Conversation and Connection: Shelby Tiger Pride Key to Superintendent's Philosophy
**Credit - By Lois Tomaszewski Executive Editor - Oceana's Herald-Journal
Jayna Burmeister joins Shelby Public Schools Superintendent Mark Olmstead at the ROAR poster, an important element that contributes to Shelby Pride.
This week, Shoreline Media publisher Mike Hrycko and executive editor Lois Tomaszewski visited with Shelby Public Schools superintendent Mark Olmstead.
Mark Olmstead is many things. He is the superintendent of Shelby District Schools. He is a husband, a father and a leader in the community. He is also a curator — a curator of community — which is exactly the type of connection he is hoping to maintain and energize at Shelby Public Schools.
A big step in that direction came with the completion of Shelby Elementary School in December. The brand new school houses students from kindergarten through fifth grade, combining two older elementary schools into one building. But it also made a physical connection to the middle and high schools which are located, literally, a short walk away from each other.
Olmstead has ties that connect him to the area and Western Michigan. Both sides of his family are from Ludington and the Mason County area, especially in the eastern end of the county. Early in his career as an educator, he worked in the Kingsley Area School District outside of Traverse City, but felt the urge to come back to this area.
With four children at the time, Olmstead said he and his wife talked about moving back to Western Michigan.
“I had the opportunity to be an assistant principal at Mason County Central,” Olmstead said. So his family moved back to familiar territory.
He became middle school principal there after a few years. At about that same time, the same position was available in the Shelby Public Schools. Olmstead said friends encouraged him to apply then but he waited.
“I stayed at Scottville for three years,” Olmstead said.
When the middle school position became open again in Shelby, Olmstead did apply this time. He got the job and said he was fortunate to find a house for his family within six months, a house on 20 acres with a barn for his daughters’ horses.
That “And just being part of the Shelby tradition,” Olmstead noted, gave him confidence he had made the right decision. ”Learning about that and understanding what that all meant to be a Shelby Tiger.”
Since that time, Olmstead has moved into the role of Superintendent, There have been times when he was either principal or superintendent while his own children were students in Shelby.
This school year marks a decade since Olmstead first moved to Oceana County. This is his second year as superintendent. Even with the time he has already spent soaking in the understanding of what the Shelby tradition really is, he said he still learns new things about that idea.
As superintendent, Olmstead said he has more opportunities to engage with community members and organizations outside the school system more than he did as a principal.
“It is a chance to maintain that Shelby Tiger pride and work towards reinventing that too when we have new opportunities,” he said.
In Olmstead’s view, Shelby Tiger Pride is a well-rounded education, offering a quality traditional educational experience, and being part of that family in which there is a connection to each other throughout the school district.
“I think we are feeling that incrementally,” he said. “Since we moved onto one campus it’s been a tangible feeling that ‘Wow, we are one!’ and we have these different opportunities to connect.”
It is that ‘small town feel’, he said, where you have elementary school students who are interested in attending the athletic events that take place and so they begin to experience what it’s like to attend a basketball game or going to a football game on a Friday night. These experiences can nurture younger children’s enthusiasm to play sports or be involved in other ways like the Science Olympiad team tradition.
With the area’s diverse population demographics, Olmstead said the goal is to make every student feel welcome. Smaller school districts provide more opportunities, Olmstead said, based on his perspective from having spent time in a K-8 school in Detroit. Still, he said, there will always be challenges no matter what you are trying to do.
“What we are aiming to do is just be able to have students feel that they have a place here at Shelby, whether they want to stretch themselves academically, whether they struggle with reading or they struggle with other things that have to do with life. How can we take that family or that student under our wing and give them the best opportunity to feel success.”