James Carrick has taken over as the new vice principal of Fountain Hills High School.

With former high school Dean of Students Michael Briguglio exiting the district at the close of the 2016-17 academic year, the vice principal position was created to handle those duties as well as help implement various new programs across the campus.

Carrick said it is a position he is excited to step into.

Carrick said he grew up on a cattle ranch by Horseshoe Lake in Cave Creek. After high school, he hit the road to the University of Arizona to work on his undergraduate degree.

“Then I did some school in San Diego, ASU West, UoP (University of Phoenix) and Grand Canyon University,” Carrick said. “I got my Master’s from UoP and my post-baccalaureate in education from ASU West.”

Carrick said his career plans were very different when starting out.

“Originally I was going to be a lawyer,” he said. “As I was going through school, during my second year of college at U of A, I joined the Army National Guard during Desert Shield. I served in the 1st of the 285th down in Marana for eight years (1991-1999) and fixed helicopters, which was kind of cool.”

Returning to education, Carrick said he eventually realized he wanted to become a teacher, eventually doing exactly that back in Cave Creek.

“As I worked through some of the [law] classes, I realized that wasn’t what I wanted to do for a living,” he continued. “I decided I’d rather go work toward preventing students from ever getting to that point and help them find a better path.”

In Cave Creek for 19 years, Carrick said he taught a variety of subjects from sixth grade on up to 12th.

“I taught English, social studies, science, P.E., dual-enrollment, credit retrieval, American government, U.S. history; a little bit of everything.”

Last school year was Carrick’s first in administration, serving as the Dean of Students at Paradise Valley High School. That was a teacher on assignment position and Carrick said he had his eye out for a full-time administrative position. When the spot for VP of Fountain Hills High School popped up, he applied.

Carrick said he’s enjoyed his job for the past two decades because it is always changing. He liked to tackle the most challenging schedules, including teaching multiple subjects across multiple grades in a single school year.

“I also like to mentor new teachers and help the more veteran teachers to refine policy and procedures and help them figure out better ways to do some of the things they are doing,” Carrick continued.

Growing up in Cave Creek, Carrick said Fountain Hills reminds him of his hometown before it expanded a bit. He liked the idea of working in a smaller town where everybody knows each other.

“I also liked the chance to work in a school where you can get to know all of the students, as opposed to having 2,000 students,” he added. “That was incredibly appealing.”

Moving ahead, Carrick said he’s looking forward to discovering the inner workings of the local high school campus and figuring out new, more efficient ways of carrying out the day to day business.

He said he’s also looking forward to changing the mindset of focusing on negatives and instead looking at recognizing and celebrating the positives that take place on campus. As vice principal, he said the position can be viewed as the guy you go and see when you’ve done something wrong. He aims to alter that perception.

“I start my conversations with, and I genuinely mean it, ‘I need your help,’” Carrick said. “That’s what’s best for the students. We need to work as a team. It’s not us versus them or me versus you; it’s us working together in order to give your son or daughter the best possible education and opportunity to succeed.”