Longtime leader
Most of East Valley High School’s senior class was born in 1989. That’s the year Jeff Miller began his administrative career at the school. Miller served as assistant principal for five years before he became the school’s main administrator in 1994.
Since East Valley opened in 1960, the school has had only four principals: Raymond Lee, Al Latimer, Don Kartevold and Miller.
Miller, now in his 13th year, is the Valley’s longest-tenured principal at the same school.
“No hard data is available, but trends would suggest that principals’ tenures would follow national employment trends,” said Jocelyn McCabe, director of communications for the Washington Association of Secondary School Principals. “It’s becoming more and more uncommon to see people like Jeff who stay in one building so long.”
Miller, 51, grew up in Cheney and, at 6 feet 8 inches, he stands out in a crowd of students.
“He’s a really big guy, said John Marlow, senior class president. “He was kind of intimidating at first but he’s a real friendly, approachable person.”
Miller spends lunchtime in the school cafeteria, where he walks around and visits with students to see how they’re doing. “He’s always there if you need help,” Marlow said. “He even offers to take students’ lunch trays when they’re done.”
“He always talks to me about basketball since he was a basketball player,” said Emerson Fulton, a senior on the varsity team. “He’s really informed about what’s going on even though he’s not actually part of the basketball program.”
Miller said he still loves every aspect of a high school. “I love being around the kids. I don’t mind coming back at night for games,” he said. “I like concerts and plays, and I even like dances.”
As an ASB officer, senior Ashley Grater recently worked with Miller on the school’s spirit challenge basketball game with Rogers High School.
“He’s the one that suggested a disco theme for the community dance after the game,” Grater said. “He was practicing his moves in front of us. He actually likes doing that stuff and he gave us a lot of creative ideas.”
Miller played basketball for Coach Jerry Krause at Eastern Washington University, where he graduated in 1979. “It was fun playing in my hometown,” Miller said. “I thought I’m going to grow up and be a PE teacher and a basketball coach for the rest of my life. What else would anyone want to do?”
After graduating from Eastern, Miller began his teaching career at the K-12 school in Hunters, Wash.
Miller got interested in what the school principal and district’s superintendent were doing and went back to school to get his principal certification from EWU and later he received his superintendent certification from Washington State University.
At the ripe old age of 29, Miller got his first principal’s job at a K-12 school in the Harrington School District. He served as principal and athletic director there for three years.
“It was great to be in a small district because I learned a lot about the total functioning of a school, things I might not have learned if I had taught in a bigger district and been an assistant principal,” Miller said.
When he got to East Valley he saw how a team of administrators worked together with one person handling discipline, one managing athletics and another person handling the curriculum. The school’s current enrollment is more than 1,400 with a teaching and support staff of 125.
After 18 years, Miller said he’s been at the school long enough to see just about everything that can occur in a large high school.
“We’ve had some tough things,” he said. “We’ve dealt with weapons issues. I’ve had four or five loaded guns on campus that I’ve had to deal with.”
But over the years the students haven’t changed that much, Miller said. “If anything they’ve changed for the good in that they’ve learned to be a lot more accepting of one another. They have more respect for diversity.”
The love of education runs in the Miller family. His daughter is a first-year teacher in Nevada and his wife is a middle school principal in another district. Their dinner conversation usually revolves around what happened at their schools that day, Miller said.
Once every 16 years it’s Washington state’s turn to put a principal on the National Association of Secondary School Principals board. The group meets four times a year and provides a national voice for school leaders and focuses on federal legislation like the federal No Child Left Behind Act.
Miller competed with principals from across the state for the position on the board and is now in his second year of a four-year term. He represents Region 7, which includes Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, California, Nevada, Utah, Alaska and Hawaii.
“It’s a really great learning experience for me, meeting with principals from all over the country,” Miller said.
Curt Hisaw was Miller’s track and swimming coach at Cheney High School. Before retiring four years ago, he taught social studies as a member of Miller’s teaching staff.
“He’s a good man,” Hisaw said. “He tries to accommodate what’s best for the school. It doesn’t surprise me that he’s recognized at the national level. He enjoys that type of activity to support schools.”
Kathy Luden agrees, “He’s very dedicated to his profession,” she said. Luden retired last year after 31 years in the EV district. She taught English and worked with Miller since 1989.
“He’s very organized and very efficient. He allowed me as a teacher to be autonomous,” Luden said. “He doesn’t micromanage the staff, but he’s very supportive.”
At one time Miller thought his next career move would be a district superintendent but he said he’s keeping his options open.
“This is a nice job. I like being in touch with the kids,” he said. “When you leave the building and go to a central office you sometimes lose that. And even though I may aspire to do that some day I don’t want to do it right now. I’ve always liked it here. I like our community, I like our kids.”