Heading into his 24th year in education — and his 21st with Carroll ISD — it’s safe to say Ryan Wilson found his calling. Serving at Dawson Middle School for 20 years before becoming the principal of Carroll Senior High School, Ryan spent his first year at the senior high soaking up all of Carroll’s traditions, from signing days and homecoming to prom and graduation. With a new year on the horizon, the educator is ready to welcome back students and continue to pursue the district’s tradition of excellence.
COMING OUT OF COLLEGE, I… had a love of two things: caring for kids and science. I put those two things together as a middle school science teacher, and I taught middle school science for six years.
GETTING THAT FIRST JOB [AT LEWISVILLE ISD] WAS… completely frightening and fantastic all at the same time. Being able to be the one that’s giving tests instead of taking them was great. But more importantly, realizing I found something I would be able to do for a lifetime.
I FIRST SET FOOT IN CARROLL ISD… in 2002. George Dawson Middle School was opening and Jenny Wilson, my beloved wife of 22 years, was to be an eighth-grade math teacher on that campus. I came to help her move from what was then Carroll Junior High School on White’s Chapel.
WHILE I WAS HELPING HER… move into that building, the first principal of Dawson, Mr. Jerry Hollingsworth, asked where I taught. I told him… and he said, ‘No you’re not. You’re a middle school science teacher at Dawson Middle School.’ And I said, ‘OK.’ So it was by way of my wife and helping her move in and the rather aggressive but wonderful nature of Dawson’s first principal that I came to work here in Carroll.
I DECIDED I… would try administration as the only assistant principal back in 2005. Those years were tremendous growth years for me… after having done that for three years, the then-principal of Dawson Middle School retired. Thankfully people like Dr. David Faltys agreed to go ahead and put me in the principal seat in 2008.
I DO FEEL LIKE… [being a principal] was a job that I’d been working towards all along. Then after 13 years Dr. Ledbetter reached out to me and asked, ‘How would you feel about trying 11th and 12th graders?’
TO BE NAMED A SENIOR HIGH PRINCIPAL… was a very humbling experience because I think that is a very large role for an incredibly amazing school district like Carroll ISD. I was very excited.
MY FIRST YEAR WAS … definitely one of observation for a number of reasons. I’m brand-new to the senior high. I’m not an immediate change agent. So I started filling journals with thoughts and notes about the things that I would want to improve upon. It’s already a phenomenal campus with a great culture, and that’s nothing you would want to mess up.
THERE’S ALWAYS ROOM FOR… improvement. I would say the first and biggest thing is attendance. We’re having trouble coming back from COVID where it was allowable to learn from home or learn from school. I think there are still a good many kids who are ingrained that way and think that they can get as much done from home as they can from school. So our attendance took a hit.
GRADUATION OVER THE SUMMER WAS REALLY… the ultimate first, to be able to be there for these seniors, these kids that are literally done with their K-12 public schooling career. To know that you’re at the helm of the planning process for that, to know that you are there to shake someone’s hand, give them their diploma and say, ‘You’re done with high school, congratulations.’ Wow. That was a serious rush and pretty cool to be there for the kids.
WHEN I CAN LOOK UPON THE… accomplishments of kids and know that I had some small part in supporting them to their accomplishments that absolutely refuels me. I get recharged [by] kids having an improved educational experience. That will be the reason I keep coming back and I keep wanting to do more to make their experience better.