Macville principal receives Award of Distinction

Macville public school principal Michael Logue (back row, centre) recently received the Award of Distinction from the Peel district school board. Offering their congratulations were (back row, l to r) Grade 2-3 teacher Sarah Doughty, secretary Molly McRae, secretary Marinka Hilton, Grade 8 teacher Jeremy Taylor, (front row, l to r) Grade 1 teacher Andrea King- Judge and teacher-librarian Brenda Leupolt. For his unique and exemplary contributions to public education in Peel and to the Peel community, Macville public school principal Michael Logue was presented with the Award of Distinction by the Peel district school board.

In their nomination letter, Macville staff members wrote that Logue demonstrates true excellence as he works with pupils, staff and parents on a daily basis. His excellence is shown in his ability to instinctively know what to do in all situations, in the way he does everything with a positive, constructive energy, and in the many positive changes that have occurred at Macville since he arrived as a brand new principal in September 2004.

Logue demonstrates his value of the family, and draws on his own experiences to constantly communicate with and support families in need by listening to them, offering suggestions, and finding assistance from whichever support personnel are appropriate. A specific example of this occurred during the summer when he was doing business at the school and then went to deliver grocery store cards to the home of a needy family the school had been supporting. This was done likewise for a different family on the Christmas holidays.

He takes a huge part in developing and building the school float for the Bolton Fall Fair to advocate Macville's presence in the community and support its agricultural roots.

Macville's annual Spring Fling fund-raiser is a huge success due to his efforts and enthusiasm.

Despite the demands on his time as principal of a school without a viceprincipal, Logue is available to staff as much as possible and will always put himself out to support a staff member in a difficult situation, by covering for someone himself, if they need to leave the school. He supports staff in many ways like leaving M & M's in mail boxes or making tea for an afternoon treat. He supports staff closely in all school activities and in striving to achieve their career goals, as well as keeping the work/life balance which helps them become better individuals.

Logue always supports his staff members when dealing with parents as he keeps communication positive by finding ways the school and parents can support each other, thereby demonstrating what each is doing to support that student.

He has always opened his home to staff parties to keep staff connected. He strongly supports, and is involved in all staff social events. He provides breakfasts and lunches for staff during professional development sessions.

Everything that is done at Macville under Logue is directly or indirectly to support pupils and enrich their learning and experiences. He has initiated many programs for pupils such as indoor recess movie days, ping pong and table hockey.

He brought together the Caledon tennis clubs to bring Introduction to Tennis Sessions for junior pupils into all Bolton schools. He started a golf club for intermediates.

He demonstrated significant input to Macville's 2006 Terry Fox Run. He volunteered to walk the eight-kilometre part of the Trans Canada Trail where the run was held in order to judge the distances of primary and intermediate students to walk, and to determine pickup and dropoff points. For safety he organized OPP constables to be escorts and to block roads to assist with crossing them. He also invited and included the mayor and Town of Caledon staff, and the trustee, who participated in the kickoff assembly and walked with the pupils.

Logue initiated fundraising such as hotdog days and Christmas tree sales, and helped them run them in order to lower the price of the intermediate trip to Quebec so it would be accessible to all pupils.

He receives funding from school council to promote special assemblies such as the Argos anti-bullying.

The Macville staff concluded in their nomination that Logue brings out the absolute best in all staff, pupils and parents through motivation, wisdom and a sense of humour. In the words of Education Week 2007, Macville pupils, parents and community are more ready to "Welcome the World" thanks to the effort and presence of Michael Logue.