Principal Jim Judd sat at a mobile desk in the hallway of Timpanogos Middle School on Thursday morning. It was covered with tiny figures of Highland cattle — the school’s mascot — dressed as skiers, pirates and knights.
Eighth grader Fern Richins casually shuffled up to Judd.
“What’s up, boy?” was how she greeted the principal.
The pair engaged in a short conversation before Richins asked Judd for candy. Judd reached into his desk drawer and produced a Smarties lollipop, which he handed to her as she happily wandered off.
Judd started giving out candy to students a few years ago. It’s a bit of a trade secret — maybe 50 of the school’s 1,000 students know about it.
“One of the things you have to be intentional about is interacting with kids who are never sent to the office,” he said.
That’s why he started the candy-giving tradition a few years ago. Students can email him with some justification of what they’ve done to earn a Smarties lollipop, and he’ll give it to them. His email inbox is cluttered with requests.
Judd often works from his mobile desk in the school’s hallways. Sometimes, the distracting interactions require that he finish his work in his actual office or after school, but he thinks it’s worth it to maintain connections with the students and staff.
He knows many students on a first-name basis. On Thursday, several eighth graders told him that they were excited for him to remain their principal for another four years at Wasatch High School.
The day before, the school district announced Judd would be leaving Timpanogos Middle School to lead Wasatch High School as its next principal. Judd doesn’t begin until July 1, but he is already making some administrative decisions and spending time at both schools daily.
Judd’s new role comes after the announcement that the high school’s current principal, Ryan Bishop, will be leave to become the executive director of the Utah High School Activities Association on July 1.
Judd said the job offer came last month. With the opening of the new Deer Creek High School in August, the superintendent’s office wanted to ensure there “wasn’t some unknown person at the helm of this split,” Judd said.
“I’ve always felt like public administrators are just stewards of the community. And if the community feels like that’s where I can best serve the community, I’m happy to do it,” he said.
Judd has been the principal of Timpanogos Middle School for five years.
Judd got into education because he was “a really nerdy kid,” reading and watching nature documentaries on PBS every day.
“I’m still a nerdy adult,” he said. “I’ve always just been the type of guy who’s learning something new and wanting to talk about it. My kids will tell you how comical it is.”
When Judd served a Samoan-speaking mission in Los Angeles for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, he gained a passion for teaching. He realized he would rather teach science than be a scientist and landed his first gig as a teacher at the Jordan School District in 1996.
Part of the reason Judd and his wife jumped at the chance to live and work in Heber City in 2000 is that they both grew up in small towns.
“We were in Salt Lake just because that’s where we could get jobs. But it was always our goal to get to a more rural place,” he said.
He started as a science teacher at the now-closed Wasatch Mountain Junior High, working his way up to vice principal and principal. He has also served as principal at Rocky Mountain Middle School, as well as the director of HR and secondary education for the school district.
There are several accomplishments from Judd’s time at Timpanogos Middle School that he is most proud of.
He applauded the entire staff for moving the needle of students’ academic performance. Timpanogos Middle School was named a model professional learning community — a school whose educators collaborate and share insights regularly to better support students — by education company Solution Tree in 2024.
Judd is also proud of Timpanogos Middle School’s improved relationships with the Hispanic community. He hired Yuri Jenson as a Spanish liaison four years ago to better connect with the middle school’s Hispanic students and parents. He did so when he realized 20% of the school’s students are Hispanic, but he had very little regular connection with those students’ parents.
“What I told (Jenson) is, ‘What I’m going to look at as a metric of success is that 20% of the phone calls I get each week are from that population. That’ll show me that the bridge is built,’” he said.
Since hiring Jenson, he said that bar has been reached.
Part of the issue, he said, is that some Hispanic parents did not go through the American public school system and cannot pull from their own experiences in the system while supporting their children. That’s why Jenson holds a monthly “training” teaching Hispanic parents how to support their children in the American public school system.
Judd’s approach to fostering connections with parents is to be as visible in as many places as possible, including those trainings. As another example, Judd is present outside the middle school when students are dropped off every morning.
“It’s this idea of hospitality. Places that have good hospitality have someone out there seeing you, recognizing you and saying, ‘I’m excited you’re here,’” he said. “As I go about the community, on a regular basis, I’ll be at the store or in some business or something, and someone will say, ‘You’re the drop-off guy.’”
Judd’s approach to student discipline is to make the consequences clear before rules are broken — like lunch detention or community service — while treating students with grace.
In his 30 years in education, Judd has learned that every age group is a “unique beast.”
“I’m in a school with 1,000 kids going through puberty on any given day. That has some challenges,” he said.
Being the principal of Wasatch High School’s roughly 1,300 students will present a new set of challenges.
“They’re in bigger bodies, and they have more agency and more autonomy. And half of my school is going to drive,” he said. “But the beauty is, for the large majority of kids at Wasatch High School, I was their principal here. So, I know them. They know me. So, I think the transition for students is not going to be something I’m worried about.”
Wasatch High School will also be a different beast in that it’s “a big mechanism,” Judd said.
“It never ends. It doesn’t end when school’s out. It doesn’t end on the weekends,” he added. “I think there’s 22 sports that are going on throughout the year, … there’s theater, and there’s all the performing arts, … and high school dances and stuff that we just don’t do here.”
With the opening of the new Deer Creek High School, Judd’s approach is to ensure equitable access by offering the same courses and extracurricular activities at both schools.
“We want to make sure that both high schools develop an identity and traditions that attach the kids to the school. And a lot of ways kids attach to a high school is some kind of extracurricular,” he said.
While Deer Creek High School will have the opportunity to create a school culture from the ground up next year, Wasatch High School will be building off its 118-year legacy. Judd’s not here to shake things up.
“Wasatch High School’s an established, well-respected organization in our community,” he said. “I’m not going in there thinking anything really needs to be done different.”
