Schaedig Ready To Take 'New Adventure;' Resigns as Cedarville Principal
By Amy Polk

Cedarville High School Principal Randy Schaedig and his wife, Karen, will move to the Midland area this summer, where Mr. Schaedig will begin a new job as a science coordinator. Mr. Schaedig has been a teacher and principal at Cedarville High School for 18 years.

For Cedarville High School Principal Randy Schaedig, graduation 2008 was a bittersweet event. It was his last graduation ceremony at Cedarville High, almost 30 years after he received his own diploma from the same school.

He resigned Monday night, May 19, at the Les Cheneaux Community Schools Board of Education meeting, and will become the science coordinator at Midland Public Schools. His employment there is expected to be confirmed May 27, and he will start July 1.

"It's a big adventure you're undertaking," Les Cheneaux school board member Dave Sudol told him May 19.

Mr. Schaedig sees his new job at Midland as a great opportunity. He will implement the district's science curriculum, hire science staff, and oversee the district's science resource center, which supplies instructional kits to all elementary classrooms in the district.

"It was a difficult decision, and we weighed a lot of factors, but it felt like the right decision for us at this time in our lives," he said. "I felt like this was a really good opportunity for myself, and it will give my wife some more opportunities for getting a teaching position, as well."

His wife, Karen, has elementary school teaching certification, and recently earned special education endorsement. She is a special education para-professional at JKL Bahweting School in Sault Ste. Marie, but will seek a teaching position when they move downstate.

The Midland school district has 9,000 students. Cedarville enrolls 331.

Randy Schaedig was the Cedarville High School Principal for eight years, and was named Region 1 Principal of the Year by the Michigan Association of Student Councils in 2005. He also coached football for 11 years, the last four as head coach, during which he led the players to district and regional titles.

Mr. Schaedig was born and reared in the Les Cheneaux Islands area, where he developed a love of the outdoors and biology. His interest in the outdoors and the positive influence of teachers and coaches, he said, led to his pursuit of a teaching career, and he taught science at Cedarville High for nine years before he was named principal in the fall of 2000.

As a teacher, he enjoyed the daily interaction with students and taught biology, advanced biology, physical science, conservation, physics, and chemistry, providing his own influence over a generation of students.

He introduced the school's water quality testing in streams and annual perch egg skein count programs.

The programs are still used today to teach natural resources conservation to high school students, who say they like knowing their class work is helping the community.

The Schaedigs have two grown children. Their son, Nick, is a counselor in Nashville, Tennessee, at a residential facility for teenage boys. Their daughter, Laura, was graduated from Hope College in Holland this year with a degree in mathematics, and will be working at a resort in Montana this summer. In the fall she will join the United States Air Force as an officer.