Principal Gail Holder looks forward to seeing her student’s development this year
Mill Valley News: What is your job at Mill Valley, and could you please describe some duties and responsibilities?
Dr. Gail Holder: Yes, I currently serve as the building principal. My duties and responsibilities are the overall safety and well-being of students and staff at Mill Valley, the instructional process here at Mill Valley, all operations in the building, hiring, appraisals, schedules, systems, communications, and things of that nature.
MVN: Can you tell me some of your background?
GH: My background is that my first 27 years were in the classroom. I taught English, and I was a dance coach, then I spent two years at the district office, and then I was an assistant principal at Olathe East, for two years. But now I’ve been here. This is my fifth year.
MVN: What are some of your hobbies?
GH: I really like to be with my family, I love to ride bikes, I love to shop, and I like to hang out and travel with my friends.
MVN: What made you come to Mill Valley?
GH: I really wanted to serve and expand my experience as an educator, and so I had been in the classroom, I had been a coach. I have been at the district office, and so I wanted to have an opportunity to be not only an administrator as an assistant principal, but I wanted to be a principal.
MVN: What makes your job important to how Mill Valley operates?
GH: What makes my job important is that it’s just a great responsibility with great importance comes great responsibility. You’re never away from your job, it’s a 24-hour job to make sure students and staff are safe, but then also that everything is continuing to run day in and day out.
MVN: What’s your favorite thing about your job?
GH: I really enjoy high school students, I have been around high school students really my whole career, except for student teaching. But the other thing that is a favorite part of mine is seeing students succeed and go through that high school process where they might start out in one place as a freshman, but then over four years, they become somebody very different, and they have a clear path for what their future looks like beyond high school. I think when I see students graduate from high school and have that clear path and know what their future could be, that’s one of my favorite parts for sure.
MVN:What’s your favorite thing about Mill Valley, specifically?
GH: I work in a fantasy land. I really feel like Mill Valley is just a place where we have incredible kids, and great families who really care about education. We have students who respect each other and respect teachers, and for the most part, really respect the idea of what an education can do to help get them to the next stage. And so I love that it’s not everywhere in every high school where you will find students and staff so incredibly committed to the fact that there is going to be a next chapter after Mill Valley.
MVN: Could you tell me about an item in your office or on your desk that’s important to you?
GH: There’s a picture in my office of water and it has a rock on it, and I’ve had that picture ever since I’ve gone into administration because administration is a role in education. And the picture symbolizes for me a new day. The rock is this idea of strength and wisdom and then in the water, you can see the rock reflected. So it’s about this idea of reflection, you know, reflecting on your practice as a principal, and then knowing that there’s going to be a sunset and then a sunrise the next day, knowing that each day is a new day and a new opportunity to make an impact.
MVN: Is there anything else your student should know about you?
GH: I think they should know that, although they sometimes think I’m scary or intimidating, truly my heart is one of deep compassion and love for what I do. I just have extraordinarily high expectations for not only students but myself and sometimes that comes across as being scary or mean, and it’s not. I’m just very assertive and I have high expectations. But as high as my expectations are, I know that students will always exceed wherever I put that bar.
