For the past 37 years, Lone Grove has been home to Meri Jayne Miller.

Beginning as a student teacher, Miller has spent her entire professional career as an educator with the Lone Grove school district. Since 2014, Miller has served the district as the superintendent. That tenure will come to an end this month when Miller begins her retirement as Richie McKee takes over after serving as the assistant superintendent.

“There comes a time when you see what is behind you and what is ahead of you,” Miller said. “Richie hit the nail on the head when he said, ‘When she became a grannie, I got to see all that.’

“I was not going to be one of those people that turned into a grannie and just went crazy, Well, I did.”

Miller said she has embraced becoming a grandparent more than she could have imagined. When she used to think of her daughter Lyndsi Beard telling her that she was pregnant, Miller said she wondered whether she would have her grandchildren call her MJ or Ms. Miller.

“Well, no, it is granny,” she said. “I had just not wrapped my head around that world because I thought that is a long time away. Well, it wasn’t. And it just go me to thinking.”

Miller said her priorities began to shift. While she was still focused on her job, she realized a new season had come in her life.

“I have learned some very hard lessons that tomorrow is not always guaranteed, so live today,” Miller said. “My husband John and I had a talk. We have talked about it for two years. And I told him I wanted to leave Lone Grove better than what I found it. And I wanted to set an example and build the framework to where a young fresh mind can take that and do wonders with it. And that is what he (Richie) is doing. That is exactly what he is doing.”

Destined to teach

Miller was a graduate of Plainview High School in 1983 and attended Southeastern Oklahoma State University, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in Science of Elementary Education in 1988 while also having two children.

“My mother (Betty Cavnar) told me it was the field that she had chosen for me,” Miller said. “I had two older sisters, I am the youngest of four. My father (Ed Cavnar) was in the oil business and so, I have an older brother who is also in the oil business. Mom and dad had three daughters, and mother decided all three girls would be in education. And we all were.”

Miller said her parents were from the greatest generation and didn’t have the opportunity to go to college. As a result, they set a goal that all of their children would earn a degree, and it was ingrained in her as a child.

Education was much different in 1988 with a larger employment pool for school districts to select from.

“Back in those days, when I did my student teaching in the spring of 1988, and the student teachers were everywhere,” she said. “I drew out Lone Grove as the place, the location because I didn’t have any family here. I had not been raised here so this was the natural selection. It was only a few miles from my house.”

Miller said there were seven student teachers in elementary school and the competition was tough. She was also the youngest of the student teachers.

“You just hope and pray you get the offer of a job and right before school started in the fall of 1988, I got a phone call to see if I wanted to come in and interview for a teaching position,” Miller said.

The position was part-time, and the interview was with the principal, Danny Hull. Miller received the job of a remedial math teacher for grades kindergarten through the fifth grade. The job developed into a full-time position within two weeks to meet the student demand.

Miller attended night school and earned a master’s degree in counseling from East Central University in 1995. She then became the counselor for the intermediate and middle schools, balancing her time between the two buildings. During that time, she learned what the building principals did and was given room to grow from Hull.

“He let me have as many duties as I wanted to do and I thought, ‘I can be a principal,’” she said. “I will go back to school. Why not? I am getting pretty good at this.”

In 1998, Miller earned a master’s in administration and became the intermediate principal in 2001, a position she held until 2014. It was during that time that Miller gained some experience as a superintendent, filling the office in an interim role in 2009-10, when Gary Scott experienced some health issues.

In 2014, Miller was hired for the position on a full-time basis.

Building a life

Memories have been made at Lone Grove for Miller, who has had her highlights while also having to navigate tragedy. Her kids Dusty and Lynsie attended Lone Grove, where she also met her husband John, who was a volunteer for the elementary school, in 2003.

“He volunteered and counted fundraiser money and hung around my office,” she said. “He had two children and was divorceD and I was divorced at the time. He asked me on a date, and I said no. And so, he did it again and I said, ‘I don’t know, I will have to think about it.’”

Miller said it had been years since she had dated but she was encouraged by her daughter Lynsie, who was a teenager at the time.

“I said, ‘Lynsie, I have this guy, and he is really cute and wants to take me on a date,’” Miller said. “But I told Lynsie, ‘I have not dated in 21 years.’ She said, ‘Mom, you need to go. I don’t even care what he looks like. You need to go because you need a life.’”

Mille said her son Dusty died in a car accident and not long after that, she had gotten a divorce. John had younger children and had just moved from Dallas. It is also fair to say that some teachers were also playing the role of matchmaker.

“We will celebrate our 20th anniversary in July,” Miller said. “He helped me with a part of my life with the loss of my son.”

She said they were a good balance for each other.

“On a personal note, my family and John are just a huge blessing,” she said. “Professionally, I can’t tell you how many friendships and acquaintances I have been able to make throughout the years, in whatever position it was, whether it was my student teaching, a teacher, counselor, you also remember those people that were good to you and offered advice, but also that are good to your kids.”

Miller said they hold a special place in your heart and Lone Grove has a lot of those types of people.

“They are very committed,” she said. “I found that out. Even though Dusty, Bobby and Isaac passed away in 2000, this community rallied around our family. That was 25 years ago but I remember it just like it was yesterday.”

The final chapter in education

Miller said the experience of serving as an interim superintendent led her to pursue the job several years later. Scott’s office staff helped make the experience smoother and she learned that serving in that administrative role was something she could do.

“It was not anything that was on my bucket list,” she said. “I want to school to be a teacher. I will always consider myself a teacher. But when the opening came, I thought I can serve our kids, our community, our district in such a larger way. Just make a wider impact.”

Miller said the board appreciated the enthusiasm and energy that she brought to the job. During the past decade, the district has tackled challenges as Covid as education has also gone through its changes.

Miller will miss parts of the job, but she will not miss the stress. She also thanked the district’s school board for its work during her time at Lone Grove.

“We have a great board,” she said. “Our board of education are hard working men. They have their own jobs during the day, and they don’t need to be doing mine. They hired me to do my job so I take as much off their plate as I can so we can take care of business for our kids and follow through on what our future plans are.”