Welcome to our Stapley web site and to my biography page. I am in my third year as principal of Stapley Junior High School and twenty-third year in education.  I have worked in several school districts here in Arizona and bring a variety of experiences to my position as principal. Previous positions include serving as the principal of Desert Canyon Middle School in Scottsdale for four years.  Prior to that, I served as principal of W. R. Sullivan School, a K-8 school in the Murphy School District in Phoenix for eight years. Teaching highlights include past experiences at teaching fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth grades along with coaching high school football and basketball in Nebraska. 

My belief systems have been formed around the idea that when working together, the stakeholders of a school can create a profound, meaningful experience for every child.   Every student who attends Stapley Junior High School will feel the personal connections needed to thrive in a world that can sometimes be very impersonal. My wife Andrea is also a principal in Mesa Public Schools and we have two boys who are 12 and 14 years old.  I can actually understand what the junior high age child’s parent feels like because I am one too!  Needless to say I believe in the power of the ‘great equalizer’, our public education system.  

I grew up in rural Nebraska helping to support the family farm as a youth.  After high school I matriculated through Doane College in Crete Nebraska, with a degree of Bachelors in Arts in Education and then earned my Masters Degree in Administration and Supervision from the University of Phoenix.