Last week, the St. Vrain Valley School District (SVVSD) announced that ToniJo Niccoli, principal of Longmont’s New Meridian High School and the Career Elevation and Technology Center (CETC), was selected as the 2026 Colorado High School Principal of the Year by the Colorado Association of Secondary School Principals (CASSP), a department of the Colorado Association of School Executives (CASE). According to CASE, as the Colorado award winner, Niccoli will represent the state in the National Association of Secondary School Principals (NASSP) Principal of the Year award consideration.
CASE said in a press release that under Niccoli’s leadership, the on-time student graduation rate has risen from 12.5% to nearly 90%, the dropout rate has decreased from over 25% to below 3%, and students now graduate with college credits and industry certifications. New Meridian High School shares a campus with the CETC, which offers eight program pathways for career and college readiness.
Niccoli has redesigned a “master schedule to embed credit recovery and intervention” and created a free summer school program serving 30% of students, CASE said. In collaboration with a team of teachers, Niccoli successfully developed and launched “Operation Graduation,” an initiative that pairs every student with a personal graduation coach…