By VERNON ROBISON
The Progress
Virgin Valley High School has a new leader at the helm. Last week, Bunkerville resident Mike Wilson took over at the school as principal. Wilson takes over the post after former VVHS principal Riley Frei went into retirement earlier this month.
After spending the past seven years working in Las Vegas as the Emergency Manager for Clark County School District, Wilson said that he is pleased to be coming back home and working in a school building again.
“I am very excited!” Wilson said in an interview with The Progress last week. “I have missed working with kids after mostly working with administrators and emergency responders for the past few years.”
Wilson said that about half of the kids at VVHS remember him as their elementary school principal at JL Bowler.
“I came in early to the high school one day and was just walking down the hallway and the kids were greeting me saying ‘Hello, Mr. Wilson!’ It was a good feeling!” Wilson said. “I am just really excited to be back in a school environment.”
Over the past couple of weeks, Wilson said he has been taking a close look at how student performance numbers at VVHS look on paper. He had nothing but praise for the way that the school has been run over the past three years under Frei.
“My hat is off to Riley!” Wilson said. “He did a wonderful job in taking that role, leading the school through a difficult time with COVID, and making the improvements needed. I am honored to be following him.”
Wilson commented that the VVHS has a strong tradition of high graduation rates which is consistently in the 92-94 percent range each year.
“Virgin Valley is very rich in its academic tradition,” Wilson said. “The school has been doing very well and we have these great students, great teachers and great staff at that school. I am excited to be a part of it now.”
With things going so well at the school, Wilson said that he did not have a list of anything to change as he comes into the position as principal.
“Steven Covey said, ‘Seek first to understand,’ and that will be my approach,” Wilson said. “So I want to understand the educational environment at the school. I want to see how the teachers teach, how the students interact. There is really not going to be any major changes that I want to make right off the bat.”
Wilson said that he will just continue to reach toward academic excellence and see that quality instruction continues to take place in the classrooms. “Those things are paramount,” he said. “But as far as any new major initiatives: no. I am just going to be learning and understanding the programs that are currently in place and then working with my team.”
