DIOCESAN NEWS
08/21/09
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Former students lead five schools
By Fabvienen Taylor
     JACKSON — In the Diocese of Jackson, five principals now lead the elementary schools they graduated from or once attended.
     The principals and their schools are Felicia Jackson-Stewart, Canton Holy Child Jesus; Clara Isom, Holly Springs Holy Family; Patrick Sanguinetti, Natchez Cathedral; Shae Robinson, Jackson Sister Thea Bowman; and Jules Michel, Jackson St. Richard.
     Their reasons for returning run the gamut from simply returning to their hometown, responding to a spiritual call to give back, to full circle to the place of their educational and spiritual roots.
     For Jackson-Stewart, memories of her days as a student hover in the halls and linger in the classrooms she visits.
     “In every classroom there is a story there for me. When I sit in my office, when I walk down the hall, I have all these vivid memories,” said Jackson-Stewart, who attended Holy Child from preschool until 1984 when she graduated eighth-grade.
     The high school had closed in the early 1980s. After attending college and working in Michigan and Tennesee, she returned to Canton and worked with Jackson Public Schools.
     With her son attending Holy Child, she knew the principal, Sister Anita Henning, was planning to leave.
     “With my background in administration and my desire to see the school grow and be successful, I decided to apply for the job,” she said.
     She returned to Holy Child Jesus as principal last year.
     Her job became more challenging with the start of the 2009-10 year as declining enrollment necessitated the closing of the second through sixth grades.
     For most parents, providing a private education for their children is a sacrifice, Stewart-     Jackson said, especially in these times of economic uncertainty.
     “The financial challenges Holy Child Jesus is facing aren’t anything other private schools in the state are facing. Many schools have had to eliminate sections. We just didn’t have additional sections of grades to pick up more students.”
     Jackson-Stewart is working on developing a more advanced curriculum and preparing to gradually add back grades as the need arises. Right now about 50 students attend pre-K3 to first grade.
     There is a perception, by some in the community, she said, of Holy Child as a school for poor African-American students. Stewart-Jackson has set her sights on debunking that misperception.
     “I want people to know Holy Child Jesus is here to educate students of all races, of all economic status and all Christian beliefs,” Jackson-Stewart said.
     “I tell people all the time, and they may think it’s funny, but I think I’m here because of divine intervention. I had no plan or desire to be principal but I was selected for this job and I see it as a mission.”
     In Holly Springs, Clara Isom’s love for Holy Family School brought her back as principal.
     A 1972 graduate of St. Mary Elementary and then-Cadet High School, Isom later worked as a teacher’s assistant at the elementary school while earning a bachelor’s and master’s degree.
     She would then go on to teach at the school for 25 years. The five years before she returned to Holy Family as principal, Isom taught in public school.
     “As an alumnae with grandchildren attending school here, I was just interested in what was happening here at the school,” said Isom.
     When the position of principal opened up, she applied. “I have a deep concern for Holy Family and what goes on here. I am a product of Holy Family, I love this school, why wouldn’t I want to be here?”
     Holy Family has an enrollment of 140 students from pre-K3 to sixth grade.
     As with Jackson-Stewart at Holy Child Jesus, Isom too felt a spiritual tug pulling her back to Holy Family.
     “There was this strong presence, that I feel was from the Lord, telling me to come back and help the school.”
     Isom’s vision for Holy Family is for it to continue to offer parents an alternative education for their children.
     She said Holy Family affords children an excellent, exceptional education taught with Catholic/Christian values and morals.
     “Holy Family teaches students they can do all things through Christ who strengthens them in whatever their objective may be,” Isom said.
     Patrick Sanguinetti had always dreamed of returning to his alma mater, Cathedral School, which he attended for 13 years from kindergarten to 12th grade.
     “It’s been just great,” he said recently. This will be his eighth year as principal.
     He was offered the position three years before he accepted it At the time he was principal of Mercy Cross High School in Biloxi.
