Chandler Hamilton principal retires from school he built

In 1998, farm fields stretched out in every direction around Arizona Avenue and Ocotillo Road, surrounding a new Chandler high school.

Friends and colleagues of Fred DePrez, Hamilton High School's newly appointed principal, wondered why he wanted to run a school in the middle of nowhere.

But DePrez recalls seeing nothing but potential to create an academic and athletic powerhouse for the Chandler Unified School District.

"It was a blank slate," he said. "And I had a vision of what a great high school could be."

DePrez will retire in June from Hamilton, which in 17 years has grown to be the largestand one of the most academically successful public high schools in the state.

Chandler Basha High School principal Ken James will take his place on July 1.

Last year, Hamilton was Arizona's most academically successful comprehensive high school — that is, one that is not a charter or magnet school. In 2014, its Arizona Instrument to Measure Standards, or AIMS, score ranked 15th in the state, behind charter and magnet schools. Over the years, the school also has won 28 state athletic championships and 74 regional championships.

DePrez, 65, who is quiet and reserved about his achievements, is a team builder who enjoys helping others become successful more than boasting about himself, according to his colleagues and staff.

"If you are going to do something, do it to win," DePrez said in the soft-spoken way that belies the ambition he has had for his school. He said that Hamilton's stellar sports and academics have encouraged families to move near the school or register their children through open enrollment.

One person who was not surprised when DePrez took the job 17 years ago was his wife, Suzan, a Mesa Public Schools assistant superintendent.

"He knew that the school was going to be a great school before it was even built," she said.

"He is very good at creating a vision, communicating that vision and he is very non-negotiable on the vision. He wanted a school where every student can be successful."

It was not always smooth sailing, with some issues at Hamilton High drawing public attention.

In 2013, the Arizona Attorney General's Office investigated, then cleared, Hamilton officials of accusations that they misused public donations that funded extracurricular activities for the marching band.

The same year, a Coolidge High School football coach reported to the Arizona Interscholastic Association that a Hamilton coach recruited away one of its best players. Eventually the accusation was dropped for lack of evidence.

DePrez said such issues must be expected at a large high school. He chuckles at the idea that his school needs to recruit athletes when every classroom seat is filled. Hamilton accepts about 700 students a year from outside its attendance boundaries — all who apply, he said.

DePrez was not always a high-powered educator. In college, he considered entering the Catholic priesthood, but left before taking vows because he wanted a family.

He worked as a lay youth minister in the 1980s, until he caught the bug to teach. "I was in and out of schools and always thought 'I could do better,' " he said.

Although Hamilton is filled with academic superstars, DePrez said his main interest as an educator has been helping low-achieving students improve.

In the past decade, Arizona and the federal government have required public schools to help the lowest-scoring 25 percent of their students improve. But not all school principals had that focus in 1991, the year DePrez became principal of Chandler's Willis Junior High.

He said an initial goal at Willis was simply to keep kids in class longer by requiring teachers to control behavior instead of suspending or sending students to the principal's office. Then he set goals for academic improvement, starting with writing, and scores went up.

Some teachers bought in, others left.

"If you can't help a willing student learn, you don't belong," he said.

By the time DePrez took over the top job at Hamilton, he had developed a reputation for being a tough but inspiring boss.

"Working for Dr. DePrez is great, as long as you are doing your job," said Hamilton history teacher Ed Hermanski, who has been at the school since the day it opened.

"I worked for Dr. DePrez at Willis. When I found out he was given the principal position at Hamilton, I asked if he would take me along for the ride."

DePrez's innovations continued at Hamilton, which opened with 1,600 students and a 400,000-square-foot, quarter-mile long building. Instead of having a high-school media center, the school partnered with the Chandler Public Library for a center that is useful to students and adults. It gives students access to more advanced materials than typical school libraries. The school also has a city pool on its campus.

DePrez and his faculty also initiated other things: Mandarin and linear algebra classes, two-hour blocks of time in class for struggling math students, dual enrollment classes that give students community college credits and a college-level engineering program that gives University of Arizona credits to those who pass. Many of the ideas have since caught on at other schools.

