By Esmeralda Almazan & Iraith Arce
For the past month, Mr. Mike Carpenter has been Pueblo’s newest campus monitor, replacing Ms. Vickie Bellay who retired at the end of August.
If he looks familiar to some students, he should—as Carpenter has been coaching Pueblo’s junior varsity football team for the past three years, although he boasts 29 years of football and baseball coaching experience. He can also boast about his JV football Warriors experiencing a very successful (6-2) season.
“I’ve been building relationships with students for a long time as a coach,” Carpenter said, “so my approach to being a security monitor is the same—we’re all like one, big team.”
He said that interacts with students to guide them to create a safer place. By focusing on an inclusive environment, Carpenter said that he can easily connect with students.
“I don’t want to blow my whistle in students’ faces,” he said. “I don’t want to interact negatively with students, and I’ve found that using words works better to motivate them to get to class.”
Carpenter said that he uses the skills he learned during his 24-year military career to become a better coach and now a monitor.
“I was a Resource Protection Officer in the military as well as a security police officer for the Arizona National Guard—and this has made me alert and observant,” he said. “I’m here [at Pueblo] to protect people and to keep everybody safe.”
He added, “My favorite part of being a monitor at Pueblo is being able to interact with students. I can easily make their days better with a simple, ‘Hey, how are you?’”
Although Carpenter did not graduate from PHS, he has family connections to Pueblo. His father graduated from PHS in 1969, and his wife was a Class of 1998 Warrior.