{"id":22109,"date":"2025-05-25T21:51:09","date_gmt":"2025-05-26T03:51:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/longtime-montezuma-cortez-choir-teacher-bids-farewell\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T22:11:48","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T04:11:48","slug":"longtime-montezuma-cortez-choir-teacher-bids-farewell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/longtime-montezuma-cortez-choir-teacher-bids-farewell\/","title":{"rendered":"Longtime Montezuma-Cortez choir teacher bids farewell"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Montezuma-Cortez
Montezuma-Cortez High School Chamber Choir performing at MCHS Senior Appreciation Choral Concert with Marla Sitton Directing on May 13. (Aaron Lewis\/Special to The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

This past school year was Marla Sitton\u2019s last at Montezuma-Cortez high and middle schools, where she\u2019s been the choir teacher for the past 30 years.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was the only place I ever applied,\u201d Sitton said. \u201cIt was the luck of the draw, I guess.\u201d<\/p>\n

As she looked back on the years, she remembered how she had taken the choir to Colorado Springs, Denver and Salt Lake City. In her time there, she guessed 40 high school students and another 45 middle schoolers made it to the Colorado All-State Choir.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve had a really great career,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s been so rewarding.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yet, funnily enough, \u201cI never wanted to be a teacher,\u201d Sitton laughed.<\/p>\n

\u201cI loved performing arts,\u201d she explained, but her mom refused to let her pursue just that at college. She pushed her to study education, too.<\/p>\n

So she did, and ended up loving it.<\/p>\n

She remembered student teaching with Gary and Marci Hall and Bennie Rawson, and how \u201cI learned so much from them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll really miss my kids,\u201d she said, of her students. \u201cThat\u2019s what I call them, my kids.\u201d<\/p>\n

In speaking with a few of her students, it was clear that kind of close relationship was reciprocated.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s motherly almost, another mom,\u201d said Xander Bennetts, a recent graduate of M-CHS. \u201cShe really cares about us. She asks personal questions, worries about us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Amita Crowley, a high schooler who has had Sitton since middle school, said, \u201cShe\u2019s basically a second mom to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Crowley said that Sitton always reaches out after a golf tournament and asks how she played.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s always there,\u201d Crowley said. \u201cShe taught me to stand up for myself and that I\u2019m enough. She\u2019s made me a much better person.\u201d<\/p>\n

Outside of music \u2013 which \u201cdoesn\u2019t have to stop when they graduate\u201d \u2013 Sitton said she hopes her students not only had a great experience in her class, but learned to be decent to one another.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou don\u2019t have to be friends, but you do have to be decent,\u201d she said. \u201cI try to be kind, consistent and stable. I hope they learned that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d always tell them to be kind and loving, and they\u2019d say \u2018kind of <\/em>loving,\u2019\u201d Sitton laughed.<\/p>\n

Carter Tanner, a recent M-CHS graduate who was in Sitton\u2019s class for seven years, said, \u201cYou can tell she cares and loves and wants what\u2019s best for each and every one of us.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s created a caring space,\u201d Tanner said. \u201cWe all know each other, which is crazy for a class of 40.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sitton said that her final concert at the high school on Tuesday, May 13, was memorable and a bit longer than she anticipated.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were a few surprises,\u201d she said. \u201cMy daughters and husband Bobby put together a slideshow, and several students made videos and put them in there.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Marla
Marla Sitton and Amita Crowley singing \u201cYou\u2019ll be back\u201d by Lynn Manuel Miranda at MCHS Senior Appreciation Choral Concert. (Aaron Lewis\/Special to The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Plus, she performed a duet with Crowley, which was \u201cso fun and meaningful,\u201d especially since \u201cI don\u2019t perform often.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yet, it wasn\u2019t her first performance.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe and Bobby sang at my wedding,\u201d said Andy Bennetts, Xander\u2019s dad who also had Sitton as a teacher. \u201cThe Mesa Choir did too, and she directed it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Marla
Marla and Bobby Sitton performing at Andy Bennett\u2019s wedding. (Courtesy photo)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Marla
Marla Sitton (right) directing the Mesa Elementary choir at Andy Bennett\u2019s wedding. (Courtesy photo)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Andy said they stayed connected over the years, and when he started teaching music at Mesa Elementary, he \u201cleaned on her a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s got a big heart, and lifts people up that other people maybe overlook, or that don\u2019t fit in anywhere else. They feel part of her choir,\u201d Andy said. \u201cAnd years later, they\u2019re still part of her family.\u201d<\/p>\n

Xander added that, \u201cWhat she\u2019s built here is so special, and she should still come to choir concerts and stay plugged in.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just so grateful for all she\u2019s done for me and the other kids,\u201d he said. \u201cShe\u2019s helped us find our voice.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"This
This year marked a monumental commencement ceremony for choir teacher Marla Sitton, who is retiring after 30 years of teaching. (Erika Alvero\/Special to The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cShe\u2019s an amazing teacher,\u201d Crowley said. \u201cMy voice has matured so much with her teaching me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sitton said that when she first told her students her plans to retire, \u201cthere was a lot of tears.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI jokingly told them, \u2018I\u2019m not dead. I\u2019m still going to be in the area.\u2019 A lot of them laughed,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019ll still talk with them and run into them around town.\u201d<\/p>\n

She thanked her family for being so supportive, all the parents and students over the years, Angela Gabardi, the middle school drama teacher who \u201cI wouldn\u2019t be half the teacher I am without her support,\u201d and Rodney Ritthaler and Andrew Campo \u201cfor all their years of support and confidence and friendship.\u201d<\/p>\n

In retirement, Sitton plans to \u201crelax\u201d and be a grandparent.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a good time to be done,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd I\u2019m still going to be in the area.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Marla
Marla Sitton receives flowers after directing the Montezuma-Cortez High School Chamber Choir during the Senior Appreciation Choral Concert on May 13. (Aaron Lewis\/Special to The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Students remember her contribution and impact over the years<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22110,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[21,28,36,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-22109","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-cortez","tag-headlines","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\/22109","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=22109"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22109\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":77579,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22109\/revisions\/77579"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22110"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22109"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=22109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}