Powell Township School awards Superintendent Michelle Gill with first teachers’ choice award

BIG BAY, Mich. (WLUC) - Powell Township Elementary School in Big Bay presented its first teachers’ choice award on Friday morning.

Michelle Gill is the district superintendent and the elementary principal. She was chosen by the teacher’s union as the award’s first recipient.

“It felt great to be recognized for all my hard work, normally I’m very busy here, and most of my time is spent helping students as the principal,” said Gill. “So, it was a fantastic feeling to receive an award.”

The award was created to recognize staff or community members for their hard work in the schools. Gill said the recognition is great however, working with her students is the best thing about the job.

“Helping them, all students have needs that we can always meet here at school, but we do our best to meet all their needs here at school,” said Gill.

A teacher at the school stated that they chose Gill because she has all the qualities of a great leader.

“She’s empathetic to all the students and all the staff, she meets with students and is on the phone with both building and family problems. She helps to resolve all these things, so she does a great job with it,” said third and fourth-grade teacher John Gillette.

In under two years, Gill has been able to get up to $200,000 in grant money. Another teacher said some of this money helped replace a 90-year-old boiler room.

“It’s a big amount of money to replace our boiler system, so now we have grant money from eagle mine and were able to replace the boilers,” said Kathy Keup, the fifth and sixth grade and PE teacher.

Teachers from the union said that all students need love and attention as it can make a tremendous difference in their lives in the classroom and at home.

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