New assistant principal Michael Christoff takes charge at TJ.
Photo by Mia Nogueira
Because of a grant given to TJ for an extra administrative position, this September TJ is welcoming a new faculty member, Michael Christoff, who will be taking on Lani Nobles’ prior position as assistant principal.
Christoff says he is looking forward to moving up from his teaching position in Morey to becoming an administrator at TJ. “When I met with Mrs. Just over the summer, I came away very impressed with all of the work that the teachers and kids had done over the course of the past year, and I knew that I would be a great fit here,” said Christoff.
Nobles became the Athletic Director because TJ received a grant that allowed for a new office position, thus a position for assistant principal opened up. Principal Just, along with other administrators, wanted to have someone who will be reliable and capable of filling the big responsibility for the position. “When I learned that the position at TJ was going to be open, I asked my friends around the DPS what they knew about TJ, and they all had nothing but great things to say about the students, staff, administration, and traditions. I then conducted some research examining the CSAP scores, ACT scores, and School Performance Framework results. I found that TJ was doing a great job in some areas, but there was still some room to grow,” said Christoff, who is qualified for the job with his prior education, teaching experience and excitement to work at TJ.
Every teacher and administrator at TJ has set goals for themselves and their students, and Christoff is no different. “My goals for TJ are to support the great work that was done last year by the students and the staff, to learn as much as I can from the great staff here, and to provide guidance and leadership in improving the quality of instruction in the classroom. I believe that we can all learn something from each other and that there is always room to grow,” said Christoff.
Christoff is not new to getting involved with the community and students and building relationships. “Developing and fostering relationships with the many kids and adults that I have worked with over the years is probably what I value most in teaching. I look forward to continuing to develop new relationships by attending many after school activities and being as visible as I can throughout the school. I look forward to listening and learning from the TJ community,” said Christoff who has already attended TJ events such as the Jamaican Jam, and supported the football team in their first match against Columbine.
Christoff is from Youngstown, Ohio, and is a big fan of Cleveland sports. “I moved to Denver in August of 2001, because at the time I really wanted to get out of the town I grew up in. I grew up there and went to college there; I wanted to go somewhere and do something different. A lot of the people where I come from never leave Youngstown, and I knew that wasn’t for me,” said Christoff who, wasn’t sure where he wanted to go until a good friend of his told him about a job fair that was happening in Greely.
“[My friend] had spent a lot of time here [in Vail] when he was growing up on vacations learning how to ski. He really wanted to move to Denver, and I really wanted to get out of Youngstown; it was meant to be!” said Christoff, who took a couple of days off his work and came to Colorado to look for a job. “The job fair yielded offers from all over Colorado as well as from Arizona and Kansas. We both knew that we wanted to work in an urban setting so we chose Denver. Both of us landed jobs at Lake Middle School.”
Christoff is ready to start working at TJ and is excited to get into the high school atmosphere. “I have spent the past nine years as a teacher and math coach at the middle school level. As much as I loved working in middle schools, I wanted to broaden myself by working in a high school. I hope that I take what I’ve learned from working with some great teachers at the middle school level and transfer some of that to the high school level,” said Christoff, who is planning to make history at TJ and stay here for as long as possible to change TJ for the better. “I believe that in Denver, our high schools do some great things, and that we need to do a better job in a lot of other areas,” he said.
