Meet Novi Meadows' New Principal: John Brickey

John Brickey will join the this fall as the new principal of , a position he calls his "dream job." Novi Patch sat down with him to learn a few basic facts and to ask him about his plans for the year.

Education: Undergraduate in teaching from Eastern Michigan University, master's in public administration from University of Michigan

Experience: Teacher in South Lyon for six years, principal at Salem Elementary in South Lyon for the past three years

Family: Wife, Kristen; son, Jackson, 5 in October

Residence: currently Livonia, but moving to Plymouth

Hobbies: skiing, snowboarding, golfing, reading, spending time with his family

Contact info: 248-449-1270 or jbrickey@novi.k12.mi.us

Novi Patch: Do you have any focus areas or goals for the school year?

John Brickey: That's a great question. To be quite honest with you, I'm coming into a wonderful situation and a school district that performs at a very high level already. So I think it would be pretty foolish to come in with pre-set agendas...I plan on doing a lot of listening and learning—I think I know what Novi's about, but I really need to know what it's about. The people that I've met to this point have been fantastic. I'm super impressed with everyone. I'm very, very happy to be here. So all of that said, I guess my goal right now is to establish myself as an energetic and an upbeat school leader, and just start building relationships. That's the most important part of anything is building relationships and building trust. I understand those aren't really academic goals, but the academic goals will emerge.

Patch: What do you like about Novi Schools?

Brickey: The biggest thing is the set up of a five/six building has always intrigued me. I taught sixth grade; I student-taught fifth. It's just the age group I've always felt the most comfortable with. Years of coaching, teaching after-school clasess, I mean I've worked with kids forever. My mom is the community services coordinator in Allen Park, so she runs the after-school classes. So I started teaching after-school classes when I was 15 maybe. She needed a fill-in, an assistant or something, so that's where it began. All that being said, the age group is an age group that I get and understand so incredibly well, so that's part of why it's a dream job. The other piece of it is you always want to be part of something great, which this is, especially when you can see that it can become even greater and you get to be part of that. I would say it's a combination of it. It's kind of hard to put into words.

Patch: Do you think there will be any challenges?

Brickey: I would have to say it's similar to when we were talking about goals, I think the biggest challenge is earning everyone's trust. I mean that's a huge thing. Trust isn't something I take lightly, and it's something that I think that people should hold pretty sacred and pretty dear, and I don't think you should just be given it. I think you should be given the benefit of the doubt, but you know, trust is a tricky one. So it's always a challenge in that I know trust isn't an easy thing to gain—I'm not saying trust because I think it will be difficult to gain and that's why it's a challenge—that's not why I'm saying it. So gaining people's trust and becoming part of the team.