Troy McCarley graduated from Sam Rayburn High School in 1987. Now he's returning 17 years later as the campus principal.

The Pasadena ISD Board of Trustees appointed McCarley to the school's top post during a special called meeting. He will replace Merlin Mohr, who is retiring at the end of July.

"I'm very excited about this opportunity," he said. "I am looking forward to getting over there and hitting the ground running."

McCarley has served as principal of Queens Intermediate School for the past two years. Under his leadership, the school has become a Texas Recognized Campus. As an assistant principal at Jackson Intermediate, he was part of the administrative team when Jackson was named a National Blue Ribbon School by the U.S. Department of Education in 2000.

In addition to serving at Jackson as assistant principal from 2000-2002, he served in the same position at Deer Park Junior High from 1998-2000. He began his career in 1993 as a speech and theater arts teacher at the same school.

McCarley received his bachelor's degree in speech communications from Southwest Texas State University and his master's in secondary education from the University of St. Thomas. His wife Karen is a counselor at Pasadena Memorial High School and they have two new twin sons, Mason and Blaine.