By Kris Henning
“Who is Steve Boyle?” Well, he is the new assistant principal here at Minnetonka High School who took Mr. Hruby’s place. Mr. Hruby took a job as principal of Minnetonka Junior High School.
Mr. Boyle’s wife, Carol, is not the principal at Groveland Elementary School (he gets asked that question a lot). Steve and Carol have three children–Jeff, a freshman in college, Janelle, a freshman in high school and Joanne, who is in first grade.
Mr. Boyle has many interests and hobbies. He likes biking, fishing, canoeing and also does a lot of hiking around the country. His favorite areas are out west, states like Idaho, Utah and Arizona. He enjoys working with kids and is now going to the University of Minnesota to get his PHD.
For three years before joining Minnetonka High School, he was the assistant principal at Sanford Junior High School in Minneapolis. He sees a large difference between Minnetonka and Sanford schools. At Sanford the students ranged from very wealthy to very poor. Many people spoke foreign languages. Minorities made up much of the population. At Minnetonka students range from very wealthy to middle class and there aren’t many poor students. There certainly aren’t many minority people here either. It’s a big change for him. The main issues at Sanford were not smoking nor the image of the school, but gangs and fighting. Much of his day was spent disciplining students.
Here at Minnetonka Mr. Boyle has a shared responsibility with the other assistant principals and principal. He’s mainly involved with student government, student activities like dances and fundraisers, parking lot rules, and the ninth grade attendance.
Working with the staff and student body to make the school a better place is something important to Mr. Boyle. Two of his main goals this year are to reorganize the student government and clean up the garbage in the school. Mr. Boyle feels that Minnetonka is one of the messiest schools he has seen and feels this shows a lack of pride in our school. If the students here were proud of their school, he feels, they wouldn’t mess it up. One thing he noticed early this year as he walked down the hall was a very nicely dressed girl sitting on the floor surrounded by garbage. That just didn’t look right to him. He wants to find out what is causing this problem and find ways to correct it. Another goal he has is make Minnetonka a more welcome place for new students to enter. Minnetonka has a lot of bad press about being a school that is cold and unfriendly and difficult for new students to join. He’d like to find ways to change this.
From talking to Mr. Boyle, I feel he’s got a good start on this year. He’s quite outgoing and interested in many things. He’s working hard to make the school a better place. He’s very understanding and a neat person to talk to. Good luck in your new job, Mr. Boyle. Have a great year.