New principal comes to STA May 7 to meet teachers, get acquainted with the Academy. | by KAYLA LOOSEN 

After searching for nearly two months, the STA search committee announced Apr. 30 that current Our Lady of Peace catholic grade school principal, Barbara McCormack, will fulfill the position of STA principal for academic affairs at the conclusion of this school year.

For the past 37 years, STA’s academic affairs have been led by current principal for academic affairs Nancy Hand.  However, Hand was recently asked to resign after President Nan Bone initiated steps to build her own team of administrators and staff. In doing this, Bone created a search committee to assist in the hiring process of the new principal. The committee was composed of STA faculty and affiliates who work directly with the president including principal for student affairs Mary Anne Hoecker, administrative assistants Marion Chartier and Kelly Drummond, teacher representative Mary Montag, CSJ Sister Ruth Sukel, college counselor Debi Hudson and admissions director Roseanne Hudnall. It was this team who came to the consensus that McCormack embodied all of the qualities for the administrative position.

“We had a committee which represented every aspect of St. Teresa’s from when students enter until they leave,” Bone said. “During the interviewing process, we had a list of questions that we felt were very important in getting to know all of our candidates.”

According to Bone and Hudnall, there were roughly 15 to 20 applicants who applied for the position. However, only four were interviewed for the job and asked questions about their experience dealing with curriculum, parents and teaching.

“Before those interviews [the search committee] discussed ahead of time topics that we thought would be pertinent to everybody in the school,” Hudnall said. “Basically we just asked a lot of questions that we thought would be an opportunity for [McCormack] to get her educational philosophy out on the table.”

According to Bone and Hudnall, the requirements for the position were a master’s degree in secondary administration or curriculum and an experienced administrator. In addition to having all of these things, McCormack had something extra.

“I’m working on Education Specialist degree as well at [University of Central Missouri] and my goal is to eventually have a superintendent’s license as well as a secondary administrator license,” McCormack said. “So I have a lot of ambitions and probably even further down the road, a doctorate.”

Currently, the position of principal for academic affairs entails being in charge of student academic life, curriculum, scheduling, hiring faculty, the curriculum council, the financing committee, the diversity committee, the athletic boosters, the guidance department and working with the athletic director. Despite these many jobs, Hudnall realized after the interviewing process that McCormack will accomplish all of these tasks and more.

“You know, we just kind of figured out what our feeling was after [each applicant] left us and there were some applicants where we had strong feelings that they would be a great administrator someday but maybe not for us right now,” Hudnall said. “Fortunately, after [McCormack] left we were pretty blown away. We just kind of walked away saying ‘wow.’ I mean, no one could really come up with an area she needed to work on and I didn’t know that I would feel that strongly about any person.”

Although McCormack has worked as principal of a grade school for the past 10 years, Bone also believes she is capable and will easily adapt to the high school environment.

“There’s certainly going be a learning curve for Barb,” Bone said. “The difference is that as an elementary person you don’t really have the depth of the curriculum but you have the breadth of the curriculum…is Barbara very capable of learning the rest? Absolutely. It doesn’t take long if you look at the program of studies, visit with curriculum council and figure out how a student moves through the system.”

Likewise, McCormack believes she will flourish at STA and has not let the differences between STA and her former occupations intimidate her.

“I believe that STA has the sense of community and legacy that brought me to actually considering it as a job opportunity,” McCormack said. “It has a faith-based formation, rigorous curriculum and you see success in students which is definitely well-proven through the achievements your students have been getting.”

Last Thursday McCormack visited STA for a meet-and-greet reception and on Friday came to speak to the staff and become further oriented with the school and staff. According to McCormack, the entire hiring process has been an exciting one.

“You know, a new experience always brings out the jitters or the butterflies you might say,” McCormack explained. “I enjoy taking risks and challenging myself and setting the bar high. So it brings about a new sense of enthusiasm and energy and motivation for me to take this step.”

Hudnall explained that she thinks there is no one better suited for the job than McCormack.

“In my opinion I am not glad that she is going to be our principal because she was the best to choose from,” Hudnall said. “I’m glad that she’s going to be our principal because I think she is simply the best and that’s a huge difference in my mind. We were really fortunate that we found the best. To be honest, I could not have created a principal that will meet our needs better than [McCormack].”