Meet The Principal

By Mark Carpenter

People’s Defender

One of the common themes in our recent “Meet The Principal” series is the circuitous route that each administrator has taken to get to where they are today. This is also true for this week’s feature, Josh Michael, who is currently in his first year as the Program Director at the Ohio Valley Career and Technical Center in West Union. Like the others, Michael has made a number of stops along the way before landing in his present administrative position.

Josh Michael was born in Wilmington, the oldest of six children (four boys, two girls), and lived for a short time on one of his grandparent’s farms near Fayetteville. His parents bought a house outside of Mowrystown, meaning that he attended school in the Whiteoak district, other than his eighth and ninth grade years where he went to Hillsboro because his mother was teaching there at the time. He graduated from Whiteoak in 2000, where he says he played a lot of basketball and his teams had a lot of success.

“Sometimes I think I’m more recognized for basketball than anything I’ve done since,” Michael said, jokingly. Many local sports fans might remember his father, John Michael, as one of the most well-respected basketball officials in the area for many years, so “hoops” were a big part of the family DNA. Michael’s mother has been an administrator in the Hillsboro City Schools and Josh explains that “Mom’s job was to videotape every basketball game and they’d watch the tapes over and over.”

After graduating from high school, Michael spent a year at Southern State “just to get some classes in,” then went to Wright State to get his teaching degree.

“Being the oldest sibling, I was always teaching things to my brothers and sisters,” Michael says. “Somewhere in middle school or high school is when I decided that I wanted to be a teacher and I always wanted to be a History teacher. Mr. Lanham was my high school History teacher and I enjoyed his class and did well and my Mom being in education was also part of the process. I always thought that I wanted to be a basketball coach because my Dad coached all of us when we were younger.”

“I started at Wright State with all intention of getting a 7-12 History teaching degree but a credit to my Mom’s wisdom, she encouraged me to add more, so I added Math as my second area of interest and ended up never teaching a single class of Social Studies. Every time I got hired, it was to be a math teacher.”

“I never saw my parents ever miss work,” Michael continued. “That work ethic, that there’s no reason to miss, is the number one thing I gained from my parents. My Dad was the youngest of six children and my Mom was the middle child of 10. I learned to just ‘do my job.’”

His first education jobs were as long-term subs at Hillsboro and Leesburg Fairfield, then he immediately got hired at Lynchburg teaching high school Math, where he stayed one year before going back to Hillsboro teaching junior high Math. An opportunity opened at Fayetteville which he accepted and stayed until RIF cuts left him looking again.

“After that, I went to Goshen for two years and at that point I had to do the required continuing education and I was just planning to renew my teaching license, but again Mom stepped in and told me that I probably should look at pursuing a Masters in Administration. That wasn’t on my radar, but I ended up getting my administrative license from Xavier. An administrator from Western Brown (Gina Bohl) approached me and wanted me to interview, and I ended up being the assistant principal at Hamersville for two years. I really enjoyed the K-8 atmosphere, Mindy Pride was the head principal and just an amazing person to work with. I can’t thank her enough for her tutelage.”

Michael explains that he was content with being an assistant principal for 10 years, then maybe move up to the principal’s role. An elementary position opened up at Sardinia and with Pride’s urging, he applied and was soon on the move again after what he describes as an “elaborate interview process.”

“I stayed at Sardinia for seven years as the head principal,” Michael says. “Sardinia was amazing with a great veteran staff who welcomed me in. Fortunately, I already knew a lot of their staff and they knew my family beforehand. The whole time at Sardinia was a great experience.”

“I got a call from Katrina Wagner , who had left Russellville to become the Curriculum Director in Adams County. She told me about a principal’s opening at Peebles Elementary. I loved Sardinia, but my Mom always told me to at least take the time to listen. After talking with Katrina and Superintendent Seas, I thought that Peebles might be a good opportunity for me because I could be the principal but have an assistant and learn that dynamic. I wanted to learn how a bigger district worked so I took the job and was there for two years.”

Opportunity would once again come knocking for Michael after Dawn Wallace came on as the ACOVSD Superintendent.

“Mrs. Wallace came to me with the opportunity to come to the CTC and once again, I decided to listen,” Michael explained. “We were making some great gains at Peebles in a great community that loved their school. I decided to make the move and thankfully I have a great supporting cast here who welcomed me in, many of whom, of course, knew my Dad.”

“It’s different here at the CTC, but it’s the same. It’s different because you’re dealing with older kids and the things they do, they know better, where you have to teach instead of discipline sometimes with elementary students.”

One of the neat things bout the job at the CTC is Michael’s ability to be hands-on around the building, owing mainly to a job he took when he was 12 years old because he says, “he needed money.” He worked in construction and learned how to build, being trusted with more responsibility as he got older and all that added up to him having a working knowledge of what is being taught in his building.

“I loved going into the elementary classrooms, but now I’ll go into the welding lab, grab the equipment, put a mask on and weld with the kids. I can go into the construction lab and talk about when I was building pole barns and houses. I don’t know much about Auto Tech and Culinary Arts, but I’ll visit those programs to learn for myself. My wife is a nurse so I can talk to the kids in Health Careers. Coming here was something I never though I’d be doing, but ironically, my brother is the assistant principal at the Southern Hills CTC in Georgetown. It’s been an eye-opening experience here so far and I don’t think people realize the great things going on in a career and technical center.”

What makes the CTC unique? For Michael, it’s the fact that the kids in his building want to be in his building, it was a choice they made for their future career paths.

“Some kids come here with specific careers in mind, such as our welders,” Michael says. “Some kids come here because their parents came here and were in Auto Tech or Ag Mechanics, or whatever program. In today’s world, our skilled craftsmen are making money, more than some college-educated students. Most kids come here knowing what they want and some come here just wanting something different from the normal high school experience. We have 50% of our kids out on job placements now, making money during the school day. We also have kids come in for their labs then go straight to their college classes. They have realized that they can come to the CTC and still go to college.”

As if being the CTC principal doesn’t keep him busy enough, Michael also balances his own family, a wife and two active children. He met his wife Amber when they were both students at Southern State and they have been married since 2005. They have two children, both of whom attend school at Lynchburg. Daughter Sophia is a junior who he describes as a “brilliant young lady who loves playing softball.” Son John (named after his Dad) is a seventh grader playing junior high basketball and is also an accomplished cross-country runner who loves playing soccer. In his free time, you will find Josh “fiddlin’ around in the barn” as the family raises lambs that the kids show at the Highland County Fair each year. “Our vacations are what the kids are doing,” Michael adds with a chuckle.

“The number one thing that I want to see is these CTC kids become productive citizens,” said Michael. “But I also want them to have purpose, not to go out and hate what they are doing. If to become productive they have to come here and gain a skill set, then that’s what we want. I want to see kids grow up, have a family and contribute to the community in a positive way.”