Editor’s note: Thanks to Jimmy Frideley’s advocacy, Eagle Nation Online will continue to serve the Prosper community for another year.
Looking back at his 12 years in the education system before his move to Richland High School, assistant principal Jimmy Frideley said he believes the driving factor for his contributions is clear — advocating for the well-being of PHS students.
Frideley, who has been working at Prosper High School for six years, has held an AP position for three years. Prior to that, he worked with students as an inclusion specialist within the special education department. As an AP, he’s helped serve the CTE Department as an administrator, as he also ensured that courses, teachers and students had the support they needed to achieve their goals.
“I’ve overseen lots of the school, different things that we’ve done, CTE this year,” Frideley said. “And then directly, Eagle Nation Online, Eagle Nation News, all of that stuff too.”
As a former social studies and special education teacher, Frideley makes spending time with the students a priority and tries his best to help all students, no matter if they’re struggling or celebrating.
“Honestly, I love the fact that I actually get more time with kids than I did even as a teacher,” Frideley said. “Because as a teacher, you have your job to do during that hour and a half of teaching and whatever, and I get to hang out with kids as I taught. And so many times when you get into admin, others are like, ‘Oh, I guess you don’t really see kids anymore.’ Like, I see kids probably more than I saw them before.”
Frideley said he plans to take this philosophy with him when he begins his new role as assistant principal at Richland High School.
“The things that I oversee here, CTE was a big one, MINGA behavior, and all of that stuff, like, those are all systems that I wrote,” Frideley said. “And so, the success we’ve had here with all of that stuff is something that some of the other schools need. I think it’s going to be great. Going to Richland is going to be phenomenal.”
With this, Frideley has developed a strong connection with the school, and he said other schools might need these qualities that Prosper High School has, such as its spirit.
“Our teachers are amazing, and so I will work my tail off to make sure that they get their program supported, get their kids supported, all those things,” Frideley said. “And then again, we have great kids.”
Frideley said that commitment to the school culture is the reason why Prosper High School builds connections faster, which is why it has become so important to him.
“While all of our schools are good, like PHS, it’s just different,” Frideley said. “It’s just different. PHS is what made me who I am, and it’s what gave me the ability to see the light and the joy of these guys.”
This is how Frideley keeps himself motivated to support and fight for PHS students.
“I think that I’ve had to tailor my message a little bit more and pick battles,” he said. “But things like that have allowed me to find success there because I don’t pick every battle, but the ones that are meaningful to me.”
When news broke that the newspaper program would be cut district-wide, Frideley advocated for the student journalists on campus, saving the course.
“(The) online publication was the game changer for me, because going through it, it’s not a newspaper,” he said. “It’s a collection of all the that you guys do. From that standpoint, just because the numbers are lacking districtwide does not mean that we’re not doing the work here. I can’t support taking out a program that’s at the highest level. You guys produce the work that you guys do, and I’m going to support that every time. If that means I have to fight my tail off for you guys, like, I’m going to do that.”
Frideley believes recognizing students’ and staff’s passions is an integral part of being a good assistant principal.
“I’m so grateful for Mr. Frideley’s advocacy for Eagle Nation Online as a team,” feature editor Kate Duncan said. “As the rising editor-in-chief, when I heard that the program was potentially going to be cut next year, I felt so much grief for our adviser, our staff and my personal goals. Thanks to him recognizing the work we do each day, our dreams can live out for at least another year, and I will always extend my gratitude to him because of that.”
Before heading off to Richland for the 2026-2027 school year, Frideley has some final remarks to students at PHS – because to him, the saying of “once an Eagle, always an Eagle” is true.
“I love you guys so much,” he said. “There’s no part of me that’s not going to be Prosper High School going forward, and it doesn’t matter what my journey is, whether I’m an assistant principal somewhere else or a building principal or whatever. PHS is what made me who I am, and it’s what gave me the ability to see the light and the joy in you guys, so it’s something that I will take forward with me to be able to say, okay, is this something that’s worth fighting for? Is it something that the kids love? Is it something that I want to support? And, I will base a lot of those decisions on a lot of the experiences that I’ve had from here.”
This article was edited by Tejas Konka, Agnipravo Ghosh and Mercy Adebiyi.
