With the announcement of Principal Jeffrey Fletcher’s resignation this past January, the role of Head Principal had been open. After a lengthy interview process, here to fill this role is Jon Schultz.
“I think there was a lot of excitement, a lot of pride [after finding out],” Schultz said. “I was excited for the opportunity to join the community and connect with the people here. I felt validated in my work and my efforts.”
Schultz actually worked at North for a couple of years in the early 2000s before he moved on. Most recently, he worked at Howell for 12 years, where he was an associate principal for the past four. While he is sad to leave Howell, he is also excited for the new challenges this position will bring him.
“It’s always sad to leave places, there’s always connections with people that you’re leaving,” Schultz said. “But, I think that there is a time in people’s careers where there is an opportunity to continue growing and an opportunity to stretch yourself. And I do think that I’ve gotten to that point in my career where I’m ready to have a different direction and work with people in a different way. In my role as the associate, I’m still directly reporting to a principal, and I think that I feel like I’m ready to take on challenges of leading an entire community, as well as mentorship for new administrators and new teachers.”
Many members of Howell are also sad to see Schultz go.
“I will miss having Mr. Schultz as a leader in our school, but I am excited for him to be the new Head Principal at North,” FHHS science teacher Brianna Jordan said. “He does a great job of growing the success of all different kinds of students and teachers.”
While a lot are sad at Howell, numerous teachers and administrators at North are excited to have him join the team.
“I actually have known Mr. Schultz,” Associate Principal Erin Steep said. “We were actually in the same building before both of us came to the district. We were both at Marquette High School, so I’ve known him for 17 years. I’m super excited to get to work with him again. I think he’s straightforward and super systematic, and I think he will do a great job.”
As Schultz is getting ready for this transition, he is looking to listen before he makes any big decisions. When he does make changes, he hopes to do them in a systematic way that works for everyone.
“I think that the Howell North community is moving in a really positive direction,” Shultz said. “For me, the first thing I’m going to do is a lot of listening. I need to understand there are a lot of traditions and points of pride that I need to be aware of and understand before I can make any real changes. At the end of the day, my goal is to develop systematic processes that will allow our community to continue forward, for students to feel connected and belong to the North community, for staff to feel like they’re heard and listened to, for high expectations for achievement for all students, and whatever that chosen path is. And I think that if you look at my history at Howell High, those are things that have driven me in development of scheduling processes to ensure that students are in capstone classes, to ensure that we have the most effective instructional material presented to them, to really work to make sure that we’re maximizing people’s efforts to really make sure that students can come out and be successful.”
