In the 2018-19 school year, Fountain Hills Middle School will continue last year’s efforts to reach out to the community as well as encourage its teachers to try new and innovate methods to teach the school’s curriculum.

Along with welcoming the new school year, FHMS is also welcoming a new principal after Linda McKeever stepped down from the position. James Carrick, formerly the assistant principal at Fountain Hills High School, will be taking over the position.

Carrick is impressed with the campus culture that McKeever cultivated during the 2017-18 school year.

“I thought there was a really positive culture on campus,” Carrick said. “(McKeever) did a lot to be more inclusive and to try and bring in more of the community into the celebration of the students’ successes.”

Community involvement is something that Carrick wants to build more of in the new school year.

“You can expect a lot of opportunities to utilize the community,” Carrick said. “I want to bring in community members that have specialties that they can share with the entire staff and the entire student body. We have a great relationship with the Fountain Hills Mentors Program. I really want to strengthen that and continue that.”

Carrick’s goal is to create a campus where students want to be. According to Carrick, having caring teachers and clear expectations will help turn FHMS into that place.

Along with building on campus culture and community involvement, Carrick wants to encourage his teachers to take risks in the classroom.

“I told all the teachers already that I want you to make mistakes,” Carrick said. “By that, I mean try new things. The worst that happens is that it doesn’t work and we have to reteach it. But if we are not being innovative then we are being stagnant and we’re doing the same thing over and over again, expecting different results which is the definition of insanity.”

An example of new methods that FHMS is trying is a tool known as thinking maps. Thinking maps, derived from the way the human brain works, are supposed to help students with their writing.

As part of his encouragement to innovate in the classroom, Carrick wants the teachers to take advantage of new technologies.

“If there is something [the teacher] needs or wants they can come to me,” Carrick said. “The community has been great and passed the technology override a few years ago, so we have capital money for that. If you’re utilizing it and can show me how you’re utilizing it, we’ll get it.”

After FHMS’s implementation of standard space instruction last year, which provided the middle school a standard curriculum, Carrick wants to become more involved with the other two schools in the district to make sure they are all on the same page.

“I think it is really important that we continue to build those relationships,” Carrick said. “Coming from the high school, I have an idea where the kids are going. So by having the high school teachers come down and work with the middle school teachers, it helps them understand some of the expectations going forward. It is the same with the middle school.”

Carrick is excited for the new school year to start. As someone who likes organization – to a fault, he’ll admit – Carrick has the 2018-19 school year planned out and ready to go.