New Boyne City Elementary principal to start next school year

BOYNE CITY — Mike Amabile is heading back to his home state to take over as the Boyne City Elementary School principal starting in the 2024-25 school year.

Originally from Eau Claire, Amabile received his bachelor’s degree from Western Michigan University in 2005. After attending a job fair, he made his way to Lee County in Florida, where he has worked in various jobs since 2006. In his time in the area, he has worked as a physical education teacher, assistant principal and high school principal.

“It’s a very nervous excitement,” he said. He told the News-Review he only applied to one job — the Boyne City Elementary School principal position — just to see if it would work out. His brother-in-law has property in the area, so they applied knowing at the very least they would be in an area they like.

Now wrapping up his fifth year as high school principal, Amabile is looking forward to returning to Michigan.

"BCPS is pleased to announce Michael Amabile as the next principal of Boyne City Elementary School,” Boyne City Superintendent Patrick Little wrote in a statement. “Mike performed outstandingly in all three rounds of interviews, which included getting staff members' input across various job functions within the elementary school and the district.”

However, it wasn’t always Amabile’s goal to work in administration. He originally wanted to work as a physical education teacher before being encouraged to go back to school and apply for an assistant principal job. He received his master's in educational leadership from Nova Southeastern University in 2011. The same year, he began work as a teacher in charge of discipline, which he said was similar to a dean position.

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When it comes to working as an administrator, Amabile said it’s important to make every decision with the goal of doing what is best for students. He told the News-Review this is something he and the district agree on.

“I'm always looking and evaluating, ‘Is this what's best for students?’ every single decision that I make,” Amabile said. “I sleep well at night because sometimes those tougher decisions, if you do what's best for kids, then you can't really go wrong with it. I obviously am not going to say that every single decision I've made has been most popular or even the right decision, but I have always done really well with that being the backbone.”

He also said what’s best for the teachers is something he prioritizes in his decision-making, ensuring that good, strong teachers are working within the school as well.

“That’s probably the single-most important thing you can do for kids, is put good teachers in front of them that are engaging in a very high-level, making things fun,” he said.

While Amabile wraps up the school year in Florida, Little said there will be opportunities this summer for the staff to get to meet the incoming principal and get to know him prior to the start of the school year.

— Contact reporter Karly Graham at kgraham@petoskeynews.com. Follow her on Twitter at @KarlyGrahamJRN.

This article originally appeared on The Petoskey News-Review: New Boyne City Elementary principal to start next school year