SMSU graduate taught in Redwood Falls for 11 years
By Tara Brandl
The incoming seventh-graders won’t be the only new faces among the halls of Tracy Area High School this fall, as Tony Miller was officially hired as the new high school principal at Monday’s the District No. 2904 regular school board meeting.
Miller is a 2004 graduate of Southwest Minnesota State University and also has his K-12 principal license and director of special education license. He taught government, economics and special education in Redwood Falls for 11 years prior to joining the Education Learning Center in Belview. There, he worked with children with behavioral needs. He has spent the last several years with SWWC Service Cooperative and has worked with Project Search in Marshall and Stars Online Academy as well as some alternative learning programs. Miller also served on the Redwood Area School Board for two terms while working at SWWC Service Cooperative.
When talking about the draw to Tracy, Miller shared the similarities to where he had grown up in Iowa and the Tracy area.
“When I grew up, it was in a place that was very similar,” Miller said. “There was a town of 800 nine miles that way and a town of 500 12 miles that way. It’s gravel roads. I was very involved in FFA. My dad farmed; I grew up in an area very similar to Tracy.”
Miller is excited for his future in Tracy.
“I just remember talking to some of the teachers and support staff and I thought,’That’s really special,’” Miller said. “There were people that have been there a long time. I just saw myself leading a group of passionate people that I met on staff. I felt like I would fit in. I heard the word family 30 times. The school is a huge part of the identity of the town. It’s a small town and good school. I can see my children going here.”
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