Mike Roades is in his third year as the principal at West Union High School. (Photo provided)
Mike Roades, West Union High School
By Mark Carpenter
People’s Defender
Doing it with integrity and doing it right. Those are the principles of Mike Roades, now in his third year as principal at West Union High School. Those personal doctrines follow Roades from his office desk at West Union to his spot behind the pulpit as an associate pastor at a local church. When Roades came to WUHS, there were admittedly things that needed to be fixed and to this point, the progress is undeniable.
The long road to West Union began when Roades was born in Wilmington, Ohio. The first few years of his life were spent in Hillsboro, Ohio, with his parents and one brother. In his words, “all of a sudden we decided to uproot and we moved to Winchester, Ohio.” Roades lived in Winchester until he was in the sixth grade and then his life and his family’s life took an unexpected turn.
“We had a calling to go to the mission field and we sold everything that we had and moved to Arizona,” Roades explains. “My Mom worked in the local church and my Dad worked in a power plant and they pretty much gave up everything and we worked in Arizona with the American Indians as volunteer missionaries for four years. I went to public school, which was a whole lot different from here. One building I was in had nearly 2,000 students. So it was a big transition for me coming from Winchester Elementary. In my junior year, we came back to Winchester and we lived in a camper in my grandparents’ yard for a while as my dad built us a house. Instead of the power plant when we came back, Dad worked as a contractor and began building houses.”
“My parents taught me integrity, to make sure that everything I did, I did it with integrity. The values were instilled in me that when someone saw me, they saw something that was good. Integrity is everything because if you mess that up, everyone then sees you in a different light. Of course, the Christian values that I learned were huge, trying to live a life like Christ as much as I possibly could. I was born and raised in the church and I’ve tried to instill those values in my own children. The caring and listening that goes along with all that has become a vital part of what I do each day here.”
Roades finished his high school years at North Adams and he refers to himself as a “Devil graduate now working in a Dragon world.” He tells that by the age of nine, he knew he wanted to go into education, wanted to be a teacher, though he just can’t pinpoint why.
“I used to sit my brother down when he was in school. I had a chalkboard and he hated it, but he sat and listened and I tried to be the teacher. I just felt a passion and drive to be a teacher,” he said.
That passion led him to Circleville Bible College (now Ohio Christian University), where he attended for four years. The school did not get accredited while he was there and his degree only allowed him to teach at a Christian school and he didn’t feel that was the direction he wanted to go. He connected with Ashland University and entered their Bachelor Plus program for two years of extra schooling, which earned him his state teaching license. That led him to be a substitute teacher in the Adams County Ohio Valley District, while also working with his father building houses.
He married his wife, Susan, in June 1995, meeting here as they both attended church at the Winchester Church of Christ in Christian Union. In 1998, after what he describes as a very beneficial substitute experience, Roades applied for a sixth grade position in the Bright Local School District at Belfast Elementary and was hired and stayed for three years, teaching all subject areas in a set of outside modulars. In 2001, he moved to a fourth grade position in Georgetown and after six years there, the principal came to him and said “It’s time for you to do more.” He asked what she meant and she told him it was time to think about administration. He told her that she was crazy.
“I respected her highly and her opinion meant a lot to me,” says Roades. “So I went ahead and worked on my masters degree through the evening classes from the University of Dayton, which took me three years to complete. Then I started on my principal’s license, which I didn’t have when West Union Elementary was in need of an assistant principal. I applied as a long shot and they went ahead and hired me. Pat Kimble was the superintendent and we ended up starting on an alternative license.”
After promising them that he would not leave, after one year at WUES, Roades had another opportunity. There was a principal’s position open at Bright Elementary and the same night of his interview he was offered the position. He got an “offer that he couldn’t refuse” and accepted the position and stayed from 2008-2011 before another piece of his life opened up.
“I began to work on my superintendent’s license through a one-year program at Xavier University and in the meantime I moved up to the principal’s job at Whiteoak High School from 2011-2016. Being the lone wolf at a junior/senior high school can take a toll on you and it wore me out pretty quickly. It became difficult for me and my family because we didn’t have time for each other and that put a strain on us.”
“I received a phone call from Jim Frazier at the Brown County ESC and told me about an open special education supervisor position in their office. It scared me a little, but again was offered the position the same night as my interview. He made me a decent offer and I had to answer within five minutes. After a quick discussion with my wife, I called back and accepted the job. I was there for six years (2016-2022).”
“Greg Grooms sent me an e-mail about a posting for the principal’s position at West Union High School,” Roades continued. “I wasn’t sure the e-mail was meant for me and again I interviewed with Superintendent Seas, Greg Grooms and a couple of board members and of course I got a call that night. They offered me the job which I took and I’ve been here ever since. We’ve seen some good things happen here with students and staff.”
“When I got here, we were at a point where there were several fights a day in the building and it was pretty rough – drugs, vaping, disrespect. When Judge Brett Spencer and Prosecuting Attorney Aaron Haslam got involved, things began to shift in a positive direction. Charges were sent up on the fights and it didn’t take long for the fights to go away and had it not been for the courts stepping up, we’d still be where we were my first year here. This year has been night and day from last year. We also have SEL counselors in the building now and they are overwhelmed, but our discipline referrals have gone way down. We have a lot of tools that are making a positive influence.”
Away from the school setting, Roades and his wife enjoy time with their three daughters – Alexandra, Allison and Abigail and their 17-month old grandson. Though some people might be unaware, Roades is also an ordained minister and the associate pastor at the Wesley Chapel Church of Christ in Christian Union. He is also the music director and the youth minister, very poured into his church. The Roades family also loves traveling to the beach and they are fans of trips to Gatlinburg.
In one of those travels, Roades explained how he and his wife were national celebrities for a short time.
“We were ambushed in New York City for the Regis and Kelly Show. We went on the show and got a makeover, the whole nine yards, got a helicopter ride around the city, they wined and dined us, it was our brush with greatness.”
“My philosophy of education is that I make an impact and my teachers make an impact every single day,” says Roades. “I don’t care if it’s academically, social-emotional, but our jobs in education have changed so much that we’ve taken on the task of being far more than teachers or disciplinarians. Now we are counselors, we are tutors, we are listeners. If I can cause a kid to be successful in this world, then the impact that I’ve made is probably one of the biggest impacts. It’s priceless.”
”I still have high hopes for West Union High School. I want to see it progress and be successful. I still want to see our kids be more and more successful in our community, with the community as a big part of the school,” Roades said in closing.
