Bio

Mr. Michael Yurk has served as Principal at St. Paul since 2008.

Mr. Yurk was born and raised in Sheboygan, WI. He attended Christian day school at Trinity Lutheran and graduated from Sheboygan Lutheran High School. After high school he attended Concordia University Wisconsin and majored in Secondary Education – Business and computer science with a minor in religion.

Prior to coming to St. Paul, Mr. Yurk served at Luther North High School in Chicago. During his 15 years at North he served as Assistant Principal, Dean of Students and Athletic Director along with teaching and coaching. In 2006, Michael received his Masters in Educational Administration from Concordia University—Wisconsin.

Mr. Yurk is a graduate of The Van Lunen Center: Executive Management in Christian Schools Fellowship Program and serves on the LEA (Lutheran Educators Association) National Board of Directors (2016-2019).

Mr. Yurk is a member of the following professional organizations:

• Lutheran Education Association (Board of Directors Member)
• National Association of Elementary School Principals
• The Association of Supervision and Curriculum Development
• Wisconsin Association of Supervision and Curriculum Development
• Van Lunen Fellowship
• National Association of Secondary School Principals
• Association for Computing Machinery

Mr. Yurk has received the following professional awards:

• 2017 National Distinguished Principal (National Association of Elementary Principals)
• 2017 South Wisconsin District Administrator of the Year
• 2017 Herb Kohl Excellence in School Leadership Award Finalist

Mr. Yurk’s interest include spending time with family, sports, landscaping, grilling and the outdoors.

Christian education is an important part of our society – especially in today’s world. Christian education brings so much more than required state curriculum. It is developing spiritual, emotional, physical and social needs of our young students. As educators we are only with our students for a small portion of their lives. However the impact that we get to make on them usually lasts an entire life time. The focal point of my ministry and the mission of St. Paul will continue to be “Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it.” Proverbs 22:6