{"id":26367,"date":"2024-07-31T19:14:33","date_gmt":"2024-08-01T01:14:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/dolores-school-district-preps-for-school-year-with-new-high-school-principal-and-sports-website\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T23:38:38","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T05:38:38","slug":"dolores-school-district-preps-for-school-year-with-new-high-school-principal-and-sports-website","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/dolores-school-district-preps-for-school-year-with-new-high-school-principal-and-sports-website\/","title":{"rendered":"Dolores school district preps for school year with new high school principal and sports website"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Dolores
Dolores head coach Gina Hollen discusses strategy during a timeout in a tournament at Gunnison High School. Ben Bradley\/Special to The Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

The Dolores RE-4A school district has announced a new high school principal, a sports website and a new roster of classes as it prepares for the 2024-25 school year.<\/p>\n

New high school principal<\/strong><\/div>\n

The Dolores High School is being led into the new year by Principal Matt Walker, who will replace former Principal Justin Schmitt. According to information provided by the high school, Walker has worked in education for 18 years. He started his career in Farmersville, Texas, then worked as a teacher, coach and administrator in Dallas. He also worked in administration in Plano, Texas.<\/p>\n

He also worked as interim principal at Dolores Elementary School.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy passion for education was inspired by the many fantastic teachers I had growing up, as well as my parents and grandparents, who have over 115 years of experience in public education,\u201d Walker said.<\/p>\n

\"Matt
Matt Walker<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Walker obtained his master\u2019s degree in curriculum and instruction and an educational administrative certification at Sam Houston State University. At Sam Houston State, Walker also worked as a member of the coaching staff.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am the proud father of a large blended family of six,\u201d Walker said.<\/p>\n

Walker\u2019s wife, Cheri, has had family ties in Dolores for over 100 years, \u201cincluding a great aunt who taught at Dolores Elementary School for over 30 years.\u201d<\/p>\n

In an announcement to the Dolores community, interim superintendent Alesa Reed said Walker has demonstrated his commitment to a \u201cpositive learning environment, nurturing student success and promoting a culture of inclusivity and innovation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are confident that his leadership will inspire and empower all of us to reach new heights of achievement,\u201d Reed said. \u201cYour support and collaboration are crucial as he assumes his role as principal on July 29th. We look forward to working together under his guidance, reaffirming our commitment to providing our students with a world-class education.\u201d<\/p>\n

Orientation and open house<\/strong><\/div>\n

Freshman orientation is Aug. 7 from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m., and a back-to-school night and open house for elementary, middle school and high school students and parents is Aug. 8 from noon to 6 p.m.<\/p>\n

At the open house, students can meet their teachers, receive their schedules and sign up for clubs.<\/p>\n

New sports website <\/strong><\/div>\n

The district recently launched a website dedicated to Dolores Bears athletics and activities.<\/p>\n

This new website<\/a>, www.doloresbears.com, \u201cserves as the central hub\u201d for Dolores sports, including athlete registrations, schedules and news, \u201cmaking it easier than ever for students, parents and fans to stay updated and get involved.\u201d<\/p>\n

The website serves as a \u201cone-stop shop,\u201d helping streamline athlete registrations and allowing students to sign up for their choice of sports such as football, volleyball and cross-country, and extracurricular activities such as knowledge bowl and debate.<\/p>\n

Schedules for practices, games and competitions will be available on the website.<\/p>\n

And parents can download a new app that helps them fill out forms with ease. The app can be accessed on www.doloresbears.com\u2019s athletic registration page.<\/p>\n

School supplies lists <\/strong><\/div>\n

Parents can access online<\/a> lists art www.doloresschools.org to learn what their student needs to be successful at school.<\/p>\n

New and returning courses<\/strong><\/div>\n

This year, a number of returning courses will be available for students as well as a roster of new classes. These new courses include journalism, psychology, Drawing 1 and 2, college Spanish, intro to CAD and digital fabrication, ag leadership, Art 2, Woodworking Technology I and advanced furniture and cabinet making.<\/p>\n

Hiring<\/strong><\/div>\n

The district also announced on Facebook that they are searching for a part-time cafeteria cook to work Monday\u2019s through Thursday\u2019s from 8 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.<\/p>\n

Interested individuals can submit their application or express their interest to hr@dolores.k12.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Teachers will come back to school Aug. 5, and students will be welcomed back for their first day of school Aug. 12.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

principal replaces former principal Justin Schmitt<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26368,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[44,103,155,28,60,29,346],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-26367","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-dolores","tag-dolores-schools-re-4a","tag-education","tag-headlines","tag-montezuma-county","tag-newsletter","tag-sports"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26367","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=26367"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26367\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":79327,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26367\/revisions\/79327"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26368"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26367"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=26367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}