School: Greenwood - New Elementary Principal (2022)

Contact: Dolores (Mohr) Kenyon
E-mail: dolores@wiclarkcountyhistory.org 

Surnames: Lilly, Felhofer, Green, Kaiser

----Source: Clark County Press (Neillsville, Clark Co., WI) 5/18/2022

Lilly to be New Greenwood Elementary Principal (2022)



Shane Lilly, shown here with his partner Mary, has been named the new principal for Greenwood Elementary School. He will begin his role in July. Submitted Photo

By Valorie Brecht

An educator with area ties is returning to central Wisconsin to support the Greenwood School District as elementary principal. Shane Lilly will begin that position July 1.

“I’m looking forward to getting involved. And I do have some relatives in the Owen-Withee area and know some people in the Loyal area, so I have some connections to the area. I’m excited to start,” Lilly said.

Lilly coming on board is the result of some shifting in the school district’s administrative team. District administrator and 7-12 grade principal Todd Felhofer will wrap up his time with the district June 30 to take a position in another district. Current elementary principal and director of teaching and learning Joe Green will move into Felhofer’s role, opening up the elementary principal position for Lilly. The director of teaching and learning duties will be coordinated through Cooperative Educational Service Agency 10.

Lilly started looking for an administrative position a couple of years ago through the Wisconsin Education Career Access Network (WECAN). When the Greenwood position popped up, he applied and was chosen.

“I’ve come in second three or four times now so it’s rewarding to be chosen,” he said.

Lilly will return to the area after being away for several years. He is originally from Pittsville. He earned his bachelor’s degree in mathematics in 1992 from the University of Minnesota and got his teaching license in 1994. His first teaching gig was as a long-term substitute teacher for Loyal math teacher Beth Kaiser in 1995. He then taught math at Owen-Withee High School for four years. He then had the opportunity to move back to Pittsville, which he took. There, he taught high school math for 14 years, along with middle school math a couple of those years.

Along with teaching, Lilly also coached volleyball at all three of those schools. So his son Carter grew up around volleyball. When Carter got to be high school age, he wanted to play volleyball competitively.

“Well the only place that offered it was in the Milwaukee/Madison are,” said Lilly.

So they ended up moving to the southern part of the state, where Carter played four years of high school volleyball, with his team taking second at state his junior year. Carter went on to play college ball at Carthage and was part of Division 3 national champion team.

While in southern Wisconsin, Lilly continued teaching. He taught in Craig High School in Janesville. He worked as the dean of students for two elementary schools in Janesville for the 2018-19 school year, after which the school district dissolved the position. Since fall 2019, he’s been teaching math at a charter school in Janesville.

Lilly earned his master’s degree in administrative leadership through Silver Lake College in 2014. In comparison to the dean of students position, Lilly felt the Greenwood position might be a better fit.

“In the dean of students position, one of the elementary schools had 450 students, so three sections of each grade. Greenwood is a much smaller facility with much smaller class sizes. I think it will suit me well as I’m used to Pittsville.

“I’m looking forward to knowing the families of all the kids. In big schools, kids and teachers come and go. So I’m excited to come back to a place where the kids really know the teachers and the teachers know all the kids, and to get back to small town life,” Lilly said.

Lilly lives in Janesville with his partner, Mary, and golden doodle Mitch. He expressed gratitude to Mary for all her support.

Lilly’s son lives in Kenosha and works as a nurse. His mom lives in Oconomowoc, and he has two brothers out of state.

In his free time, Lilly enjoys watching movies, cutting firewood, biking and other outdoor activities. He started the Central Wisconsin Volleyball Club and hope to get involved with coaching volleyball in some capacity in Clark County.