Moffat County High School Bets on Critical Thinking Over Energy Jobs

Steamboat Springs —Will Moffat County High School survive the economic shift? That is the question locals have been asking since the energy sector began its long retreat.

Carly Morris, who has led the school for nearly three months, says yes. But she argues that survival depends on a fundamental shift in how the district prepares its students for a labor market that no longer looks like it did ten years ago.

Morris, a Bellingham native who spent time teaching in Sudan, Uganda, Pakistan, and Alaska before landing in Craig, didn’t come here for the big-city energy boom. She came because she believes smaller environments allow kids to be known.

"I think we’re supposed to be connected to people," Morris told the Craig Daily Press. "We forget that sometimes. Massive cities can only be healthy if they have internal communities where they’re connected to people."

To hear her tell it, the school isn’t just a building; it’s the on-ramp to the rest of the county.

"I don’t see my role as just the inside of the school," she said. "I understand how kids are about to graduate and join the community. I understand that we prepare students for what the community needs and that these kids are the future of Moffat County."

That philosophy hits a nerve in a county where the definition of "future" is currently being rewritten. For decades, the path was clear: drill, refine, or support the infrastructure that does both. Now, with that engine sputtering, Morris is betting on a different kind of fuel: critical thinking.

The question is whether a high school curriculum can pivot fast enough to match the economy. Morris says it has to be more than workforce prep. She wants students who can hold a question open in their mind without rushing to answer it.

"I am a proponent of literacy and of analytical thinking and careful analysis and perspective taking," she said. "Developing and refining these skills in high school students may allow them to drastically change the lives of the people around you depending on the things that you learn and work at….including people you haven’t even met yet."

It’s a broader bet than simply teaching kids to operate pumps or weld pipes. It’s about adaptability.

But there is a practical hurdle in that vision: the gap between having information and understanding it. Morris points to a specific failure point she sees in classrooms across the county — the erosion of foundational skills due to an over-reliance on technology.

"When getting into algebra, kids can’t do it because they don’t know their math facts," she said.

She expressed similar concerns about reading, noting a movement away from engaging with entire books in favor of short passages. With information at their fingertips, Morris argues students need to push past the surface level to become mastery learners. The math holds up only if you have the base knowledge to work with; otherwise, you’re just searching.

The competitive landscape for these students is also changing. They aren’t just competing with other high schoolers; they’re competing with the algorithm that gives them an answer in two seconds. Morris’s goal is to ensure they can do more than just retrieve data.

For now, the administration is focused on building that foundation while keeping an eye on the community’s needs. The transition won’t be seamless, and it won’t happen overnight. But Morris is betting that a community this tight can weather the shift if its students are equipped to think, not just react.

"I understand that we prepare students for what the community needs," Morris said. "And these kids are the future of Moffat County."