Mr. Mark Bily is an English teacher here at Coconino High School. He is originally from New Jersey, but was born in Elgin, Illinois. Then he moved across the country to New Hall, California.

He attended Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona. While he was at ASU, he majored in Education, Industrial Arts and English. What made him choose Education, Industrial Arts and English as his majors, he realized that he wanted to have a job interacting with people.

Mr. Bily has been teaching for thirty years. He has taught at Flagstaff High School for two years, then he went to Long View Elementary School in Phoenix for six years and he then taught at Arroya Elementary School also in Phoenix for two years, and he finally came here to Coconino, and he has been here for twenty years.

Mr. Bily came to Coconino because he saw an opportunity to teach English and Journalism. He also heard the student body and the teaching staff made the place a very positive place to work. Some time during his career here at Coconino, he realized that: “There had been dramatic changes. For an example, there was a small town feel since I started working at Coconino,” he replied, “So the students were more small town like, now many students lived in other places in the United States. It’s unusual to have students from Los Angles, Phoenix and Los Vegas and their families are coming here to Flagstaff and going to school here.” The school change in the population is that it’s more diverse.

After thirty years of teaching, Mr. Bily feels its time to retire. “It’s a feeling deep down inside that its time to go. Kind of like a senior in high school,” he said, “I feel like I should be doing something else right now. I still enjoy teaching, but I would like to explore my life a little bit more.”

His plans after he retires, is to take a year off and do a little traveling and see what there is in his life. “I would like to explore,” he said

Some of the places he would like to visit are Mexico, Alaska, Canada and New York. What makes these places stand out more from the rest of the world is that he has never been to Mexico, and he has had Mexicans and Mexican-Americans is class and they tell him about Mexico, and he’s a little curious. He would also like to visit Canada and Alaska because he simply loves the outdoors. Lastly, he would like to visit New York because he would like to see the baseball Hall of Fame in Copperstown.

Next year, Coconino will miss Mr. Bily. There may not be another English teacher like him, but he will be forever missed here at Coconino. He will forever be remembered by those students he has taught, and by the school staff.