After a year of ups and downs, Martin Drayton shares that his first year at Creek was terrifying but worth every moment. He’s thankful to have gotten the opportunity to do what he loves: shape young minds into educated, emotionally-intelligent adult minds.

“I want to be able to teach kids to be emotionally intelligent and have resilience,” Drayton said.

Drayton shares that he thinks there are five steps necessary to showing emotional intelligence in a situation, big or small:
Evaluate your triggers and what bothers you
Adjust yourself to the situation and how you should address it
Identify things that might trigger other people in the situation
Think about the best approach to the situation in order to find a solution
Make the appropriate decision to benefit everyone involved

“Sometimes there’s going to be things you run into and you fail at them. But I have to teach kids that failure is not fatal. I want to help kids understand that emotional intelligence is super important,” Drayton said.

With an “action packed” first year, Drayton got to build new memories, and he says he “really enjoyed to see his kids perform in different areas throughout the building.”

Being a principal is a big job, especially being as involved as Mr Drayton is. Yet even with all that he does outside of campus, he’s been able to connect with students and staff. He’s faced countless challenges, and overcome them all.

“I’ve enjoyed every second, even the challenging moments,” Drayton said.

Lawrence Cox, a new 2023-2024 assistant principal, shares his experience working with Mr Drayton and how much he’s learned.

“He [Mr. Drayton] is someone that I consider a mentor, someone I can learn from. I call it a privilege to be able to work side-by-side with him, to see his vision, and to help him fulfill his vision,” Cox said.

Both Mr. Cox and Mr. Drayton come from middle schools, but they have been able to adjust together with the higher amount of students on a high school campus.

“Coming from a middle school setting to a high school setting has been the biggest change. It’s also been fun to be able to start to understand those parts and how they all fit together,” Cox said.

Middle school to high school can be a big change also because there are so many different activities and extracurriculars going on at once.

“Even though there are so many more students, there are so many more faculty members, so everyone is still doing what’s best for the students. That’s been a change because things run different on smaller campuses. Mr Drayton has definitely made the change smooth,” Cox said.

Not only did they both come from a similar setting, but they are also both men of color in leadership positions that are very important.

“It’s been beyond my walls of expectation because I’ve never been able to experience working with another black man in his [Drayton’s] position. To be able to see it first hand and experience it opposed to only hearing about it has helped me to be more of my authentic self, see him [Drayton’s] be his authentic self in different settings,” Cox said.

Cox also highlights Drayton’s abilities to communicate and navigate the educational world and his ability to be his true self on campus and in this district.

“I often find myself being more appreciative when I come to work because I find myself now able to relate to someone on a different level when I’ve never had the opportunity to do that in all my years of education,” Cox said.

Drayton has brought many changes to Cy Creek this year, and he hopes to continue those changes for the best interests of the students, teachers, and administration.

“I believe I can get better and consistently develop myself,” Drayton said.