Michael McDonald, Portersville Christian School's new executive director, has a background in chemistry and worked as a family medicine doctor for 30 years. Zach Zimmerman/Butler Eagle

Michael McDonald understands he may be an unusual choice to lead Portersville Christian School. His background includes a chemistry degree and 30 years of practicing family medicine, and no educational background.

But McDonald, who is just a week into his new leadership position, has his sights set on preparing Portersville Christian for a bright future.

In his new role as executive director, McDonald will oversee the business operations of Portersville Christian, located in Muddy Creek Township. This includes finance, human resources, development and strategic planning, according to the school.

“His expertise as a physician and business owner, along with his deep passion for the school, will position him to lead PCS into the future with both vision and compassion,” Jay Daugherty, chairman of the school board, said in a news release.

McDonald said he retired from medicine a little over two years ago, and has been praying for God to show him something he’d be passionate about, where he could make a difference. He didn’t think he would ever end up in a school setting.

McDonald has been associated with the school for 26 years. His children went there, while he served on the school board for seven years and is the current coach of the girls basketball team. He has also helped organize annual mission trips to the Dominican Republic for Portersville Christian students.

“It’s the place, it’s not the education. If I had an offer to do education somewhere else, I would not have done it,” McDonald said. “Because I believe in what Portersville Christian does. I that this is a place where the lives of kids get transformed, where the lives of the families with those kids gets transformed.”

Currently, Portersville Christian has an enrollment of around 160 students, some from nearby to some who live as far as an hour away in each direction. McDonald said the school’s enrollment had been relatively stable for years, but over the past couple years has seen a slight dip. He said he’s looking to build enrollment back up again.

McDonald emphasized his belief the school does great things, and that it offers great education and great extracurriculars such as sports and arts. He wants to ensure students get the same full experience and believes offering an education based in Christianity can do that.

“The education here is all grounded in God’s work. There’s a Christian worldview here that is different. Kids that are coming here are going to be exposed to that every day,” McDonald said.

McDonald also said one of his goals is to focus more on enabling teachers to provide a quality education.

“I want to be here to help enable the teachers and the principle to do what they do well, and that is to not run the business. They are great at educating, so I wanna enable them, free them up and give them the support to do that,” McDonald said.