“The nice thing about this being my first job as a principal is that I’m not getting a broken campus,” Fuller said earlier this summer. “The one thing I love is that this school has a very strong family atmosphere, and I know that’s been here for years, and I also know (retired principal) Dawn Ripple believed very strongly in maintaining that atmosphere.
“The teachers here are so close, and I love that,” he said. “They have organized family outings with the staff during the summer or play dates, and those are things you have to have to make it all work. I used to see that a long time ago, but you just don’t see it as much, and that’s too bad. Teaching is such a revolving door now that you don’t see people stay at one place long enough to create that family atmosphere.”
However, one of Fuller’s goals is retain teachers and staff and build the camaraderie he found at Abilene High when he first started teaching after graduating from McMurry University and then receiving his master’s from Lamar University.
“When I started at Abilene High, all of the teachers had been there for a long time and were very close,” Fuller said. “They knew each other and knew families and had those times where they spent time together outside of work. One of my goals is maintain a high teacher retention number. I want to keep them here, keep them happy, and keep them cruising.”
Working at the elementary level will be new for Fuller, who has spent his entire career working in secondary schools, first at AHS and then Mann Middle School where he taught eighth-grade science. He was the assistant principal at Mann in 2019-20 before becoming the Instructional Specialist.
“When I was at Ward in May, I spent a lot of time just trying to learn the smaller kids,” he said. “I’ve worked with middle school and high school kids, and now I’m going down to elementary kids. I want us to have our hallway routines and procedures strong – whether it’s lined up correctly or whatever – but I”m not worried about it because the teachers here know what they’re doing.”
The time Fuller spent with Ripple was invaluable as he spent time walking the halls, both making mental notes and asking the opinions of the administrative team about things he might be able to make better in the fall.
“I’ve been sketching out the first day of school and trying to work on drop-off and pickup so it will be perfect … although I know it will never be perfect,” he said. “But that time in May was great was because it was so fun to get to know Dawn. We worked together through the end of the school year, and she left the place in perfect shape. This office (principal’s office) was spotless because she’s a neat freak. But she left it in a spot where we’ll be ready to go on Aug. 16.”
