Jamie McCarty is back in Stayton, and he couldn’t be happier.
McCarty, 51, who started his career in education in the North Santiam School District, has taken over as principal of Stayton High School. McCarty was a teacher, coach, athletic director and administrator in the North Santiam district through 2007 before moving, professionally that is, to the Silver Falls School District for a series of principal slots and an impressive side gig as Silverton High’s boys basketball coach.
“For the last five years I’ve been thinking about coming back to the district and finishing what I started,” McCarty told Our Town in a July interview at his new office. McCarty served his final day as principal at Robert Frost Elementary in Silverton on June 24 and began at Stayton later that same day.
“I’ve led a school of every kind except a high school,” McCarty said. “How cool is that? It’s a great challenge that I am really looking forward to. I want to make the community proud and I want to make it the best place on earth.”
This is McCarty’s 28th year in education and he said that “for 27 years I have loved to come to work. I love being around kids, I love leading a staff and having an impact.”
McCarty said his key goals at Stayton are that “the culture and climate should make students feel when they are coming through our doors that they want to be the best in the state. People have to want to be here, you have to get the community involved and you have to be fully transparent. You and your staff have to be a unified team, working together for a common vision.”
Early in his career McCarty said he thought he would be a basketball coach for the next 30 years and even harbored ambitions of coaching in college at the Division I level.
But then he got married, they had kids, and “it’s really hard to be a D1 coach. You travel all over and sleep on the floor. My No. 1 job was to be a dad and a husband. And I never really liked to move from where I’m at anyway.”
McCarty lives in Stayton near Pioneer Park and remained there even while working in Silverton. His favorite vacation spot is at a rustic cabin on Tenmile Lake near Reedsport that is reachable only by boat. The cabin has been in the family for 50 years.
THE McCARTY FILE
Who: Jamie McCarty
What: Principal, Stayton High
Age: 51
Hometown: North Bend
Residence: Stayton
College: Bachelor’s in PE/health from Western Oregon; Master’s in Administration/Supervision from Portland State
Family: Wife Heidi, daughter Brooke, sons Jordan and Elijah
Hobbies: Golf and spending time with his extended family, particularly at their cabin near Reedsport
Fun facts: In his first five years as boys basketball coach at Silverton, McCarty went 69-1 in Mid-Willamette Conference play, won five league titles and his teams finished fourth, third and second in the Class 5A state tournament. His 2007 Stayton boys team took second in Class 4A.
