{"id":54177,"date":"2013-04-12T00:56:06","date_gmt":"2013-04-12T06:56:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/praise-for-haukeness\/"},"modified":"2026-03-29T16:17:24","modified_gmt":"2026-03-29T16:17:24","slug":"praise-for-haukeness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/praise-for-haukeness\/","title":{"rendered":"Praise for Haukeness"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Haukeness\"
Haukeness<\/span>du1-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Jamie Haukeness, principal at Cortez Middle School, is a humble man. He isn\u2019t one to seek out accolades, but this time, they found him.<\/p>\n

Haukeness was one of four finalists for the Colorado Association of School Executives\u2019s \u201cMiddle Level Principal of the Year\u201d award. Ultimately, he came up short \u2013 Matt Buchler of Longs Peak Middle School emerged the winner \u2013 but Alex Carter, superintendent of Montezuma-Cortez School District Re-1, was nonetheless delighted by the top-four finish.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were four amazing choices, each one deserving. Three of them didn\u2019t get the nod,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Every year CASE doles out awards to principals and other administrators who excel in their work. Most are nominated by someone within their own districts. They must then submit student achievement data, a six-page essay and four recommendation letters \u2013 one each from the superintendent, a fellow principal, teacher and parent. Picked out from a larger pack of nominees, the four finalists traveled to Denver last Friday for in-person interviews with CASE.<\/p>\n

True to form, Haukeness deflected kudos to his staff.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel honored and proud of what the school has done,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m most proud of our faculty. They work incredibly hard. They\u2019re dedicated professionals. I believe they reach out to every single student in their classrooms.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carter described Haukeness as a team-oriented leader and positive role model who easily strikes up rapport with teachers and students.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe is very conscious of establishing a safe learning environment for kids \u2013 emotional and physical,\u201d Carter said. \u201cRight now, if I had to identify a high performing (Re-1) school, in every category, it\u2019d be CMS, and I put much of the credit on Jamie\u2019s shoulders.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carter also called Haukeness a trailblazer. Last fall, Re-1 launched a district-wide policy of weekly collaborative meetings between teachers, called SEED teams. The policy is popular among teachers, but it\u2019s old news at CMS \u2013 Haukeness integrated it about five years ago.<\/p>\n

Carter said Haukeness\u2019s quiet enthusiasm trickles down to his students, boosting their grades and overall passion for learning. CMS routinely has the highest growth rates in the district for reading, writing and math.<\/p>\n

Carter recalled a recent assembly where Haukeness called to the gymnasium floor students who had improved their test scores from the previous year. When all was said and done, the students on the floor far outnumbered those in the seats.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd the rest were cheering them on,\u201d Carter said. \u201cI\u2019ve been to a dozen middle school pep rallies and I haven\u2019t seen students this well-behaved and participatory. Jamie has instilled a culture that builds these healthy (traits).\u201d<\/p>\n

The results at CMS are all the more impressive, he added, given the social drama and jarring hormonal changes that define middle school life.<\/p>\n

\u201cI firmly believe it\u2019s the toughest age,\u201d Haukeness said. \u201cIt\u2019s the time kids are changing the most. They face so many issues that challenge them, which is why we try to make (CMS) a positive place to be.\u201d<\/p>\n

The nomination was \u201can honor,\u201d but Haukeness isn\u2019t resting on his laurels: \u201cOur jobs (as educators) are never complete. They\u2019re never done. Every year we start anew.\u201d<\/p>\n

lukeg@cortezjournal.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

principal lauded for ingenuity, student performance<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":54178,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[640,147,13,216],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-54177","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-award-and-prize","tag-cortez-middle-school","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-montezuma-cortez-school-district-re-1"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54177","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=54177"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54177\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":63253,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54177\/revisions\/63253"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54178"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54177"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=54177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}