Mr. Jack Haycock has been teaching at Armijo for three years, but he started this career in 2015 when he was working as a substitute. “I was recruited by the Assistant Superintendent to be a full time SPED (Special Education) teacher.  I will complete my SPED credential in June.” He currently teaches Special Education / Math. “This year I co-teach two Math 1 classes and have two Directed Studies classes, plus my Special Education caseload,” he said. He has taught Math I Lab in the past.

Before coming to Armijo, Mr. Haycock spent a year teaching elementary summer school while he was going to college. He also served as an emergency substitute in high school one year. “When I was a graduate student I taught an undergraduate class. In addition, I was a certified volunteer trainer for the local Boy Scout Council and National staff, and taught teenage boys as a Scoutmaster for over ten years,” he said. 

When he was a student, Mr. Haycock attended El Camino High School in Sacramento. “I like to say that Jessica Chastain went to MY high school,” he said. He then attended UC Davis and earned his Bachelor of Arts in 1977. He went on to study International Relations [Spanish] and earned his Doctor of Jurisprudence at in 1980 at Brigham Young University.

While he didn’t start teaching until after his first career was over, he was influenced early on. “My sixth grade teacher used to take me and another student to play golf after school once a week,” he said. “He was a great teacher and inspired me. He later became a Superintendent in two different school districts.” Before he got into teaching, Mr. Haycock served as a trial lawyer for 32 years, which he quit doing after the passing of his father. He then decided to go into a second career as a teacher. “I got bored and decided that I wanted to do something to give back to society,” he said. “After much soul searching I decided that I wanted to pursue helping young people and teaching was something that I enjoyed doing where I felt I could make a difference.” He would like to see all students learn that “the two most important subjects in life are English [communication] and Math [logical science].”

Work takes up a lot of his time, but Mr. Haycock has other interests. “I love sports, played football, basketball and baseball as a youth, basketball and softball as an adult, and my participatory sports have been weaned down to golf,” he said. He also loves to cook, but admitted that he was not creative. He simply follows recipes.

Mr. Haycock wanted to share some parting words of introduction. “I was born and raised in Sacramento, the eldest of three boys,” he said. “My parents were not college graduates but were involved in the community as volunteers. All three of the boys graduated from college. My father was a WWII and Korea US Army Combat Decorated Veteran. My mother was a Canadian when I was born and thus I have dual citizenship. My mother is still living, and she was a high school principal’s secretary for 20 years, so she is always interested in what high school is like today. 

“I have four children; all are college graduates and married with children. My oldest daughter is a high school teacher in Las Vegas and married to a SPED teacher. My oldest son sells “kisses” for Hershey’s [and all their products], and currently lives in Arkansas where he manages the worldwide Sam’s Club account — if you buy Hershey’s from Sam’s Club, my son ordered it and sold it to Sam’s. My youngest son works for CalPERS (California Public Employees’ Retirement System) as a special project manager and my youngest daughter works as a fashion consultant. Both of my youngest live in Rocklin. I have eight grandchildren – five boys and three girls, ages eight to six months.  

“I served on the Boy Scouts of America, Golden Empire Council, Board of Directors and as a vice-president and then president [2008] for over 15 years. I served on the City of Rocklin Parks and Recreation Commission for over ten years, part of which I was chair and vice-chair.  I also served on various other community and civic organizations. “