ZCS Educational Leadership Team

One of the early joys of my first months at Zeeland Christian School has been engaging with our Educational Leadership team. I was drawn to ZCS in large part because of the opportunity to be a leader of leaders, and I’ve been encouraged with the great work happening here. Throughout the week I meet individually with each member of the team, and weekly we come together as a group.  

As we meet individually and as a team, our priorities include:

• Looking for ways the backroom (all of us who support the classroom) can better take care of the frontroom (the teachers and aides working directly with our children). Our job is to choose great teachers and give them the encouragement, training, and support they need to take care of our children.   
• Creating a culture of feedback. I want our school to be a place of continual improvement, where we give and receive quality feedback. All members of the leadership team are weekly visiting classrooms and giving feedback. Rather than evaluators, we are coaches working together to always get better. Already, we are nearing 100 classroom visits!  
• Moving from maintenance to vision. Particularly in schools, the immediate needs make it difficult to ever think deeply of ways to move the school forward. Personally and as a group, we are intentionally creating time and space for reflection and vision-casting.  Later this month is our first “day away” together as a team, a discipline we will practice every quarter.  
• Continuing to expand the influence of ZCS beyond West Michigan. God is working in amazing, unique ways within the walls of our school. Few schools in the world have the depth of experience and wisdom found here, and by supporting and training other school leaders, our own capacity to lead will be increased.  
• Looking at everything we do with a “make it better” attitude. Whether something we do is working or not, we want to look analytically at it, always looking to improve.  

In my 22 years in Christian Education, nearly every success God has allowed me to be a part of has come through equipping, empowering, and encouraging others. Nothing gives me greater joy than being a part of the success of others. It is an honor to come alongside all of you, and I look forward to seeing where God leads us next.  

To God be the Glory,

Tim McAboy

Head of School

Educational Leadership Team

Tim McAboy, Head of School

John Buteyn, Assistant Principal

Barb Newman and Stacy Deters, Inclusion Directors

Jodi Pierce, Immersion Director

Nancy Pyle and Stephanie Parrott, Preschool Directors

Janelle Sievert, Curriculum Director

Sherri Tibbe, K-5 Lead Teacher