By Eve Rosen
When the new school year begins on Monday, Aug. 13, Polo Park Middle School in Wellington will have a new principal in charge. Michael Aronson has taken over the school’s top post from Ann Clark.
Aronson’s appointment is among 17 new principal selections for the 2018-19 school year made by Palm Beach County School Superintendent Dr. Donald Fennoy.
Aronson holds a master’s degree in educational leadership and administration from Georgia Southern University. He spent seven years working as an educator in Georgia before he came to Palm Beach County, where he worked as a teacher on assignment and also did work as a coach at Wellington High School.
Before becoming the new principal at Polo Park, Aronson was the principal of Pahokee Middle/Senior High School, where he also served previously as a vice principal for curriculum and instruction and as the summer school administrator.
Aronson has been based in Pahokee since 2010. He became the principal of Pahokee Middle/Senior High School in 2014.
At Polo Park, Aronson’s top goal is to uphold the traditions that the A-rated middle school has had for years.
“My goals for Polo Park are just to continue the great traditions,” he said. “It’s an amazing school and has a great track record, and our goal is to become the number one traditional middle school in all of Palm Beach County.”
Aronson is very proud that the graduation rate has risen for Palm Beach County public schools, and he said that it is what he is most proud of. He believes that his job as principal at Polo Park is to prepare the children for high school and to ensure that they have what they need in order to successfully graduate.
“I think the greatest accomplishment and what gives me the most pride is the way that we have raised the graduation rate of public schools,” he said. “To take over a school that has a graduation rate of 82 percent and raise it… and then to come back the following year and raise it to over 94 percent, is the thing that I take the most pride in.”
Aronson is dedicated to his students and wants to ensure that each one is prepared for what awaits them, not only in high school but also in the real world.
“Every student has their niche, and if you dig and find the time to sit with them — I did a lot of that — you would be surprised, that showing the students that someone cares about whether they graduate or not makes a big impact,” Aronson said.
Aronson said that he does not feel like there are things that need to be changed immediately at Polo Park. He is proud to be the new principal there and thanks Clark for all the good she had done for the school over her six-year tenure so that he was able to walk into such a fantastic position.
