Rocky Mountain Middle School’s new principal Brian Thorne says he’s right where he wants to be, and he’s most at home with the middle school level.
Principal Brian Thorne was on a path to go to law school in college at BYU. He changed his course after helping bring resources to a community in Mexico to build a school.
That led to the Mt. Pleasant native getting a master’s degree in education. He’s since spent 26 years teaching and as an administrator. He started in the Nebo School District in the Cornerstone program with youth in custody, then had a great experience teaching for one semester at Spanish Fork Junior High.
He says that in that last semester teaching at the junior high, he learned he works best with students in middle school.
“Middle school kids are a blast. I think you’re as funny as you’re gonna be in the eighth grade. So, when Superintendent Sweat talked to me about moving to the middle school, it just felt like coming home,” he says.
Before coming to Rocky Mountain, he was assistant principal at Springville High for four years, then principal at Midway Elementary for 10 years.
He and his family live in Heber City.
“I personally am a huge believer in the concept of professional learning communitiesm” he says. “The idea of that is, the groups of teachers work together to help the individual kids and groups of kids. We focus in on three big ideas: the learner, we focus on results, and then we do that in a collaborative environment. And if we do that, then kids benefit from whole groups of teachers instead of just one teacher. When you do that, it also helps take care of the adults in the building by building their capacity to get better, which makes their jobs easier.”
Three focuses on student experiences under Thorne will be learning, promoting kindness and getting students involved with extracurricular activities.
The school also has fun events planned, starting Friday with an assembly featuring BMX bike riders and continuing with school spirit class competitions.
He says he’ll be able to start strong thanks to a talented group of teachers, administration and staff.
“The faculty here is outstanding. I’ve been really impressed with getting to know all of them and seeing the things they do with kids. Just walking around, it’s amazing the quality of teachers in this building.”
He also credited the new incoming assistant principal, Kevin Rich, for helping to get this school year heading in the right direction.
