Soon after his retirement from Community High School in 2011, Brian Miller could still be seen in the hallways of Community. He was assisting Ellen Stone in Poetry Club that met in Ken’s room on Wednesdays during lunch. He taught at Community for 28 years of his 32 years of teaching. However, his first year did not begin as he had hoped. “Prior to the start of the school year we had no contract and ended up striking,” Miller said. “I thought to myself ‘great, I finally get a full time job, and I am on strike,’ I thought I was going to get fired.”

Before teaching at Community, Miller substitute taught after having graduated from college in 1979. He taught mainly Humanities at Huron and Pioneer high schools as a long-term sub over a period of three years. He also had a long-term assignment at Community that led to a job in the Social Studies department under unusual circumstances. He was hired to teach part-time, but during the teacher strike at the start of the school year in 1983, a full-time Community High history teacher, Jack Gray, died of a heart attack before school began. “I was asked to take his full-time position, and Cheryl Grace took my part-time position,” Miller said.

In the early 1980’s, when Miller was hired, Community was different in some ways compared to today. “In 1983, we did not have computers in school,” Miller said. “A year later we got our first Apples. We had to use floppy disks containing applications, because the hard drives were so small.” Another change was the way the curriculum was created. When Miller was being interviewed for the teaching position he learned that Community encouraged teachers to design a curriculum. “I was asked what was my ideal class to teach if I could design my own course,” he said. “I mentioned a few … [Science and Society, Pop Culture, Women Studies and Arab-Israeli Conflict] and in addition courses such as philosophy.” Many course titles listed above are no longer taught because Miller moved from the Social Studies to the English Department. When the new teacher was hired into Miller’s position, she was asked what her ideal course to teach would be. She then designed some of her own courses that changed the curriculum again. Miller designed new titles after switching to teaching in the English Department such as Philosophical Issues in Literature, Modern Drama, American Film, and Literary Analysis and Interpretation. Now there are more state requirements so teachers do not have as much freedom designing their own courses for the curriculum.

Other changes to Community from the 1980’s are the size of the building and student population. In 1991 Community High was temporarily located in Stone School while it was being renovated because of higher number of students wanting to go to Community. “First of all, it was expanded. We added classrooms to the back of the building on all three floors. We also wired the school for technology,” Miller said. In 1983, when Miller started teaching there were only about 180 students, but as the demand to go to Community increased, parents and students started camping out on the front lawn for a spot at Community. “This went on for a few years after making the nightly news,” said Miller. “ One year parents waited in line at Balis weeks in advance. The weather was so bad administrators allowed parents and students to sleep in the school buses. The next year they created the lottery.”

After seeing all the changes at Community, Miller retired in the spring of 2011. “I enjoy retirement very much,” he said. There are some things that Miller misses in his retirement from Community, however, they are made up for by other activities. “I knew I would miss teaching because I loved it so much, but I still teach at Washtenaw Community College,” Miller said. “The only difference is the workload, not so many papers to grade.” He also misses students and staff, but can still be seen walking through the halls of Community.

Despite the many changes at Community during his time teaching, Miller believes that the essence of Community High has not changed. “It is expressed in its name. It is a community of students, parents, teachers, administrators, support staff and the community at large. It is a learning environment that is nurturing, challenging, supportive, and based on mutual respect for all members of Community High. I hope through all future changes people keep Community’s essence intact,” Miller said.