Beloved principal Mike Janatovich will move from his position as the IHS Principal to serve as the Director of Curriculum and Instruction in South Euclid Lyndhurst beginning this fall. He explained that he will be “responsible for everything curriculum, instruction, and assessment” for the whole district, including getting the textbooks and the instruments used in the classroom. He will also oversee the instruction in the classroom and determine what skills must be developed to understand the material and prepare for the end-of-year assessment. He said he would be responsible for analyzing information from district assessments and deciding whether they need to implement new strategies to promote student growth.
Thinking back on his time at Independence, Janatovich said he enjoyed getting to know the students so well after seeing them “put their all” into their games, contests, and performances. Some of the things he loved included getting to “go to New York and getting to know the seniors on a deep level and seeing just them in a different light, going to the sporting events, going down to my trial, and walking into the classrooms”. He said he appreciates the opportunity to know the students and staff on a deeper level, one of the benefits of working in a smaller school district.
He added that another perk of working at Independence is that the staff is “one of the most caring, hardworking, loveable staff” that he’s ever worked with, and there are “great kids, great teachers”.
He advises the next principal to “embrace the kids, the family, the community” and “advocate for all aspects of education” including the arts, academics, athletics, and social emotional activities to help the students feel seen, heard, and successful. He cherished seeing the Academic Challenge team make it to States, and seeing vocal get a 1 at Revere last year, and noted that seeing the students’ beaming reactions to accomplishing something they didn’t think they could was the best part. Ultimately, he feels that ” the kids have always tried to be in an expectation, but they’ve always exceeded it”.
During his last days at IHS, Janatovich admits he’ll be in “full sprint” until May with all of the award ceremonies, senior activities, prom, graduation, season conclusions, and more. His job as the IHS principal won’t be over until he finishes building a master schedule, and meets with the new principal to aid in his transition in the fall so that he can be “to have what he needs to be able to be successful when he comes through those doors”.
Lastly, he would like to tell the students at IHS “thank you for being awesome, continue to be awesome”, and he urges them to continue to accomplish great things. More than that, he wants everyone to know that they may reach out to him in the future for anything, and he’ll continue to look out for them after he leaves.
