Outgoing Eagle Valley principal praises replacement

Eagle Valley Middle School was thirsty for a cultural shift more than a decade ago when Lee Conley was named principal, he felt.

At the time, then-Superintendent Richard Stokes had asked him to oversee the middle school, even though Conley had no desire to leave his position as principal at Seeliger Elementary School.

“I didn't know anything about Eagle Valley. I used to drive by out there on the road and look over here and I thought it was a minimum security prison,” he said.

Conley became an important mainstay willing to help young students in their transitional age.

Now, Conley is set to retire in June after about 30 years in education and will pass the baton to current Fritsch Elementary School Vice Principal Gina Hoppe.

Conley noted her strengths that he feels he lacked as an administrator.

“She’s got a good, strong curricular foundation, instructional foundation,” Conley said. “I think she's going to come in and probably really enhance what is already here, which is good. And so now, honestly, I'm kind of at the point where I don't feel nervous about what's going happen to Eagle Valley, and I feel like, OK, we got a good person who's going to come in.”

Hoppe, who was a teacher for 12 years and has been at Fritsch for five years, also thought she would stay in elementary school.

“I’ll continue that legacy of where Eagle Valley’s at and pick up what they’re working on and add some little creative pieces to it,” she said.

Now, the test of moving up intrigues her. It’s a chance to navigate staff support and partner with families, she said.

“I think that challenges of life outside of school have become more demanding and greater and tougher on families,” Hoppe said. “Honestly, the kids are the easy part of this job. It's the family dynamics. Sometimes it’s what they're coming from or going to and just the kid trying to balance it.”

Hoppe brings some familiarity to Eagle Valley having interned on site while she was earning her master’s degree. She also brings a balance of understanding and responsibility to the student’s needs for success, Conley said. He teases he and the staff are “inundating” her with information but assures everyone the transition will be seamless.

“She's going to be a good match because she can care for a kid and coddle them when they need it, but at the same time go, ‘OK, come on, dude, let's get tough,’ and ‘I can't be here to solve all these problems for you, so let me support you and you figure how to do it,’” Conley said.

Conley said he looks forward to being off a strict routine and not bringing work home anymore. He’s anxious to ride his horses more and plans to start his own handyman business. But he admits his easygoing demeanor hardly overshadows his love for his school and profession as he heads into retirement.

“At first, I was trying to be kind of nonchalant, like, ‘Well, I’m done, I don’t care what happens. Eagle Valley? You know, it’s their problem now,’” Conley said. “But it hasn't been that way, and I really was worried about who they might get in to take over what I think we've established as a really positive culture — a place where kids, I think, actually want to be.”

As for the legacy he’s hoped to have left with the students, it’s to have encouraged to be a “little selfish” creating their own path, making friends and becoming the best person they can be. Educators, Conley said, work to point students in the right direction.

“Middle school is weird anyway to begin with,” Conley said. “They’re emotional, you know, they’re socially awkward a lot of times. … When it comes to your attitude toward school, how you're acting in class, are you going to be one of those kids that you look back at yourself in 20 years and go, ‘Man, I was either a kid that tried, I might have struggled but I tried’ or ‘I was a kid who was more of a troublemaker, I’m not sure why I did that?’”