Last bell: Miller retiring after 22 years as Director of Teaching and Learning
The same values that defined the Buffalo-Hanover-Montrose School District when Pam Miller arrived 37 years ago continue to set it apart today.
Miller, who became Buffalo High School’s first Spanish teacher in 1989, and who has served the past 22 years as the district’s Director of Teaching and Learning, is preparing to retire at the end of the school year.
“Our foundation is on relationships. I think that’s not always true of other districts,” Miller said. “And we’re a district that has always valued choice. That was true when Buffalo had one stoplight and Pamida was here. Now the community and the district look different, but those things are still true in 2026. That’s been neat to see, how those things change over time, but also how they remain true.”
“For over 20 years, Pam’s leadership of the Teaching and Learning Department has been a cornerstone of our district’s success, leaving an indelible impact on students and staff alike,” said Superintendent Scott Thielman. “Her remarkable success in spearheading key initiatives leaves behind a legacy of innovation and a standard of collaboration that will inspire us for years to come.”
Entering education
A native of Sacred Heart, Minnesota, Miller grew up as the daughter of a teacher who advised his children against careers in education because of the challenging nature of the field. But a desire to serve in a “helping profession,” and time spent working at a school for migrant children while she was in high school, ultimately led Miller to change her major at Mankato State University from physical therapy to teaching.
She graduated in the spring of 1989 with a license to teach both math and Spanish, and applied for any open positions near and far. She landed in Buffalo when then-BHS Principal Nick Miller hired the school’s first in-person Spanish teacher to replace a previous remote learning class done over television.
Though Miller had not known Spanish when helping with the migrant school, the experience was formative nonetheless.
“The people were so lovely,” she said. “I fell in love with the culture before I fell in love with the language. In college I needed a language elective so I took Spanish and I loved it. It’s so sequential, just like math is, so it came easily to me.”
Administrative shift
After 10 years in the classroom, and encouragement from colleagues to seek out a role in administration, Miller began to split time as a teacher and as an administrator overseeing implementation of the state’s new Profile of Learning accountability program.
After two years in that capacity, she became the full-time Coordinator of Accountability, managing testing, the high school’s Student Services department and master schedule, and the school’s professional development efforts. She also obtained her principal’s license, having decided to pursue additional leadership opportunities.
The next step was a district-wide position supporting the curriculum director, and when the Director of Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment retired two years later, Miller took over.
“I thought, ‘I don’t know if I’m ready for this yet,’” she recalled, but she earned the job and obtained permission from then-Superintendent Jim Bauck to change the title to Director of Teaching and Learning.
“I didn’t like the CIA title,” she said with a laugh. “I felt like it encompassed more of what I wanted the position to be, about teaching and learning instead of curriculum instruction. The other title sounded more about compliance instead of support for teachers and principals: ‘You must do this,’ rather than, ‘What can we do together?’
Teaching and learning
Not having served as a principal herself, or as an elementary or middle school teacher, Miller said she initially dealt with “imposter syndrome” since her new role primarily consisted of overseeing the district’s principal group, its K-12 curriculum and the associated professional development training.
“For a short period of time I was supervising Nick Miller, who had hired me as a baby teacher coming right out of college,” she said. “I wasn’t going to tell Nick Miller how to do his job.”
Instead, she adopted a “learning by listening” approach that helped her excel as a supervisor, evaluator and developer of classroom teachers and educational leaders alike.
“I never taught young students how to read, so the elementary teachers were the experts in their field, and I learned through the process,” Miller said. “It was the same with the principals. I had to use a coaching method because I hadn’t been in their shoes, but I could learn how to support them in those roles.”
In addition to those primary tasks, Miller’s role involved managing a plethora of other areas within the district, including its multi-tiered system of supports for student interventions, federal grant applications and programs, American Indian education programming, partnership with the Northwest Suburban Integration District, and more. Though in some ways the tasks were very different from teaching in a classroom, Miller applied a similar mindset.
“I loved being in a classroom and teaching high school students. I never felt like I wanted to get away from that, but I loved the process of education and embracing learning. So instead of students in front of me, then it was adults in front of me. I still look at what outcomes I want, my lesson, and what my curriculum is for the year.”
One of the biggest adjustments was allowing extra time for change across multiple schools and departments, whereas in a classroom she could have made her own adjustments the next day.
“You can’t just dictate change, because then it’s compliance instead of commitment,” Miller said. “I’d rather work for commitment.”
Highlights, challenges
Two particular highlights of Miller’s career in Teaching and Learning were the implementation of the new school start times in 2016-17, and the development of the district’s Portrait of a Graduate.
Later start times for the middle school and high school were based on educational research and the science of what would be most beneficial to teen students.
“Dr. Thielman and I heard the case for later start times at a conference and said, ‘This is something we need to investigate,’” said Miller. “It was a true system change. From that starting process of just hearing about reasons for doing it and actually making it happen, how we went about that process, that is a highlight.”
The Portrait of a Graduate, adopted by the district in 2023, outlines the framework of essential skills students should build each year, and gives staff members a common purpose.
“I really like that we have a vision that we’re all working toward. If I’m a high school French teacher or kindergarten teacher, I can see how I’m able to contribute to those skills,” said Miller. “Those are highlights of system-wide things we’ve done that I can see my footprint on and say, ‘I loved being
involved with that.’ I loved working with the people I around me in order to make those things happen.”
In terms of challenges, the COVID time period was unsurpassed.
“How were we going to deliver instruction in a way that none of us have any research on? We couldn’t point to any best practices,” Miller said. “I don’t like when people look to me, as a leader, to have the answer, and I don’t have an answer. Then you just go with, ‘Here’s what I think we should do.’”
Those large-scale projects and difficulties kept the work fresh and engaging as time passed.
“It’s been a long time. I never thought I’d do this for 22 years,” Miller said. “I figured that if I wasn’t going to get a new job, then I need to make the job new. So I’ve tried to approach evaluations that way: as someone who is supportive and asks how to help push you in an area so that you continue to find satisfaction and purpose in what you’re doing.”
Looking ahead
While she enjoyed her work, Miller said she is excited to enter retirement along with her husband later this year.
“Someone asked if I was nervous and I said, ‘Not for a minute,’ because I have a lot of interests and hobbies, and right now I have (very little) time for any of them. And I believe I probably have more interests and hobbies that I have yet to discover,” she said.
Gardening, spending time outdoors and visiting with her three adult children and extended family are immediate plans, and eventually she plans to do some traveling as well.
“I’ve been grateful for the opportunity,” Miller said. “The district as a whole gave me so many opportunities to do great things, and I’m nothing but grateful for all of it.”
