Site Map | Archives

Home › Living › School City

New Albuquerque High principal finally has the job he's long sought

By Adriana Gómez Licón
Tuesday, August 14, 2007

Tim McCorkle pokes his head into an Albuquerque High School classroom to say hello to some of the football coaches (left) on his way to visit with students in the ROTC classroom (right). "I think for me the key is to be visible throughout the school," said McCorkle, the high school's new principal.

Photo by Michael J. GallegosTribune

Tribune

Tim McCorkle pokes his head into an Albuquerque High School classroom to say hello to some of the football coaches (left) on his way to visit with students in the ROTC classroom (right). "I think for me the key is to be visible throughout the school," said McCorkle, the high school's new principal.

Tim McCorkle takes a business call on one phone while he keeps his son on hold on the other in his office at Albuquerque High School. McCorkle, settling into his new role as principal on Aug. 14, likes to use different phones for family and work calls.

Photo by Michael J. GallegosTribune

Tribune

Tim McCorkle takes a business call on one phone while he keeps his son on hold on the other in his office at Albuquerque High School. McCorkle, settling into his new role as principal on Aug. 14, likes to use different phones for family and work calls.

Meet Albuquerque Public Schools stalwarts, along with new faces and places this year.

Aug. 9: A teacher's 30-year loyalty.

Aug. 10: The new military charter school.

Aug. 11: How to feed the masses.

Aug. 13: New high school, new library.

Aug. 14: Albuquerque High's new principal.

If Tim McCorkle could turn back the clock, he wouldn't change a thing.

"Let's just say that this is the right time," McCorkle said. "I'm not going to throw myself in the past. Right now, I'm the principal of Albuquerque High School, and I want to keep moving forward."

McCorkle, whose career arc within Albuquerque Public Schools seemed stalled after being passed over for principalships at two other high schools, finally has the job — and, perhaps, the place — he's spent years longing for and working toward.

Albuquerque High, the city's oldest high school, has been educating kids since 1879. And yet it offers a pioneering opportunity to McCorkle, the first black man to lead a high school in the city.

"He will be a positive role model," Harold Bailey, president of the Albuquerque branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said of McCorkle. "The decision is a little late, but I appreciate the superintendent for making it."

McCorkle, passed over for vacant principalships at West Mesa and Highland in the past three years, has taken pains to frame his disappointment outside a racial context. But others in Albuquerque's black community expressed deep disappointment, and the Albuquerque branch of the NAACP filed a third-party complaint claiming an unfair denial of promotion because of his race.

District Superintendent Beth Everitt denied the allegations but added that McCorkle's long career — he's been a teacher, coach and assistant principal — merit the opportunity at AHS.

McCorkle's first official day at the school was July 16, but he actually began weeks earlier —meeting teachers, staff members, students.

"I am trying to stay ahead of the game," he said.

The game at Albuquerque High is among the most unique in the city. Its diversity is as deep as its traditions. Included in AHS' 1,800 students are members of a growing immigrant community, plus a significant Hispanic and black population.

According to the district, of the 1,840 students registered for the 2006-07 school year, 69.3 percent were Hispanic, 19.1 percent were white, 5.5 percent were black, 4.5 percent were American Indian and 1.6 percent were Asian.

"With such diversity you can do a lot of things," said McCorkle, whose welcome-back-to-school newsletter was sent in both Spanish and English.

McCorkle, a Highland High graduate who spent a large chunk of his career at diverse West Mesa High, didn't have much idea any of this was to come when he graduated from the University of New Mexico in 1978 with a bachelor's degree in journalism.

After leaving UNM, McCorkle said he had to choose between print journalism, broadcast journalism or education. He chose education and never looked back.

McCorkle spent has spent 29 years in education, including 21 years at West Mesa as a teacher, baseball coach, summer school principal, dean of students, athletics director and assistant principal After leaving West Mesa in 2004, he worked as the assistant principal at Sandia High.

His background, said a former colleague, is just right for the Albuquerque High job.

"He has been preparing himself for quite some time," said former West Mesa Principal Milton Baca. "There isn't any position at high school level that he hasn't been given the responsibility to be involved in."

McCorkle says his background gives him "confidence" as he begins his new job. Baca picked McCorkle for several leadership positions at West Mesa High School, which provided McCorkle with many of the management skills he now is ready to use as a principal.

McCorkle, whose brother and sister attended Albuquerque High in the 1980s, lives the job even when he goes home: his wife, Anndra, teaches at Lavaland Elementary School. They have three children. Their daughter Stephanie, will attend AHS.

"He is strict, but he gets the job done," Stephanie said. "He always has a smile in his face when he goes to work."

No matter where he's been, the affable McCorkle says his love for education stems from the people within it — kids, teachers, parents.

"You have to have that passion to be in this business," he said.

To McCorkle, passion equates to visibility. At almost every stop in his career, he's been a presence in the hallways, in the gym, in the offices, on the grounds.

That, he says, is what Albuquerque High's Bulldogs — present and future — can expect: a man who's always around.

A man who has a sense of time, but who's never looking at his watch.