Meet Zoe Marcus, Royal Oak Middle School's New Principal

A familiar face will be leading the students at the middle school this fall. Zoe Marcus is the new principal of , replacing Cecilia Boyer who retired in June.

For Marcus, who began her teaching career in Royal Oak at Kimball High School, “it feels like I am coming full circle,” she said.

Marcus was a long-term substitute teacher at Kimball after she graduated from Michigan State University, but she wanted her own classroom, so she took a teaching position at a middle school in the Rochester School District, where she taught for five years.

Then she got a phone call.

"This person said, 'There is a position opening up at Dondero that has your name written all over it,' " Marcus said.

In 1996, she returned to Royal Oak where she taught drama, language arts and Spanish at Dondero High School.

“I couldn’t to get back fast enough,” she said. “I had a special place in my heart for Royal Oak.”

At Dondero, Marcus teamed up with Leslie Waylan, who has since retired, to create a unique performing arts partnership.

“Leslie loved doing set design, and I directed,” she said. “We were soulmates. We both loved the theater.”

In 2001, Marcus was appointed assistant principal at Dondero, then moved to the principalship at Starr Elementary where she served for three years.

Marcus described the now-demolished Starr Elementary School as beautiful.

“It was sad to see it go,” she said, “but there was a need to right-size the district.” She kept a brick from the school as a souvenir.

After Starr, Marcus moved to  in, where she has been the principal for four years. Her husband has promised to give her a rendering of Oak Ridge to keep in her new office with her brick from Starr.

Marcus says she feels a “symbiotic connection” to her new position as the middle school principal. She is coming back to the building where she had her first Royal Oak classroom, and she’s working with middle school students again.

She’s thrilled with the selection of . Jones comes from the Lakeview School District in St. Clair Shores, where he served as dean of students at Jefferson Middle School.

“Bill is going to fit right in to our team,” she said.

Marcus has a master’s degree in educational administration K-12, also from MSU.

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