By William Croyle
Enquirer contributor

FLORENCE - When Mel Carroll returns from vacation next week, he has no idea what he'll be doing. What he does know is that for the first time in 37 years, he won't be preparing for a new school year.

After nearly four decades in education - the last 17 as principal of Ockerman Middle School in Florence - Carroll has decided to call it quits.

His retirement became effective July 1 with no fanfare and no big announcement - just the way he wanted it.

"It came over me the last month of school. We were having a good year and it just seemed right at that time," said Carroll. "I was able to share it with faculty a couple days after school let out, but I didn't want to upset the kids and parents those last few days of school."

He said a letter about his retirement and the upcoming school year will be sent to parents of the school's 800 students in the next couple of weeks.

Carroll is succeeded by Dave Claggett, 49, who was an assistant principal last year under Carroll and is a former principal at Gallatin County Middle School.

"Yes, they're big shoes to fill," Claggett said. "It'll be a great challenge to carry on the traditions here and expand in some new directions."

Since Carroll began his education career in 1967, he has worked in the Covington and Boone County districts as a principal, director of curriculum, teacher and dean of students. He became principal at Ockerman in 1987 and, until two weeks ago, had the longest tenure at one school among the district's 18 principals.

That was nearly triple the national average of six years for a principal at one school, according to the National Association of Elementary School Principals.

During that time, Ockerman has grown into one of the top schools in the state. On the 2003 state accountability test (CATS), the school ranked 25th out of 205 middle schools.

But despite that success, it's the biggest responsibility of being a principal today that Carroll is glad to give up.

"The thing I will not miss is the high-stakes assessment process that the state and federal government require," said Carroll. "No matter how good a school is, it will never be good enough, because the bar is always raised again. It's a lot of pressure."

He said he will miss the kids a lot. The kids will also miss him.

"He did very well. Every morning he would say words of wisdom (over the intercom) that I liked," said eighth-grader Erin Kramer. "He was strict when he had to be, but if you weren't being bad, he was very nice."

Carroll will still be busy as a Florence city councilman and said he will seek re-election this fall.

"I'll do something else, but I don't know what," said Carroll. "It could be in the school business, it could be out of the school business. We'll see what challenges and opportunities come along."

E-mail williamcroyle@yahoo.com