Frederick High Principal Dr. Russell Fox will be “graduating” with the class of 2026. Fox will leave Frederick High on July 1 to take a position at SVVSD’s Human Resources department. This means Frederick High will have a new principal for fall 2026.
Dr. Fox announced his leave on December 8 to the Frederick staff and then the Frederick community. He said that this will be “a bittersweet goodbye” for him. Dr. Fox has been at Frederick for seven years, spending five of those years as the principal and two as the assistant principal.
Before his career at FHS, he started as an English teacher at Erie High School. He taught there for nine years and coached volleyball, baseball, and golf. He also assistant coached basketball and was the yearbook adviser. He then spent one year at Coal Ridge Middle School as the dean of students before coming to Frederick.
Starting in July, Fox will serve as one of the executive directors in St. Vrain Valley School’s Department of Human Resources. He’ll remain at Frederick High through graduation in May and will spend part of June helping the office transition to the new principal.
He has decided to take this job because he will be able to help and hire other principals at other schools and recruit teachers from across the country to come work in our school system. He shared that “As a parent, I want my kids to have the best teachers, coaches, and principals.”
In his address to the Frederick staff, he described the decision to leave as one of personal growth. He still believes Frederick High is the best school in Colorado with the best students and staff, but he wants to accept new challenges and work with things that he has never worked with before.
“I don’t have a lot of experience in elementary school, and this will allow me to work with different elementary schools and really expand my experience that way and serve our district in a different way.”
His Love for Teaching
Education is one of the most important things to Dr. Fox, and he has never had a stronger passion for anything else. “I don’t think there’s anything more important or a higher calling to me. It’s all of our kids and the future of our education system. So having the best education system is critically important.”
While he has so many great memories made from his career at Frederick, his favorites are seeing the Golden Eagle Broadcasting Network (GEBN) and Unified Theater program develop. He is so proud of what the students here have created and how far they have come. He also cherishes the moments where he can see how much students grow over their four years at Frederick.
“I remember what that person was like their freshman year and their sophomore year, and look at how far they have come. I work with people who are more talented and in different ways than I am. So that part is just amazing to see, and I’m always so proud.”
While he loves this job, there are certainly some challenges that come with it. “It’s a very complex puzzle: 1500 kids, around 3000 parents, and 150 staff members. It’s a puzzle keeping that all together and putting people in the right places.”
The change of the mascot from the Warriors to the Golden Eagles also was a challenge for Dr. Fox. He said, “That was challenging because, you know, symbolically, that was a big deal. It still is a big deal. But I’m happy where we landed, and I’m happy with how we worked through that process and how our school came out on the other side… but that was certainly a challenge.”
Finding a New Principal
With Dr. Fox leaving, Frederick will need a new principal. SVVSD is wasting no time to find the best person to lead FHS: they have posted the principal position and have started a nationwide search for the best candidates. Meanwhile, Frederick staff and parents will receive a Leadership Profile Assessment where they can leave feedback for the type of person they’d like to see take the top job at Frederick High.
After evaluating the responses for the leadership survey, SVVSD will create interview questions in January and start forming interview panels with teachers, parents, and students. The candidates will face multiple rounds of these interviews, which are expected to start in February. After the interview process and background checks, the interview panels will make their recommendation to SVVSD Superintendent Dr. Jackie Kapushion, who will make the final hiring decision by early March.
Will we here at Frederick get to meet the new principal before the start of the next school year? That all depends on where the winning candidate currently is. If the new hire is a principal at another school in another state, the likelihood that they’ll pop in to say “hi” before next July is slim. Luckily, Dr. Fox isn’t going anywhere yet and will see Frederick through to the end of the year.
