Stratford’s middle school principal is leaving at the end of the school year to become headmaster at a K-8 school in Missouri.

Mr. Andrew Myler, who has served as principal since 2009, will take charge at St. Paul’s Episcopal Day School in Kansas City in early July.

“Most of my experience is with K-8 and I’ve worked in an Episcopal school before and I enjoyed it,” said Myler.  “St. Paul’s has a reputation for excellence much like Stratford, and I think it’s a very good school.”

Myler has worked tirelessly to strengthen the middle school program.

Over the past few years, as Stratford’s director of curriculum and instruction for the lower, middle, and upper schools,  Myler has worked to institute methods of learning that are linear and protect students from wasting time re-learning material they may have already covered in a previous course.

“He’s one of the smartest guys I know,” Head of School Dr. Robert Veto said.  “He’s great at connecting with teachers, faculty, and parents.  He makes us proud.”

Mr. Dewayne Lawson, 8th grade history teacher said, “He has really good ideas. He’s easy to talk to and he’s a great listener. The students are willing to talk to Mr. Myler and believe he listens to them. He’s not in his office all the time.  He bounces around and interacts with the teachers and the students.”

“Stratford and Dr. Veto have given me lots of great opportunities,” Myler said. “Stratford was very supportive when I decided to look and pursue a head job.”

Myler will carry out his duties for the remainder of the school year.  He is officially scheduled to begin at St. Paul’s on July 1st, and will probably move to Missouri sometime during the middle of June.

“Bow ties go with me,” he said with a smile.  “I don’t think I even own a regular tie.”

Myler talked about some of the challenges and opportunities he’ll have as a new head of school.  He seemed encouraged and ready for the challenge.

“I’m excited about learning about other areas of school life like admissions and development.  I think it’ll be interesting.  I’m also excited about working on big picture, strategic projects.”

Veto said the search for a new middle school principal will begin soon. The search will include internal and external candidates. “We are looking for somebody with passion and a gift for working with that age group,” said Veto.