Mr. Matt Hreha has been named the new Principal of Hillcrest Middle School. He is entering his seventeenth year in education, seven of those years were spent in the classroom as a social studies teacher. During that time, Mr. Hreha also coached boys’ basketball, announced for football games, sponsored Fellowship of Christian Athletes, served on numerous committees, and helped develop the Psychology curriculum for Kingman High School. He then had the opportunity to move into administration where he has worked the last nine years. He served one year at the middle school level and eight years at the high school level. The last four years, Hreha had the privilege of working for Deer Valley at Boulder Creek High School.
Mr. Hreha’s primary goal is to engage the community, staff, and students to push themselves to exceed excellence. He wants to build a collaborative learning community that will support each other and use data to drive the educational decisions in the classroom. He believes that Hillcrest Middle School is a great school with awesome community support, and he wants to take the school to the next level – becoming one of the highest achieving schools in the nation!
Q&A with Hillcrest Middle School Principal Mr. Matt Hreha
What is the most important lesson being an education has taught you?
No matter what we know, or think we know, there is always room to grow as a person and as a professional.
What advice would you give a parent to help his/her child be successful in school?
Communication is key. As students there will be times that they are challenged in the classroom to push themselves in order to exceed excellence. During these times parents need to engage their student in order to make sure that they are encouraged and not get too discouraged or give up in their class. If there are problems or issues parents are encouraged to contact their student’s teacher to open the lines of communication so that the teacher can help to find ways to help their student. Finally as administration, we are here to support the parents however we can to make sure that they have ownership of their child’s experience while here at Hillcrest.
As a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up and why?
Ever since sixth grade I have wanted to be a teacher. We had a career project that we had to complete and I was not sure exactly what I wanted to do for the report. After talking to my parents they encouraged me to look at teaching. After finishing the report and looking at my interests I quickly discovered that education was the field for me. I never wavered from that belief and achieved my dream in the year 2000, when I was hired for my first teaching job.
