'We're Staying Grounded in Who We Are:' A Conversation With GTACS' New Leader

Northern Michigan’s largest Catholic school system has a new leader for the first time in almost three decades.

In July, Grand Traverse Area Catholic Schools (GTACS) announced the retirement of longtime superintendent Mike Buell, who helmed the system for 27 years. Replacing him (though the title has been changed to president) is Rachael Milliman, who previously served as managing director of finance and operations. She now oversees a system of about 1,100 students and 170 employees in three school buildings.

The Ticker sat down with Millman to see what’s on her mind as the 2026-27 school year approaches. Her responses to the questions below are in some cases condensed for space.

What does it mean to you to take this position and how excited are you for the years ahead?

Mike Buell is incredible, and his legacy will live forever. He did so much for Catholic schools and the area in general. It was so humbling to be asked to be his successor considering what he’s done and his vision. I’m not very emotional, but it moved me to tears to be able to carry on that legacy and to be able to impact the lives of so many students.

What’s going on as we enter the 2026-27 school year?

Our high school (St. Francis) is old, as people know. The bones are fantastic, but it really needed some love. So this summer, we’ve been renovating the boiler, the electrical, the plumbing – basically a lot of deferred maintenance. We started in May and got going fast and furious in June, and our plan is to have students back in session at the start of the school year without interruption. We hope to beautify and improve the rest of the school in the near future.

We also have a lot of new teachers and will have some new administrators, including losing Mike after 27 years and a new middle school principal who we’ll be announcing soon. Our director of development also moved on after 22 years, and we’re replacing him as well. So we’ll have a lot of new faces.

What are the biggest issues/challenges facing GTACS right now?

Change can be scary, and the employment transitions will be hard, but we have a very solid foundation here. We’ll just have to navigate a year of having different people in key leadership positions.

The next piece, like all schools, is really trying to maintain and grow enrollment. Some people are going to be interested to see how our new leadership does this year and the upcoming years ahead, and that's good for people to do that, because you should know who you're committing to with your children. But we want to continue to get the word out about who we are and what we provide.

And unfortunately, as my fellow superintendents know, safety and security is a huge, huge thing, so we’re constantly thinking through that.

What is GTACS doing well? Where is there room for improvement?

There’s always room for improvement, but in our faith and our academics, we’re doing really well. We’re staying grounded in who we are, which is intentionally and authentically Catholic, and we have a wonderful relationship with our parishes. Academically, we’ve seen a steady progression in our ACT scores, and we constantly get feedback from our students that go to college that they are very much prepared, whereas students from other schools may be struggling.

I think we need to improve our marketing, which could help with enrollment. We need to identify what our families are looking for and get the word out to people about who we are and what we offer, because many of them still don’t know. Getting ourselves out there more is going to be a key thing in the coming years.

We also don’t have a designated human resources professional, and I think hiring one would help us invest in our staff and help them feel appreciated.

What are your personal top priorities?

I’m going to come in and listen a lot, because there’s a lot of really great stuff we don’t need to fix. But my biggest influence is on my leadership team, and I want to pour as much as I can into each of them so they can be successful. Because I’ve been in operations and finance, I also don’t know all the teachers and faculty yet, and I want to meet all of those incredible people. And at the end of the day, it’s all about the students. I’m really, really excited to get to know them, walk the halls with them and see them all succeed.  

GTACS is celebrating 150 years in 2027. What's on tap?

We’ll do something in the fall of 2027. The actual 150th comes in October, which is right when the Gladhander, our major fundraiser, happens. We haven’t exactly locked in what we’re going to do, but it’s going to be pretty big and exciting.