By James Windell
Five days into the job as principal of South Haven High School, Amy Cockburn is convinced that South Haven is where she should be.
Having grown up in Indiana and coming off of a stint as assistant principal in Decatur County, Indiana, Cockburn (pronounced “Co-burn”) says she wishes she had moved to Michigan years ago. “It’s such a beautiful area,” she says.
A soft-spoken woman with auburn hair, Cockburn is wearing a purple Rams’ long-sleeve shirt as she sits at a table in her office. Her calm manner belies the wealth of experience she brings to her new position at the high school.
“I’ve been a middle school science teacher and a high school social studies teacher,” she says as she begins to talk about her background. “I’ve worked in Title I as a paraprofessional for grades kindergarten through the third grade. I’ve coached basketball, cross country, track, soccer and robotics. I’ve been an athletic director, assistant principal, principal, curriculum director, and even an interim superintendent. I’ve pretty much done every position.”
Then she also mentions she served in the Army as a combat medic and worked in a factory for a year. “But everything always brought me back to education,” she says.
And that might be because it is in her DNA. “Both of my parents were educators,” she says. “They were both elementary teachers and my father was a school administrator as well. My third oldest son is a pre-K administrator, and I have two sisters who are professors. My passion has always been to work with the older kids.”
A search for a replacement for Joe Allen, the 2024-2025 South Haven High School Principal has been going on since he resigned this past summer to accept the position of Superintendent of Schools for Covert Public Schools. The Superintendent of South Haven Schools, Ana Aleman-Putman said that applicants for the position had to go through a series of interviews with parents, staff members, and community members.
“One of the things I would really like people to know is how much the current administrators and staff have done before I ever got here,” Cockburn says. “As I think back about how I got here, and I think about the interviews I had, and I think you look at who is interviewing you. The interviews in South Haven for this job were some of the toughest interview processes I went through. But they also showed me how much people care.”
Coming to the principal job, she does not plan to make any immediate changes. “What I like to do is just observe and get into what the culture is like and what supports we have,” Cockburn says. “I don’t believe in changing anything that doesn’t need changed.”
She adds that what she has observed so far is that the high school staff is doing an exceptional job. “I want to maintain the standards that are already here and as we find things that we can improve, then we can discuss changes.”
Cockburn adds that her number one goal as an educator is to give kids as many opportunities as possible. “We don’t know what our students are going to do right out of high school, and we certainly don’t know what they are going to be doing in 20 years,” she says. “So, our job is to give them experiences and course work to prepare them for whatever they might do in the future.”
She herself didn’t know what she would be doing when she got out of college. Her journey to become South Haven’s High School Principal was by no means a direct path. “I started college by doing two years at St. Francis, where I played basketball. Then I transferred to Weber State College in Ogden, Utah, for a couple of years. I attended Indiana University, and I finally finished my undergraduate degree at New York University.”
After that she earned a Master’s Degree, and is now working on her Ph.D. at Indiana State University. “The good thing about my journey is that with kids who are thinking about going to college,” she says, “I can say I have been to many different colleges and I can help them.”
Married and with a child still in college in Indiana, Cockburn is appreciative to her family for their support. “My husband served 33 years in the Marines and now he is retired, so he’s really flexible and has really been supportive throughout my entire career,” she says. “Having that family support is all important. You can’t be a happy administrator if you don’t have that. All of my kids and my family understand that, and I know that I definitely couldn’t do it without family.”
The positive support of her family is vital, but she tries to be positive to others as well. “One of the things I like to do every day before I leave the office, and one of my mentors taught me this, is to make a positive phone call to the home of a student,” Cockburn says. “Yesterday, for instance, I met an exceptional young lady here and so I called her parents to tell them. I wish I could make 100 phone calls like that every day – if I had enough time.”
