{"id":39340,"date":"2022-07-21T22:12:30","date_gmt":"2022-07-22T04:12:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/montezuma-cortez-high-school-gets-new-principal\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T02:49:34","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T08:49:34","slug":"montezuma-cortez-high-school-gets-new-principal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/montezuma-cortez-high-school-gets-new-principal\/","title":{"rendered":"Montezuma-Cortez High School gets new principal"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Thomas
Thomas Graves, new principal at Montezuma-Cortez High School. (Courtesy photo)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

Thomas Graves, who will replace Eric Chandler as Montezuma-Cortez High School principal this fall, touted his commitment to \u201ccompassionate accountability\u201d during his introduction to the Re-1 Board of Education.<\/p>\n

Chandler stepped down from the post at the end of the past school year.<\/p>\n

\u201cHere\u2019s what I can guarantee,\u201d Graves told the board. \u201cOur focus \u2013 not just mine, but the district and the staff \u2013 discipline, responsibility, hard work, no excuses. In everything we do.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added that some people thought he was \u201ccrazy\u201d and perhaps they were right, but he would counter that he was \u201ccrazy like a fox.\u201d<\/p>\n

Graves was selected for the job last week, and his first official day was July 18, according to Re-1 Superintendent Tom Burris. Graves and his family are in the process of moving from Virginia to Colorado.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m really enthusiastic about him,\u201d Burris told The Journal.<\/em><\/p>\n

Before coming to Cortez, Graves worked as a principal in New Mexico\u2019s Espa\u00f1ola School District<\/a> and as an educational consultant for schools across the nation. He served in administrative positions at districts in Virginia, Montana, Wyoming, Florida and Alabama, according to his resume. He also worked as a criminal investigator in Alabama.<\/p>\n

\u201cBasically I\u2019ve been doing the school turnaround thing all over the country,\u201d Graves told The Journal.<\/em><\/p>\n

Graves ran track at Auburn University as a five-time NCAA All-American athlete and qualified for the 1980 Olympic trials in the 5,000 meters. He holds a doctorate in educational foundations, leadership and technology and master\u2019s degrees in educational administration, counseling psychology, and secondary education (science), all from Auburn University.<\/p>\n

At the July 18 school board meeting, Graves emphasized that he would prioritize bell-to-bell teaching and overall consistency in discipline and academic performance throughout all classrooms.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you\u2019re incredibly consistent with kids and teachers, you\u2019d be amazed at how they rise to the level of expectation,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd I\u2019m telling you, we\u2019re going to be teaching bell to bell, we\u2019re hard-driving, we\u2019re compassionate. We\u2019re going to do everything we can to help kids, but here\u2019s what we\u2019re not going to do: We\u2019re not going to give away diplomas, we\u2019re not going to give away grades. We\u2019re going to support students, and they\u2019re going to earn those things.\u201d<\/p>\n

Specifically, Graves detailed his three-strike tardiness policy, with a student\u2019s third strike equating to a 6 a.m. meeting including himself, the student and the student\u2019s parents.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t like to suspend students,\u201d Graves said. \u201cI don\u2019t like to expel students. It\u2019s the worst thing you can do for them. But I\u2019m going to hold them accountable in a compassionate way.\u201d<\/p>\n

He noted that tardiness was one of the leading causes of employees getting fired, and that it was important to set proper standards in high school before students entered the workforce or moved on to their next steps in education.<\/p>\n

Graves invited all community, board, and staff members to visit the high school at any time.<\/p>\n

\u201cCortez is a wonderful town, I\u2019m super-excited,\u201d he told The Journal<\/em>. \u201cMy family used to be here, and now we\u2019re really looking forward to working at one of the obviously best facilities in the state, in terms of the high school. And we\u2019re looking forward to working with the great staff and making it one of the best-performing high schools in the state.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

taking over at the helm<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":39341,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,36,216,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-39340","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-montezuma-cortez-high-school","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\/39340","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=39340"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39340\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":84301,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39340\/revisions\/84301"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39341"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39340"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39340"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39340"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=39340"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}