By Joseph Goral
Staff Writer
jgoral@mihomepaper.com
LAKE ORION — The Lake Orion Community Schools Board of Education approved appointing Lake Orion High School Assistant Principal Anthony Palmeri as Webber Elementary School’s new principal during a regular board meeting on May 22.
Palmeri was a science teacher at Avondale Middle School from 2008 to 2016 and assistant principal from 2016 to 2018 before becoming an assistant principal at LOHS.
Palmeri earned multiple degrees from Michigan State University and Central Michigan University, according to Assistant Superintendent of Human Resources Adam Weldon. Central Michigan is where Palmeri earned a master’s degree in educational leadership and administration.
Weldon called Palmeri the “overwhelming top candidate” among a “very strong pool” of applicants throughout the interview process.
“He’s had a wonderful track record and whatnot as the Lake Orion High School assistant principal,” Weldon said. “And I’m very excited for him, for the Weber staff and students, Lake Orion and for the greater Weber community to have him at the helm.”
Before attending college and starting his career in education, Palmeri served as a nuclear-propulsion plant operator in the United States Navy aboard the submarine USS Helena, according to Weldon.
Board Treasurer Jake Singer said Palmeri’s experience in the Navy and the leadership skills he gained while in the Navy is a “great example” of how people can develop their leadership skills in different ways. Singer also called Palmeri’s experience a “great example” of alternative ways to “get to great places in life” without going directly to college at 18 years old.
“I think that a testament to the fact that we are really, really getting some great talent and some great people is how sad the high schoolers are (about him leaving the high school),” board Trustee Scott Taylor said. “Having one, having a junior, when I told her that Tony had gotten that job, she just about had a tear in her eye.”