Marshall Academy Director Noah Wilson was recently named the 2022 Michigan Charter School Administrator of the Year.
The announcement was made as a surprise during “opening ceremony” inside the Marshall Academy gymnasium on May 13 in front of students, staff, Wilson’s family, Michigan Association of School Personnel Administrators (MASPA) and other supporters.
Each Friday, during opening ceremony at the school, every student and staff member meet in the gymnasium to begin “high-five Fridays,”where the school celebrates one another’s successes during a given week.
After students and staff were finished saying the Pledge of Allegiance on May 13, that’s when Wilson was surprised and presented with the award.
“We get done with the pledge and the doors open up from the elementary side, and it’s the Charter School Association, the president walks out with a microphone, my Ferris charter school’s there, the management company is there,” said Wilson. “There are like 40 people walking through the door. So I was flattered. It was really cool to have that area where we’re doing something as a school all together. Everybody that had buy in, everybody that was a part of it was there to see it and witness it, so it was really special.”
In mid-March, Wilson learned he was a semifinalist for the award, which put him in the Top 10 for charter administrators in the state of Michigan out of hundreds of applications.
In late March, it was announced that Wilson made the cut in the Top 5 as a finalist for the award before being announced the overall winner.
To qualify to win the award, Wilson had to submit six essays, three letters of recommendation and three pieces of data.
At first, Wilson said he was hesitant after receiving a nomination to enter an application because he said he feels like he has more goals to achieve for himself and the school.
But after learning what some people associated with Marshall Academy were saying about him, Wilson figured he would go forth with the application. Now, things have come full circle from that point as Wilson is recognized as the top charter school administrator in 2022 out of over 1,500 total administrators.
“Until you’ve retired or you’re just done, you always have to continue to work hard and have a drive to do better,” Wilson said. “For me, I received a nomination, and it’s cool because you get nominated for teacher of the year and administrator of the year and stuff like that, and I had been nominated before. And I just said ‘man, I don’t feel like I’ve really hit it yet, I don’t feel like I’m really there.’ I have a whole list of goals written on my white board and I’m like ‘well I’ve hit a couple, but I haven’t hit them all yet.’”
Then, Wilson was informed about some of the things people were saying about him and at that point decided to follow through with the application process.
“They said the thing you would like to be recognized for,” Wilson said. “Just things like having a kind heart, pushing kids to do better, recognizing a good staff. But really the heart of it, whether I meet my goals—meeting those steps are really what drives me. That kind of touched me that they recognized some of those things.”
At Marshall Academy, Wilson is back in his hometown raising his two boys with his wife Jheri after spending 12 years in education in Florida.
Wilson began as the director in the 2018-19 school year and said he is excited to continue his personal journey while seeing Marshall Academy continue to grow.
“I feel like, for me personally, I've kind of found my little niche here,” he said. “I’m in a small school where community and personal relationships are important. For me as a person, community and personal relationships are very important to me, which is why I moved home. So, I found that niche and that’s where I’m like ‘this is perfect, this feels like home, this feels like right where I want to be.’ I love the spot that I found and love where I’m at.”
His hope is that people recognize Marshall Academy as an option that is free for students who may thrive in the smaller school environment, while hoping to see Marshall Public Schools continue to thrive at the same time.
“For the school, I don’t think Marshall as a whole understands that we champion the public school,” Wilson said. “Many of our own kids and family members and relatives go to Marshall Public Schools and we want what’s best for Marshall Public (Schools), so that we can get what’s best for us. We just want to be a part of the community and we want to give kids choices. And most of our kids have tried the public school and for one reason or another—maybe they didn’t fit in, maybe they needed a smaller class size, maybe they needed more attention on them. If the public doesn’t know that Marshall Academy is a choice, and a free choice and a public school that follows all of the same standards and takes all of the same tests—I mean, we have pretty much the same curriculum as the larger public school. People don’t know that about us, so really, I just want to get the word out to the greater community that Marshall Academy is an option for a select few kids.”