Salem R-80 Superintendent Dr. Lynne Reed announced her retirement at a July 20 meeting of the school board. In her letter to the board, she thanked various people involved with the district and community.
“Thank you to the members of the Board of Education during my tenure here for consistently making the effort to do right by kids. I will forever be a champion of second chances, showing grace, and advocating for the kid or adult who makes a bad choice, but learns from it. Thanks to Dustin Howard and Steven Patterson, the two board presidents with whom I have worked closely. They have taken the responsibility seriously, and I have never doubted their passion for the District and its students. Thanks to the members of the press in Salem who have reported school news factually, always in a way that made it clear their only motive was keeping the community informed. And thanks to the community that supports its schools and students in a variety of ways, creating an environment that instills a desire in kids to stay in their hometown,” read Reed’s letter.
Reed’s last day will be June 30, 2024. Stepping into her role on July 1 will be Dr. Nathan Wills, who is the current assistant superintendent.
Wills, who has been with the district two years now, is no stranger to rural communities. Wills spent 10 years as an elementary school principal in Puxico, Missouri, while he lived in Cape Girardeau. He and his wife are originally from the tiny town of Bell City, Missouri.
“There's less than 500 people in the town-- my graduating class was less than 20 people, and there's probably 200 or less kids K-12. So, we've got the four rural schools here, but they're K-eight [at] about 200 or, you know, give or take. Well, I mean, we were K-12. Everybody knew everybody, you know, how the how it was,” said Wills. “It’s kind of funny, you know? When I got here, people would say, oh, you lived in Cape Girardeau. You’re probably not used to a small town. I’m like guys, my hometown, closest gas station was 15 miles away. We had no stoplights, you know. We've got Walmart here, McDonald's, we’ve got Taco Bell, we’ve got a Mexican restaurant. I mean, it’s got all the amenities I didn’t have growing up.”
Since Dr. Reed’s retirement announcement, Wills says she has spent time with him, helping him acclimate to the new roles and responsibilities he will be taking on as superintendent.
“Mr. Smith, who is actually one of our part-time instructional coaches, he had this position before me and he was with the district for 28 or 30 years or something like that. So he was gracious enough when I came in, in June of ’22, I spent like three weeks with him, just learning what he did, and trying to absorb as much as I could before he officially retired. I'm very fortunate that now that I'm next to Dr. Reed, I get not just three weeks, I get a full year of learning how we do things here, and how school operations go in general,” said Wills.
Moving forward, Wills said he wants to focus on the CSIP, the Continuous School Improvement Plan, which has been discussed at several prior school board meetings.
“Late spring, early summer of last year, we brought in people from the community-- teachers, parents, business leaders-- and tried to formulate kind of an overall goal, almost a strategic planning for the district. So we've written that, we've submitted it to the state, we've got to get some feedback on that still, but once that's in place, we're really going to focus on the strategies and the action steps that align those goals. So, you know, to increase our map and EOC scores,” said Wills. “we're always trying to get better. Even if [the map test scores] are great, I’m going to say we need to do better. But we also want students coming out of high school that are college or career ready. So, if the students want to go to college, we want to be able to know that they left Salem High School prepared, or [with] construction trades, that they've learned a skill that will make them successful right out of high school.”
Wills said the bottom line is that he wants the district to produce graduates that are prepared to be plugged into the community’s workforce.
“The biggest thing I will say, […] we want kids to come out of this high school and be prepared for the workforce, and eventually live in Salem. I understand people moving away and having careers outside of that, but I think that it's very important that that we understand as a school community and this community at large is that we want these kids to come back and that we've prepared them to improve the community that they left,” he said.
Wills is a third-generation school administrator, and says he loves being part of the Salem community.
“Coming from that background, that's why we were we were really drawn to Salem, coming here. It's just that perfect size, because you have the amenities you need. But then it's also a small town, where I enjoy going to Walmart and seeing people I know. I don't mind that,” said Wills. “I love going to sporting events, and just being a part of that school community and the community in general. We've got some things coming up that you'll see, [that] we can't really talk much about yet, but we've got some exciting stuff. You know, improvements. You know, Dr. Blau, he says ‘it's a great day to be a Tiger’, I'd say it's a great time to be a Tiger. We're excited about the challenges. I'm excited about the challenge, and, we're just going to keep pushing forward through COVID and just trying to get better and grow kids every day.”
