Charter School Evolves Under New Leadership

By Misty Cryer

The Jefferson Montessori Academy (JMA) is an established local charter school that serves students from kindergarten through 12th grade. The 2025-2026 school year has been filled with news. The new Head Administrator of the school, Dr. Katie Appling, provided an update.

When asked about changes since she took the lead, Appling said, “I’m a little ambitious.” Starting the update with exciting news, she said, “We were awarded by Google, Best School for 2025.”

Through discussions with parents, Appling said she started bringing back some things that used to be part of JMA long ago but disappeared somewhere along the way.

“We brought back the spelling bee this year. I have a young lady who will be participating in the regional spelling bee at the beginning of March,” she said.

“We brought the science fair back,” said Appling. “We have several students actually going to state-level competition with the science fair,” she said.

Appling said, “We are always changing things up,” when sharing the “first ever” additions and potential enhancements for the future.

“We are publishing our first schoolbook of poetry,” said Appling. “All of the students are writing poems and going through a submission process,” she said.

“We’re doing our first-ever robotics competition with a robotics group through the state, and we are testing our waters to see if FFA might be something we bring in in the future,” said Appling.

JMA now has an esports team. “That has been a pretty cool addition this year,” said Appling. “It is actually competitive video gaming,” she said.

For the esports team, Appling said they go through the New Mexico Athletic Association (NMAA). The students competitively play against other high school teams across the state. She said colleges have been reaching out to some of the seniors about potential scholarships based on their performance in the competitions.

The school has art and STEM, said Appling. “We’re hoping next year to maybe test the waters with a theater or drama program,” she said.

Covering the basics of the charter school, Appling said, “Our elementary is considered Montessori learning.” When the students get to secondary level, she said, that translates into project-based learning.

These terms basically mean that the students learn by doing, said Appling.

With perfect design, she said, the students rarely open a textbook. “They learn more by doing and experiencing to get the answers to the questions that their teachers give them,” she said.

“Our classrooms tend to look like chaos in motion, but it is chaos with a structure,” said Appling.

New staff members at JMA this school year include Caleb Nichols, who teaches first and second grade; Diana Resendiz, who teaches secondary language arts; and Cheyenne Owen, who teaches secondary social studies. “I am thrilled with all three of them,” said Appling. “They have become fabulous parts of our team.”

Enrollment for the 2026-2027 school year is expected to start soon with the lottery process, said Appling. The announcement will go out on the school’s webpage, she said.

Appling said she has been in education, in various capacities, for about 10 years, which included teaching secondary social studies. “I was part of the group with the state that rewrote all the social studies standards a few years ago. I wrote benchmark tests for secondary social studies,” she said.

A couple of years ago, while she was living in California, Appling said her father passed away, and her mom was having health issues that led to her decision to come back to Carlsbad. “This is home. I graduated high school here, started college here, all that kind of jazz,” she said.

“I was hired on by JMA as a secondary social studies teacher. Because I had an admin license, I was also given the job of discipline, so when teachers had referrals for student behaviors, they would see me,” said Appling. “The only time then they would go to the office is if it got to the point where it would have to be a suspension-level issue,” she said.

Last year, Appling said the Head Administrator at JMA had some family medical issues and had to go on medical leave. At that time, while still teaching some, Appling said she filled in as the Administrator prior to officially taking the position.

Describing the role of a Head Administrator, Appling said that in a charter school, it is a unique position. “You become the everything—you’re the superintendent, you’re the principal, you’re the dean of students, the registrar—it kind of encompasses everything for the building,” she said.