Coming to Troy isn’t just a new job to recently hired Charles Henderson Middle School Principal Bradley Bouldin. It’s fulfillment.

With his most recent experience as an education consultant, the administrator at heart Bouldin has had something missing from his career for the last few years.

“I was still involved in school improvement and really enjoyed STI (achievement services),” Bouldin said. “But there was a missing link.”

And so, the offer of the CHMS principal position earlier this month, was something the newcomer was glad to accept. And not just because it was a different job.

“I had worked with schools in this area, and I love the area,” he said. “It was a different atmosphere.”

What Bouldin, who comes with more than 20 years of education experience, said he missed the most about working directly in the schools was what made him fall in love with the job in the first place.

“It’s the day to day successes and those who come back and say, ‘You made a difference,’” Bouldin said.

Prior to his work as a curriculum and assessment specialist for the STI Achievement Services, where he worked with schools in Alabama, Missouri and Illinois, Bouldin served as an administrator in several schools: seven years as principal of Pickens County High School; a middle school principal in Elbertville; five years as assistant principal of an elementary school and served in the same role at a middle school before that.

Bouldin spent six years as a teacher in the classrooms prior to his administrative roles.

Originally from Boaz, Bouldin said he had never really planned on teaching.

So just what was it that made him decide to enter the education field? Good question, he said.

“In college I did a lot of soul searching,” he said. “I was a veterinarian major, but I changed to teaching. I was not sure about it at first, but when I got into it, I loved it.”

As Bouldin moves to his role at CHMS officially July 1, he said his transition won’t be such a difficult one.

“It’s a good place to walk into — good faculty, good community support, good students,” he said. Bouldin said among his goals are to continue to keep student test scores high.

Bouldin will relocate to Troy with his wife of almost 23 years and two of his three sons, one who is 16 and the other 13. His oldest son is a junior at the University of Alabama in Birmingham.

His family is active in boy scouting, and he hopes to get involved in a local scout troop once he is settled.