In November, the Illinois Network of Charter Schools (INCS) officially named Michelle Trojan as 2025 Charter School Principal of the Year. Michelle serves as principal of our Campus de Belmont and has led the school since 2014.
Michelle has been honored for many reasons, including her clear and shared vision for the school, the support she provides students and staff, and her focus on the growth and well-being of all members of the Intrinsic community. She has an unmatched ability to know each student and family.
“Having had the pleasure of working with Michelle for more than 10 years, I have seen her do it all – morning greetings, student-led conferences with families, proms and pep rallies, graduation ceremonies. We have built this school community together, from scratch” said Melissa Zaikos, CEO. “Michelle is an incredibly strong and dedicated leader. Teachers want to work for her because she’s good at her job, and because she cares about them as individuals. She leads by example and has a work ethic that gets things done – always with empathy, kindness and respect.”
Michelle also shows her support in her daily actions. She writes cards to all staff members on their birthdays; she knows the names and ages of staff members’ children; she texts staff when they’re out sick to ask how they’re doing and if they need support.
She also listens closely to families. “A year or two after the pandemic, our families wanted Intrinsic to return to the school that we were before COVID,” said Dinah Hahn, Director of Instruction at Belmont. “Our families wanted us to enforce the uniform code, expect our kids to be on time to class, and to push them academically. Michelle heard them. As a school, we healed and rebounded. We lovingly enforced high expectations for all students. Michelle led this mission. If you walk through our school today, you will see kids arriving to class on-time, and in uniform. Additionally, you will not see students on their phones. Instead, they are engaged in lessons led by teachers who care. We worked hard to achieve this. Michelle made this happen because our families asked for it.”
“I’ve experienced many of life’s challenges during my eleven years at Intrinsic, including deaths in the family, sick children, the pandemic, gun violence in the community, the list goes on,” shared Mike Walsh, Social Studies Teacher, Belmont Campus. “Michelle has been there for all of that. She has shared tears, high fives, cards of encouragement, smiles, advice and so much more. Not just with me, but with everyone. She genuinely cares. An efficiently run school and a principal that cares is a huge part of what keeps me here.”
The entire Intrinsic Schools community benefits tremendously from Michelle’s leadership. We are proud of her for this much-deserved recognition.