New leader hired for Milroy School

John Willey

By Tara Brandl

A true believer in small towns and small town schools is what the Milroy School Board was looking for in its search for a new superintendent. On Tuesday, they feel they got that with John Willey of Jackson.

“My view of small schools is what I believe in,” Willey said during his interview on July 22. “My mother, father, grandmother, grandfather, were brought up on the three Rs: ‘riting, ‘rithmetic, reading. I use those three Rs in a different way — I use them as respect, relationships, responsibility. Those are things that we need to teach, and in small schools, the biggest thing you can hit on is relationships and building relationships. If you can’t do that in a community like Milroy, you’re missing out. In a bigger district, you lose that because the students become numbers and they don’t become a person. Their families, you don’t make connections. There isn’t a kid here (in Milroy) that you don’t know the family. You don’t find that in a big school.”

See this week’s Headlight Herald for more on this article.