Principal Micheal Craft announced his retirement for December 2025 of this year after serving as principal for 8 years.
Craft’s love for teaching came from his father, who was an educator in Rockbridge County. His father died when he was in ninth grade, and the educators surrounded him with support.
“A lot of my teachers helped raise me and take me under their wing, so I have a lot of admiration for the teaching profession,” Craft said.
Seeing the community that was able to support him through his loss is what influenced him to want to be a part of the teaching community. Mr. Engelman, Craft’s Industrial Arts teacher, inspired Craft to go into the profession.
Craft went to Virginia Tech, and then came back to the area to do his student teaching. Since Craft couldn’t student teach at his former school, he was placed at Parry McCluer High School. A Technology Education job at PM opened up for the following school year, and they offered it to Craft. He accepted and began his teaching career there.
While at PM, he also coached football.
“Athletics was a big part of my reasoning for going into education,” Craft said.
He coached football for 35 years, but he also had a passion for administration. Although Craft had been offered an administrative position he denied them every time.
“This is what I thought one day I would transition to being in administration. But I love coaching so much you couldn’t do both, so I kind of held off on my career as a building administrator for a good while,” said Craft.
In 2017, current Rockbridge principal Haywood Hand was moving to Central Office to become Assistant Superintendent. Craft and Hand had coached together before, and Hand had suggested to Craft to apply for the open principal position.
At the time, Craft was principal at Parry McCluer Middle School and head football coach at Parry McCluer High School. Although it was a hard transition to leave coaching and come over to Rockbridge as principal, Craft said it was a wonderful experience.
“I didn’t know what to expect coming from a school with 300-some kids to one that had 1,000, but it has been a great transition,” Craft said.
Over the past eight years as building principal, Craft has led the school through the Covid-19 pandemic as well as the CTE innovation renovation; however, Craft is ready for the next chapter.
“I have some things I still want to do, while I’m still physically able to do them. Plus, I have a granddaughter who is four years old,” Craft said. “I want to be part of her life while she still wants to be around Pop, which is what she calls me.”
When reflecting on his proudest moments, the little moments stand out.
“I know when I go to the grocery store, and one of my former students walks up to me and starts a conversation about, hey, remember this or remember that, or I sure had a good time doing that in your class, or remember that touchdown I scored? I mean, those are the rewards,” Craft said. “And I’ve had a few that come up and said, you changed my life. I said, I never made it through school if it wasn’t for you. I mean, those are the things that educators live for.”
For current students, Craft will be most remembered for greeting students at the crosswalk as they walk into school each day. He tells us the reason behind his morning greeting.
“If I can say good morning to 200 kids a day. Some of them just ignore me, some of them will say it back. But if I reach one of those 200 and make their day just a little bit better, because somebody said good morning to me, I’ve made a difference. I mean, it’s just those little types of things,” said Craft.
As Craft prepares to retire, his guidance for students is to enjoy every moment.
“I know I’ve heard a lot of kids say, I hate school, or I can’t wait till I graduate. Enjoy the time that you’re here, live every day, go to every event you can go to, participate in everything you can, because you’ll never forget the stuff, the relationships you built, the memories you made,” Craft said. “Take full advantage of it. Don’t take that for granted. You only get one chance in the school. The journey is the most important part, not the end.”
