Veteran Mt. Pleasant educator takes high school helm

The new principal at the helm of Mt. Pleasant High School is a familiar face.

Mike Wilson, who has been the school’s associate principal for the past 12 years, is now at its helm.

Wilson takes over for Todd Liechty, who left the district at the end of last school year to become superintendent at Rudd-Rockford-Marble Rock and Nashua-Plainfield school districts.

Liechty had been principal since 2006. Wilson brings with him similar longevity.

“I’ve been in the Mt. Pleasant Community School District since the fall of 2000,” Wilson said. “I started off here as an exercise science/PE instructor and a coach.”

He was in that role for eight years, as a high school physical education teacher, assistant football coach, assistant basketball coach and boys golf coach.

“I spent most of my time in the coaching realm prior to getting into administration,” he said.

In 2008, Wilson was named interim dean of students, a position he held for one year.

“There was a late change in the high school associate principal,” he recalled. “I was called and offered the position in late July to be the interim dean.

“At that time, I’m thinking I’ll be the interim dean of students and still coach football, basketball and golf, which I did.”

He spent that year watching and learning from other administrators in the district.

His experience in the interim role that year gave him the confidence that he could be an administrator.

“When they offered me the full position of associate principal, I thought to myself that I can do this and do it the right way,” Wilson said. “I understood the process a little bit better now.

“It was one of those deals when you have the opportunity to increase your capacity as a person and it’s presented to you, you’re foolish not to take it.”

Wilson said that being a coach and being an administrator “correlates hand-in-hand.”

He said that, as a coach, he works with students and with parents in a communication role.

“You might help the parents troubleshoot some things,” he said. “As a coach, parents may come to you and ask, ‘What can my son or daughter do to get into this role?’ As a principal, it’s the same thing to me.

“I’ve always taken my role as a principal or associate principal as a coach.”

He said that administrators have coaching moments.

“It’s a coaching time being able to work with students to correct a not-so-good behavior and coach them into how it can be done better or what they need to be able to do,” Wilson said. “You talk about what their goals are for themselves.

“It’s the same thing whether you’re talking to the student as a student or a student as an athlete.”

He added that the same thing goes into speaking with a staff member or teacher.

“What can I do to make your teaching environment better?” he said. “What can I give to you to make it more effective? What advice can I offer to you to make sure that I’m trying to take things out of the way so you can be the best teacher you can be?

“To me, a lot of it is those reflective coaching conversations. I’ve done that for 30 years.”

It was good coaching from teachers and coaches while he attended Emmetsburg High School and Buena Vista University that drew Wilson to a career in education.

“When I was a student in school, way back to junior high and high school, I always had excellent teachers that were not just teachers,” he said. “They were teaching about other things in life. The handful of coaches that I had from middle school all the way through college always had an impact on me.

“Even in my early years at college, I didn’t see me doing anything different than being at a school teaching something and coaching kids. I wanted to be a coach like all of those people who helped me.”

With 21 years in the Mt. Pleasant district, Wilson credits his longevity to working with great people.

“A lot of the staff members are veteran staff members,” he said. “There are a handful of us who all came in around 2000, and we’re all still here. Our staff is so close knit.

“We have such a great teaching community. You can feel the energy from our students, because they know that our teachers are good. They want to be involved. They want to be the best for those students.”