintaining continuity of services.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>With district-level staffing at 8%, below the state\u2019s 10% average, Montezuma-Cortez maintains a \u201cleaner\u201d central office.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe will continue to evaluate and adjust staffing based on enrollment trends, revenue outlooks and the strategic priorities set forth by the board,\u201d the letter said.<\/p>\n<p>A revised strategic plan for the district is also in the works.<\/p>\n<p><em id=\"emphasis-b4c151a085099365953c4a3f04e68130\">The<\/em> <em id=\"emphasis-695bf7b632fdda3ab88839e8c9a0ee65\">Journal<\/em> is awaiting a response from Superintendent Tom Burris and Schmitt regarding another potential reassignment taking place in the district.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Schmitt is being reassigned to the role<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21874,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[21,60,216,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-21873","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-cortez","tag-montezuma-county","tag-montezuma-cortez-school-district-re-1","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21873","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=21873"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21873\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77494,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21873\/revisions\/77494"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21874"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21873"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21873"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21873"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=21873"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}