Dr. Lute Croy has plans as the opening of Richland High School approaches.
Reporters Eli Deutsch, Elizabeth Cohorn, and Srihitha Madepalli sat down with him to ask questions about the fall 2025 opening of Richland High School.
Dr. Croy said he is excited about the opening of Richland High School and wants the school to be all about traditions and school spirit.
“I’m looking most forward to just getting to start everything right and making it all about us,” Croy said. “We do some great things here at Prosper High School, but we get a chance to start our traditions. We get a chance to do everything for the first time and make it the way we want it to be. And not the way that it’s been done at PHS and the other two high schools. That’s going to be special.”
Interviews for teachers and coaches have already started at Richland. According to Croy, teachers go through a first-round interview to see if they meet the standards for a Prosper ISD job.
“I’ve already interviewed several people this morning and next week,” Croy said. “I’ve got about 25 interviews set up. So if it’s somebody in the Fine Arts world, our Fine Arts staff helps us screen them. They go through resumes. They do kind of a first-round interview to see if they are up to the standard musically or artistically that we have set here in Prosper. I started interviewing drill team directors on Thursday. As soon as we get one hired, they’ll go through the school board process. I’ve hired our band director, working on our drill team instructor, and I’m about to set up our choir interviews.”
Dr. Croy has already hired head football coach and athletic coordinator Kenneth Gilchrist. He and Dr. Croy have also started the hiring process for coaches.
“We do a very similar (hiring) process with our coaches,” Croy said. “Coach Gilchrist, who’s our campus athletic coordinator and head football coach, he and our football and our district athletic staff. Coach Smith and his team are over at the stadium; they are screening all the head coaches. I know Monday, he’s interviewing. I think they have four baseball coaches that they’re bringing in. They’re interviewing them to see if they’re qualified to be head coaches at Prosper ISD.”
Richland High School will either be a 5A or 4A school, depending on the number of students in its first year of opening. There will be a ‘Meet the Raiders’ event for Richland sports like ‘Meet the Eagles’ at Prosper High School.
“The first number that I heard would have put us in a 5A division next year, but now I’m hearing that we might be a 4A division for the first year, which would be great to give us a chance since we’re going to be young,” Croy said. “We have a small senior class. I think right now about 140 seniors, so we’ll be young. We’ll do a big ‘Meet the Raiders’ event in the fall. It’ll just be like what you’ve done here with ‘Meet the Eagles’ and what they do at the other high schools as well.”
Some of the new courses at Richland are cosmetology, cybersecurity, and electrical engineering. Each one of these courses is only offered at Richland High School and can give students certification out of high school.
“What’s interesting about Richland is each campus has a CTE specialty,” Croy said. “Richland is going to be the only campus in the district that has these three courses. Cosmetology will be the first time our district has offered that. Cybersecurity is the first time our district has offered that as well. That’s a huge field our students go into, and they can get their certification right out of high school. And the other one is electrical engineering.”
Dr. Croy wants Richland pep rallies to be student-led and student-planned. Richland’s band director is already working on creating fight songs.
“One of the things that we’ll probably do a little different is I want it (pep rallies) to be student-led,” Croy said. “I want it to be student-planned. So I am with our band director, and he is already on board with it. He’s working on trying to help us figure out fight songs. I’m trying to put together with our drill team and cheerleading coaches like I’m looking for people who it’s not just about the competition that they go to but that it’s about school spirit, and it’s about creating an environment.”
