“My 13-year career in teaching was all in the public schools, so I really didn’t think about teaching in a Catholic school until my own children attended Catholic school,” explains Anne McNeill Gattman, principal of Saint Jerome School in Maplewood. “I began to see so many more easy opportunities to blend the faith in every subject being taught — science, mathematics, literature — and the witness of their teachers was irreplaceable as well.”
Anne took time off to be at home with her children but used that time to go back to school and earn her school leadership credential.
“It kept me sane: getting a babysitter once a week and going to school at night. I didn’t really know for sure if I would use my degree, but it was a God thing. I was at Mass here at Saint Jerome’s and they announced the principal was retiring and I thought, ‘Maybe this is for me.’ Looking back on five great years here, I know God opened that position when He did with me in mind.”
Her belief in the great difference of a Catholic school that she first saw in her own children has been confirmed and strengthened as well.
“There’s a peacefulness and a joyfulness in our work as a Catholic school that I didn’t see in the public schools. It makes all the difference that we are able to educate the whole child — the hearts, minds, and souls of our children.”
Meeting students’ needs
For Saint Jerome School, educating the whole child is a daily reality, not a tagline. They serve a disadvantaged immigrant community, where 70% of its students are learning English as a second language.
“We are essential to our students’ whole beings. We help with nutrition, we help them with transportation, we help them access resources at home, but, most of all, we help them learn,” Gattman explains. “They are students who need to get the absolute most out of every minute of a school day because education is what’s going to give them options in life after Saint Jerome’s. So we’re very serious about the time we have with them and we don’t dumb it down. We had all of our eighth grade reading ‘Frankenstein’ last year. We might instruct a little differently, but we’re not saying, ‘Oh, you don’t speak English yet; you don’t have to read this.’ We have high expectations, but we find our students are up for the task if they are supported by great teachers; and our teachers are fantastic.”
Providing the best curriculum and instruction for Saint Jerome’s means embracing the principles of a Catholic classical education.
“You don’t typically see English language learners in a classical school, but we think it’s what is best for them. The intellectual growth, breadth of knowledge, and engagement that the classical approach instills in the students is undeniable.”
Gattman reiterates that her prayer life and belief in God’s call keep her going despite trials and setbacks.
“We do this for more than a job because it is a vocation, it is a call of our heart and mind to serve the children that God has put in front of us. I have three vocations, to be a wife, to be a mother, and to be a principal. Doing them all well is sometimes challenging but it’s very rewarding.”
Offering insight
Her advice to anyone discerning Catholic school leadership: “Talk to current principals and leaders, especially those to whom you can relate. For me that meant meeting with principals who were mothers of young children and asking, ‘How do you do the job? Is it possible?’ And for those who are already in our schools, ask for more responsibility. Ask for opportunities to flex a particular muscle of leadership so you get a sense if you like it or not. Leading adults is different from leading a classroom of students. You have to fall in love with the adults you’re leading in the same way that you love the students in a classroom, even though adults can be harder to love sometimes.”