Man Becomes Principal at the Same School Where He Once Worked as a Janitor

Mike Huss who worked as a school janitor became the principal of the same school after some years.

55-year-old Mike Huss, the new principal of Ione Elementary School in California, USA, said he attended the school as a child and originally started working there as a janitor.

As a janitor, he made an effort to connect with students. Huss said teachers at Ione were the ones who first encouraged him to pursue a teaching career.

According to Russ, “A lot of teachers here at Ione Elementary kept saying, ‘You’re wasting your time. Look at these kids. They are attracted to you … and they want to be around you and they learn from you. You need to go back and became a teacher.”

As GoodMorningAmerica puts it: at first, Huss wasn’t sure if he wanted to change jobs and try something new. After all, he’d taken the school janitor job because he didn’t want to pursue higher education and wanted to work so his wife Karen could go to college. But after he and Karen married and had their first child, he said he found his why.

“I’d fallen in love, I wanted to get a job and help my wife go through college,” Huss said of the job, which he held for over a decade. 

“So I just said ‘oh, they’ve got a school’s janitor job, I’ll take it,’ and it worked out. I did not know I was going to stay there for all these years,” Huss added.

According to him, he wanted to show his young son, that if his dad could be the school janitor while coaching youth sports, and become a school teacher, he could accomplish anything. 

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Once he completed his degree, Huss immediately got hired to teach at the school. 

“I was literally the school janitor on a Monday. I worked a double shift. I worked from 6am till 10pm that night, getting the school ready,” he said about the transition from janitor to teacher. 

“The very next day, Tuesday, I was in my first teachers’ meeting. Thursday of that same week, I had my first class,” he added. I can do this job In 2022, after almost two decades of teaching, much to his surprise, he was offered the opportunity to lead this school. 

“I really think that I can do this job … because I have the support of everyone. I have to try my best every day for them,’ said the new principal. 

Ione Elementary’s office administrator Melanie Cortez told KCRA-3 that “it’s neat when people can stay in their community and there’s opportunities like this.” 

CREDITS: ALLSCHOOL, Legit, GoodMorningAmerica