DIOCESAN NEWS
09/11/09
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Co-principals share duties at St. Therese
By Fabvienen Taylor
      JACKSON —The search committee for a new principal at St. Therese School wanted the best person possible to replace Sister Brenda Monahan, who was leaving after leading the school for six years.
      The committee decided the best new principal would be two people — Karla Luke, school secretary, and Carol McWilliams, sixth grade teacher.
      The search team consisted of St. Therese pastor, Father Bill Henry, and an advisory committee with parish and school members.
      The committee asked the superintendent if she could work with that model and after several meetings, Sister Deborah Hughes, superintendent of diocesan schools, agreed.
      “Between them they have 38 years of education experience, 20 of those in Catholic schools and eight at St. Therese,” she said. “You don’t usually get people who come with that much experience to be principals in our schools.”
Luke and her family moved to Jackson from New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
      In New Orleans she taught science and religion to k - eighth grade for 14 years at St. Frances Cabrini School.
      Not ready to get back into teaching right away, she took the job of school secretary in 2006.
      McWilliams taught sixth grade and was athletic director at St. Therese for eight years.
      “This is really significant,” said Sister Hughes. “St. Therese is a small school. They know all the students, they know the teachers and almost all of the parents. It makes all the difference in the world,” she said.
      St. Therese School is one of 15 elementary schools in the Diocese of Jackson. Enrollment is 106 students in pre-K through sixth grade.
      Both Luke and McWilliams had applied to be principal.
      Sister Hughes said St. Therese, a small school with a small staff, presented the opportunity to test out the theory of dividing up the weightiness and burdens of a principal between two people.
      Only Natchez Holy Family Early Childhood Center has a similar model, with two co-directors, Ira Young and Sister Bernadette McNamara.
      “As much as a principal tries to delegate responsibilities at a small school, so many things just bounce back to the principal,” said Sister Hughes.
      Smaller schools have the teachers they need but they don’t because they have fewer students, they don’t have the funds to hire additional staff, she said.
      “So they have one principal with the responsibility of handling all the aspects of being the spiritual leader, professional leader, managerial leader, leader of the advisory council, the person who has to be on top of the budget, and on top of the fund-raising.
      “And then there are all the connections, if you are a parish school, of being on the parish council, being a part of the life of the parish,” Sister Hughes said.
      Having co-principals provided a new way to redistribute the workload and still remain within budget, she said.
      Luke said the model evenly distributes the workload of a principal in a small school.
      “Both of us met with Sister Debbie and Cathy Cook (associate superintendent of schools),” said Luke.
      They discussed the gifts and strengths of the co-principals and divided up the workload accordingly, she said.
      “Where she is strong, I yield to that and where I am strong, she yields to that. There are some things we share, for example, meetings with the advisory board or parish council meetings.
      Both continue to teach and have a homeroom
      “Right now we share office space,” said Luke. “In the mornings I’m usually in the classroom until 10:30 or 11a.m. and Carol is in the classroom from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.”
      At 2 p.m. each day they meet to do planning and touch base about anything going on in the school, she said.
      Time is also blocked out for them to meet with teachers for planning.
      “We have very creatively made the schedule so everyone can see each other and communicate with each other,” said Luke.
      McWilliams said she found the idea of co-principals very interesting.
      “When Karla and I got into it, I thought, now how exactly is this going to work? We both love to teach and really didn’t want to come out of the classroom. And when you have one principal that person is responsible for everything.
      “This way the load is balanced. And we have the luxury of being able to sit down and talk about things and decide what we need to do and present it in a united front.”
      McWilliams said they have told parents, students and staff that is the way things have got to work in order for the school to function correctly.
      “I think we are doing a pretty good job with it so far. We haven’t run into anything we can’t handle.
      “We have worked with each other before, so we feed on each other’s strengths and help each other’s weaknesses. I think we are doing great,” said McWilliams.

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