     “I withdrew my application and chose to stay on the coast which was a very, very good decision because it gave me three more years of experience as principal before I came back home.”
     “Cathedral is not much different from what it was back when I was here,” he said.
     But there is one noticeable difference, he said. “It is more of a challenge to keep students motivated. You don’t just lecture anymore. You have to have Promethean boards (electronic, interactive whiteboards), all types of technology. Lecturing will only put kids to sleep.”
     As a child in the 1950s, Jules Michel remembers walking with his father to the site of the new Catholic school under construction in his neighborhood.
     “We were one of the original families in St. Richard Parish,” he said. When St. Richard school opened in 1953, he was one of its first graders.
     After elementary school, Michel entered St. Joseph High School where he graduated in 1965.
     Intent on teaching, he acquired degrees – bachelor, master and graduate classes — in education and administration.
     After a stint with public education in the Mississippi Delta, he became principal of Greenville St. Joseph and later went on to Natchez Cathedral.
     Nine years ago he returned to St. Richard Elementary as the first lay principal.
     Today most of the original elementary building Michel attended has been renovated/developed for parish use, with additional structures built for the school.
     Enrollment is about 417 students. A drop in enrollment after the opening of a new Catholic elementary in Madison, St. Anthony, was offset with the addition of two new sections for three-year olds.
     Designated as a Model School by the Mississippi Arts Commission several years ago, St. Richard is renovating parts of the original buildings and adding new buildings which are being constructed with technology already built in to facilitate the school’s ongoing arts-integrated curriculum.
     An amphitheater will come with the renovations and a wing addition, as well as new science, computer and art labs, a cloistered area with a quad, and a new playground. A new fine arts complex is also planned.
     “We will be doing as much of the arts as the curriculum allows. My vision for St. Richard was, first to get it in the best academic shape possible, and with winning model school designation and our students’ test scores, we are already a model school academically.
     “Once all the renovations and additional structures are built, that will be about as far as my vision for the overall facility has gone.
     “I guess the next thing for the school is for us to be designated a Blue Ribbon School by the Department of Education. We’ll be working on that,” said Michel.
     Sister Thea Bowman principal Shae Robinson worked 26 years in the field of public education – teaching, as curriculum specialist, assistant principal, principal and finally as executive director for human resources with Jackson Public Schools.
     When she decided to retire this year, Robinson saw it as a time to give back to her parents.
     “They were helping me by picking up my kids, who are in high school, and just doing a lot of ripping and running, so I felt it was time for me to give them time to rest, time to let me do more for them,” she said.
     Robinson’s parents have lived for many years in the West Jackson neighborhood near Christ the King Church, where they are parishioners.
     She was baptized, received First Communion, confirmed and participated in the Catholic Youth Organization (CYO) at the parish and as a student, walked to then-Christ the King Elementary School.
     Later, her own children would attend Christ the King School and graduate sixth grade from St. Mary Elementary.
     From St. Mary both students went on to be in the top 10 percent of their classes in middle and high school, Robinson said. She attributes that to the education and spiritual grounding they received at Christ the King and St. Mary.
     Robinson is active at both parishes in different ministries, from teaching Bible class to coordinating lectors. Her son and daughter are altar servers.
     “Upon retiring I saw the opening for a principal at Sister Thea Bowman,” she said, “and spiritually something inside me said, ‘You can do this.’”
     The more Robinson thought about it, the more she felt it would be really nice to return to the place of her educational and spiritual roots.
     So she did. “I felt as if I had come back full circle to the place where everything began for me,” she said.
     Robinson has embraced the school’s motto: Where Students Excel and Prophets are Formed.”
     “We want to make sure our children are spiritually and educationally centered and focused on self-achievement,” Robinson said.
     Sister Thea Bowman will provide students all they need in science, mathematics, community service, English, religion, and the arts, she said.
     “They can then take all those things within themselves, soak them up, become a sponge and from there hold on to them and build on them so they can get all they want from life,” Robinson said.

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