Being in charge as the principal of a high school is not an easy job, especially in a time like this. But Mr. Wrinkle has taken this job into his own hands.

Mr. Wrinkle is in his first year of being the principal of Rochester High School after four years of holding his spot as the assistant principal. He has enjoyed his time working under the former principal, Mr. DeLuca; however, the principal position opened up after Mr. DeLuca took another job. Mr. Wrinkle soon knew that he wanted to follow behind his footsteps and fill in the vacancy.

Mr. Wrinkle went to Michigan State University to earn his bachelor’s degree in Biological Science. After his graduation, he was at Rochester Adams High School for seven years, coaching football and track, as well as teaching Biology and Forensics. He always knew he wanted to be a teacher because many of his family members were educators and he was inspired by them to make significant impacts on students’ lives.

“I just wasn’t sure what subject I wanted to teach because I really liked both science and social studies. So it took me some time to figure that out but I always knew I wanted to be a teacher,” Mr. Wrinkle said.

The decision between science and social studies came to an end when he got offered a position from his student teacher during his senior year in high school who worked at the Detroit Zoo in the educational department. He was offered a position as a camp counselor. 

“I loved teaching about different animals and the science behind them, so I knew a couple years after that that I wanted to teach science to high school kids,” Mr. Wrinkle said. 

Mr. Wrinkle also got a master’s degree in Educational Administration, which allowed him to work in administration as the assistant principal and principal. 

“A couple years ago I started to go back to school at Oakland University, to get my Educational Specialist degree in leadership,” Mr. Wrinkle said. 

So far into the school year, Mr. Wrinkle has been adjusting to the new and different roles that are given to him on a daily basis. 

“Assistant principals deal a lot with stuff like student discipline and attendance things. I’m learning that in my role as principal, I have a lot more meetings with parent groups and community members, but Mr. DeLuca has always given me an insight into those things, so it isn’t really that different from being an assistant principal,” Mr. Wrinkle said.

Yet, no job comes without difficulties. Challenges are different every year, but predominantly this year, Mr. Wrinkle’s biggest challenge is acclimating the 9th and 10th graders to the high school setting, because they haven’t been able to get the full experience of being in high school. 

“I want to help them know our expectations but also be involved and to help form what we are as a school,” Mr. Wrinkle said. 

Despite the obstacles, Mr. Wrinkle has been adjusting to his new position smoothly. He enjoys a lot of the same things as the years before, especially the people that are here and having the students back in the building. 

“I think the coolest thing to me is that I get to help work with three new assistant principals, so that’s been a fun part of the new role, but a lot of the same things I loved about being an assistant principal, I love about being a principal,” Wrinkle said.