Melinda Wright

Assistant principal retiring after long career

Melinda Wright will retire this year as assistant principal at Conway High School. She started her career in education as an English teacher 36 years ago in south Arkansas and came to the Conway School District in 1995. She moved into administration in 2004.
Melinda Wright will retire this year as assistant principal at Conway High School. She started her career in education as an English teacher 36 years ago in south Arkansas and came to the Conway School District in 1995. She moved into administration in 2004.

After 36 years in the field of education, Melinda Wright is ready to move on to the next phase of her life. She will retire at the end of this school year.

“My immediate plans are not to get up at 5:30 in the morning,” she said, laughing.

Wright, 60, will retire as assistant principal at Conway High School. She taught English for 23 years in Conway, as well as in other cities, and has been assistant principal at the high school for the past 13 years.

“We are losing so many years of experience with her retirement,” said Jason Lawrence, Conway

High School Principal. “Behind the scenes, she does things for kids that everyone else has no idea about, with no expectation of praise or recognition.

“I am happy for her as she moves to this next stage in her life, but she will definitely be missed.”

As retirement is sure to bring a change to Wright’s life, so too will her upcoming marriage. She and Glen Chase of Conway have been dating for more than three years and will be married in June. Chase is the senior wire editor at the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette in Little Rock.

Wright and Chase will spend their honeymoon in Ireland.

“I have been to Ireland before, but I will be seeing it through different eyes this time,” said Wright, smiling. “I am really looking forward to it.

‘We plan to visit Dublin, Shannon, Killarney and Belfast, where we hope to see them filming Game of Thrones,” she said.

Wright grew up in Texas, mostly in the Dallas area. She is the daughter of Frieda Dyer, who now lives in Conway, and the late Sam Dyer, who died in 2010. Wright has two younger brothers, Trey Dyer, who lives with his wife, Holly, in Bedford, Texas, and Patrick Dyer, who lives with his wife, Marnie, in Virginia Beach, Virginia.

Wright, who lives in Greenbrier, has two sons — Chip and Jess McDonald.

Chip McDonald is a basketball coach and a social studies teacher in Calico Rock. He and his wife, Jamie, have two children, Michelle and Austin.

Jess McDonald is married to Sheri; he is a police officer in Austin, Texas.

Wright has three stepsons — Duane, A.J. and Tom Wright, who are the sons of her late second husband, Terry Wright, who died in 2011.

Duane Wright and his wife, Amy, live in Bentonville and have two children, Evan and Levi.

A.J. Wright and his wife, Renee, live in Greenbrier and have two children, twins Amelia and Elijah.

Tom Wright lives in Greenbrier.

“I will soon be adding a fourth stepson and four more grandchildren,” Melinda Wright said. “Glen’s son, Matt Chase, and his wife, Yavonda, live in North Little Rock and have one daughter, Alaina. Glen’s younger son, Ben, died in 2016; his wife, Robin, and their children, Marlee, Reilly and Ollie live in Conway.”

Wright graduated from Athens High School in Athens, Texas, in 1975. She attended Henderson County Junior College in Athens and the University of Texas in Austin before moving to Arkansas.

Wright graduated from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock in 1980 with a Bachelor of Science in Education degree and from Henderson State University in Arkadelphia in 1986 with a Master of Science in Education degree. She received her Education Specialist degree in secondary administration in 2007 from UALR.

“I didn’t always want to be a teacher,” she said. “I always loved English and reading, but when I started college, I wanted to be a pharmacist.

“I got through organic chemistry OK and was still enjoying school,” she said. “Then one day, in the middle of my world history class, I just suddenly remembered how much I loved English and history and thought I could be a teacher. I changed my major and never looked back.”

She began her teaching

career in Carthage, Arkansas, in [Dallas County] in 1981, teaching English there for two years. She taught English at Sheridan Junior High School from 1983 to 1995, when she accepted a job at Conway High School. She taught English at Conway from 1995 to 2004, when she became an assistant principal.

“My focus in teaching English was always literature and writing, which, of course, includes grammar,” Wright said. “My favorite part of teaching was watching the students surprise themselves when they did something they didn’t think they could do.”

She said she always enjoyed teaching.

“I tried to be creative in finding inspiration for my lesson plans. I often came up with ideas while driving in the car, listening to a song or the news. I tried to find things that would motivate the kids,” she said.

“Then an opportunity presented itself for me to get into administration,” Wright said. “I thought I would try it, and I’ve loved being an assistant principal. It’s a rewarding job to be able to help kids, to get to know them on a personal level, one-on-one.”

Wright said that when she moved into administration at Conway High School, she was one of two assistant principals.

“Now there are five. We have 2,100 students in grades 10 through 12,” she said.

“My main responsibilities as an assistant principal are supervision, teacher evaluation and discipline,” Wright said. “I supervise at ballgames, which can be fun and exciting. It’s been fun to attend home games and watch the student section. I also supervise the halls during lunch duty.

“When I have to discipline a student, I try to get as much information as I can on what happened, and if I can, I try to turn the situation into a

learning experience. It’s all about helping the kids, getting them to realize they have just one life to live, and whatever they are doing will affect them for the rest of their life.

“It’s hard to be a kid today.”

She said the biggest change she has seen in education is “technology … without a doubt.”

“When I first started teaching in the ’80s, there were no computers,” she said.

“I didn’t get my first microwave until 1982,” Wright said, laughing. “I did get a bag phone in 1994 or ’95. Now computers are in all the schools and in students’ hands all the time. They are communicating all the time.

“Technology has created a challenge, as we all know, but it has also offered opportunities. Students can use the computer for research and analysis. What would have taken me a week in a library … physically, going to a library … now takes a student three days using resources that can be found all across the world.”

Wright said she would advise prospective teachers “to have a passion for the subject you teach, but also have a passion for the students you are teaching. One without the other is not productive.

“These kids are the No. 1 thing, always,” she said.

“Kids at Conway High School have so many opportunities to become active outside the classroom,” she said. “There are musicals, theater, band, the Caring Cats Club and any number of little small clubs … creative writing, games. …

“There are so many opportunities and so many teachers willing to help the students. All they have to do is ask.”

Wright said she hopes to travel even more after she and Chase return from their honeymoon, although, she said, Chase has no plans to retire anytime soon.

Wright said she also plans to volunteer with organizations that are important to her.

“I want to keep involved with kids in some way,” she said.

Wright said she will miss the day-to-day interaction with faculty and students.

“I have so many good friends here,” she said.

“I never cried at the end of the year when my students moved on to the next grade, the next level,” she said. “That was what was supposed to happen. I feel the same way about retiring. It is time for me to move on to the next level of my life.”

Upcoming Events