EXTRAORDINARY PEOPLE: The PrinciPAL

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — Being an educator is no easy ordeal. In perfect scenarios, bonds are formed. Such a scenario leads us to our Extraordinary Person of the Week… the PrinciPAL.

It has been said that the early bird gets the worm. At Williston Middle School, they get a handshake, a pat on the back, and a special hello.

“They got to the point they wait in line,” Principal Ron Villines said. “They used to roll past me.”

Ron Villines has been principal at Williston Middle for about a year and for about a year he’s been front and center. “From the 1st day,” Villines said, “we were outside and people were looking at us like, this man is crazy out here smiling and saying hello”

But this princiPALS efforts are far from crazy. In fact, these gestures are a welcome beginning.
“I think it’s a good message to the students,” he said, “that we’re going to have a great day today and it’s a great way to say ‘this is why I’m here at Williston Middle School because we’re going to have a wonderful day every day’.”

Villines says that reaching out is a way to connect with the students and learn a little bit about them in passing.

“It shows you the hearts of the kids,” he said. “To know we’re working together in education for their future. It almost lets me inside to see their personality a little bit, to see that warmth that they have inside and that beautiful smile they possess everyday.”

“What do you hope to get out of it?” Daniel Seamans asked. “I hope they realize with the relationship and bond we have, with anything, whether it’s academically or socially, that they can come to me with their issues.”

So yes, the early bird gets the worm. But some also get a little more and that extra effort, PrinciPAL Villines, is Extraordinary!

One last note, Princpal Villines has a total of 17 years in education. 8 years as a teacher, 3 years as an assistant principal, and 6 years as a principal.

Way to go, PAL!
-Daniel