"He defintely is a visionary and a trail blazer," said Hamilton assistant principal Chris Farabe, who said he joined the staff because he wanted to work with DePrez. "He has the ability to forecast what the next education trend will be."

Farabee heads Hamilton's "sports academies" which allow students who do not qualify for official team sports to still play games they love, such as golf, tennis, soccer and volleyball, during the school day. About 700 students a year participate and some develop enough skills to make interscholastic teams, he said.

Farabee said the idea for the academies was his and DePrez let him run with it.

"He allows you to take risks, to be at the front of the wave,' he said.

DePrez said one of his goals has been to have every student involved in sports, the arts or some kind of club.

"Colleges like to see well-rounded students," he said.

DePrez's encouragement of parent support has been another factor in Hamilton's success. As housing subdivisions and high-tech facilities like Intel-Ocotillo developed near the school, the school has come to count on motivated parents like Richelle and Blas Minor, who have sent three children to Hamilton.

Blas Minor is a retired major-league baseball player who volunteers as a pitching coach at Hamilton.

Richelle said they settled in the area 17 years ago because they thought it was a great place for her husband to train off-season but stayed because of Hamilton.

"At first we liked the idea that it was in the middle of nowhere," she said. "Later we had made lots of friends and liked the schools. The school was a main reason we stayed in the area."

She said she drops by Hamilton anytime she feels like discussing a concern with DePrez.

"He is willing to listen to me and my concerns — and to those of my kids," she said.

She recalls her sons coming home once and telling her that DePrez spent time talking over the cancellation of an end-of-year water balloon event with them. He had explained that the previous year kids had turned the event into mayhem by filling balloons with ketchup and mustard.

"They weren't happy, but they understood," she said.

The Minor's daugher, Rori, is Hamilton's student body president. Her dream this school year was to organize a student movie night on a baseball field.

"I sat down with Dr. DePrez, explained the idea and asked him about all the obstacles in the way of making it happen," she said.

It turned out there were too many to make the project happen right away — security concerns as well as issues with whether the field could handle the students and screens, she said.

"But I still want this to happen next year, so I am working on it with him," she said. "He is never negative. He respects my persistence."

DePrez says he has no concrete plans yet for his retirement beyond spending more time with his children and grandchildren. He said he lives near Hamilton and looks forward to staying in touch with students and parents during walks through the neighborhood.

He said he also looks forward to clearing out his office, which is filled with posters promoting student events, inspirational sayings and a collection of toy huskies that represent the school mascot, and handing the keys to Basha High's James.

Although Basha also received an A on its Arizona Department of Education report card last year and is known for its quality sports and Advanced Placement classes, James said he feels challenged by his new appointment.

"I feel like a first-year principal again." he said. "Why is it that Hamilton is so successful at everything? I am going to find out."

About Fred DePrez

Age: 65

Education: Bachelor of Arts from Loyola Marymount Univesity; Master of Arts and Doctor of Education from Arizona State University

First teaching job: Bishop Conaty High School in Los Angeles

First principal job: Willis Junior High in Chandler

Wife: Suzan DePrez, assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction at Mesa Public Schools

Children: Fred Jr., Cholla, Lauren and Connor

Grandchildren: Oscar, Saige, Rylee, Stella, Mila, and Deklyn

Favorite quote: "A hundred years from now it will not matter what my bank account was, the sort of house I lived in, or the kind of car I drove…but the world may be different because I was important in the life of a child." — author Kathy Davis

About Hamilton High School

Year opened: 1998

Enrollment: 3,755

Arizona Department of Education rank: 15th out of more than 2,000 schools

Academic awards: Arizona Educational Foundation A+ School of Excellence; listed on Washington Post's "America's Most Challenging Schools," Newsweek's "America's Top High Schools" and U.S. News & World Report's "Best High Schools; " 882 Advanced Placement Scholars in last three years.

History: The school was named by the Chandler Unifed School District governing board after the Hamiltons, a pioneering family that farmed and ran a store on the land where the school is now located.

--Cathryn Creno