Saline Principal Takes Superintendent Post in Central Lake

principal Ben Williams is leaving his post to become superintendent of the Central Lake Public Schools district in Northwest Michigan.

Williams, who arrived at nearly five years ago from North Carolina, will begin his new job after the break in January. Assistant principal Eric Diroff has been named interim principal. The process of hiring a new principal will begin in January. District officials say they hope to have a permanent principal hired by the summer.

Superintendent Scot Graden said Williams was an excellent leader during a challenging era.

“He came here during a tumultuous time when we were transitioning from one superintendent to another and he not only kept things steady, he took things to a new level,” Graden said. “Since he’s been here, he’s had to deal with a lot of challenges, in terms of budget and staff reduction, and yet under his leadership, Saline High School student achievement always improved.”

During his tenure, Saline High School has been lauded for its high test scores, for increasing advanced placement grades and for increasing the number of students enrolled in .  On  two occasions, Newsweek named Saline High School as one of . This year, Saline High School ranked 222nd in the country and fourth in Michigan, behind Bloomfield Hills International Academy (20th), Bloomfield Hills Andover (101st) and East Grand Rapids (162nd).

“More than the awards and recognition, I am most proud of the way the staff, students and parents, our community here, always found a way to work more collaboratively and keep the focus on student achievement. It was our shared mission, and in difficult times, we rallied around the mission,” said Williams. “With budget cuts, staff reductions and condensed schedules, the fingerpointing and frustrations could have distracted us from our job. We had a little bit of that phase. But we were always able to move beyond that.”

Williams said he is confident in leaving the school in the hands of Diroff.

“He’s been here for nine years and has been an phenomenal assistant principal. He has earned the right to be interim principal. He as the full support of faculty,” Williams said. “I am excited for him.”

Williams said leaving the district isn’t easy. The Central Lakes Public Schools district is close to the hometown of Williams’ wife.

“My wife was born in Petoskey and has many relatives in the area. We’ve been moving in that direction since coming here from North Carolina in 2007,” Williams said.

Williams’ daughter is a senior at Saline High School. His family will stay in Saline so that his daughter can graduate from Saline High School.

“We’ll be doing a lot of commuting on the weekends,” Williams said.

In the last two years, the district has changed principals at Woodland Meadows, Harvest and Pleasant Ridge Elementary School. In June, the district lost Saline Schools Special Education Director Cherie Vannatter when she was hired as superintendent in Manchester.

“It certainly speaks to the level of talent we have in our district. But it would also be nice to have a little more stability in our buildings,” said Graden.

Diroff, a graduate of Monroe High School who holds a bachelor of science degree and master’s degree in Educational Leadership in education from Eastern Michigan University, has been assistant principal at the high school for nine years. He has implemented the Link Crew freshman transition program and overseas school safety and security. He lives in Tecumseh with his wife and three children.