Meet Novi Middle School's New Principal: Stephanie Schriner

Stephanie Schriner is not a new face to Novi schools, but she is to . After spending the past eight years as assistant principal at , Schriner will begin the school year this fall as principal of Novi Middle School. Novi Patch sat down with her to learn a few basic facts and to ask her about her plans for the year. 

Education: Education degree in home economics (now known as life management) from North Dakota State University

Experience: Assistant principal at Novi High School for the past eight years, principal of a Van Buren middle school in Belleville for four years, and 11 years of experience teaching at middle schools in Belleville, Jackson and northern Minnesota.

Family: Husband, Michael; son, Evan, 16; daughter, Jane, 13; and Danny Delatorre, 26, whom they raised as a son.

Residence: Northville

Hobbies: Reading, swimming, traveling, watching her children participate in athletics

Novi Patch: Do you have any goals or areas of focus as principal?

Stephanie Schriner: It is going to be a district goal that we work to improve educational opportunity for all students ... you know, we talk about the achievement gap, and that there’s a gap in scores ... working on that. We’re also going to be striving to provide a fantastic educational opportunity for every kid. That’s at the top end of the scale. Every kid needs to do their best and be able to move forward coming out of Novi Middle School, be ready for high school and move onto that path.

Patch: Do you foresee any challenges for this year?

Schriner: The idea that I’m going to walk into this office behind Milan Obrenovich, who was the principal here after 30-plus years of service, kind of makes me laugh—that I think I can do that job anywhere near as close to how well he was doing that job. So that’s a good goal for me to strive to be—what he’s been to this district and to this building, and it's certainly not something that I’ll accomplish in that first year, but I’m willing to give it a try. It’s going to be harder for the staff to acclimate to me—because they already have a set of expectations here—than it is going to be for me to acclimate to them.

Patch: What do you like best about Novi schools?

Schriner: When I came to this district, something that amazed me was how they swung the door wide on opportunity. If you think that some districts are only able to ... provide kind of a narrow window, I think Novi swings that door wide to say if you want something out in the world—an Ivy League school, a technical program, the skills to go right into the workplace—I think Novi provides that to our kids. I know my high school experience is talking a little bit there because I see what happens after us, and that excites me. Lots of opportunities at the middle school level is what that’s about.

Patch: Do you think your previous experience at the high school will help you prepare for here?

Schriner: Oh, absolutely. You don’t really think about it when you’re a middle school person. You do your job, and you hang out with those middle school kids, and you love 'em, and you do your job. Being at the high school and talking for eight years about graduation expectations and job employability and career readiness—those are real, tangible things.

And here, we do a really good job preparing them for that next level, but it all builds. It’s a building block up to that, and I’ll be able to talk to parents better now about which math direction they need for their child and how many electives or which programs should they sign up for.

Also, I think it’s important with the new Michigan Merit curriculum to be able to say they are going to be working really hard at high school; we need to prepare them for that by working hard here at the middle school.

Patch: Anything else you'd like to share?

Schriner: I guess if I could help to showcase Novi Middle School in a greater variety of ways this year, that is something that I’m going to strive to do. Whether it be through district communications and the use of the media … and including social media like Facebook and Twitter, those are going to be things that they might see as something new and exciting coming out of the middle school.