By Mary Frances McCarthy
Herald Staff Writer
(From the issue of 5/19/05)

The last day of school is approaching quickly, and for several principals at local Catholic schools, it really will be their last day of school. After more than a dozen years spent working at Catholic schools, four diocesan principals are looking forward to their longest summer break.

When her daughter first left home and went to college, Jacqueline MacKenzie, principal at St. Theresa School in Ashburn, said she didn’t miss her too much the first year, but in the years following "there was an empty hole in my heart."

She thinks her retirement will be similar. At first she will enjoy the free time, "but as time sets in, I’ll miss the children first."

MacKenzie was born in Brooklyn, N.Y., and attended Catholic schools there. She earned her bachelor’s degree in elementary education from St. John’s University in New York in 1962. She also completed a master’s program in theology at Immaculate Conception Seminary in Huntington, N.Y.

MacKenzie has worked in the education field for 14 years, the majority of it with Catholic schools.

In 1992, she and her husband, Donald, moved to Virginia. She began working with Msgr. James W. McMurtrie shortly thereafter to open the first Catholic elementary school in Loudoun County in 1994.

"The school has achieved high academics and much of that is due to the parents’ support of their children and the school," MacKenzie said.

"The faculty and staff have been great to work with. It’s always been an easy job to come to work every day."

What she will remember most fondly, MacKenzie said, is having been a principal while working with Msgr. McMurtrie.

"He was such a driving force in wanting to have a school with his parish," she said. "He had such a desire and a love of Catholic education. It was all encompassing for him and for the two of us together to be able to work at having a Catholic school for the children."

She has also enjoyed watching St. Theresa School grow from its conception, building more and more each year.

"It’s fun to be part of new beginnings," she said. "It’s like when kindergarteners come to school and at the end of the year, they can read."

She and her husband plan to retire to the Outer Banks, N.C., and travel between there and New York where her daughter and three grandchildren live. They hope to enjoy more Scottish country dancing as well.

While she is not absolutely certain what she will do in her retirement, Christine Wells, principal of St. John School in Mclean said, "Whatever I do in the future will have to involve children."

They are what she will miss most when she leaves St. John School.

"They keep me young," Wells said. "Their very innocent yet, direct outlook on life keeps me grounded."

Wells has been a part of Catholic schools for almost her entire life. She was attending them, sending her four children to them or working in them herself.

A native of Washington, D.C., Wells graduated from Immaculata High School. She attended St. Bonaventure University in Olean, N.Y., with a bachelor’s degree in French and a minor in English and secondary education.

Her career in education began in Bethesda, Md., where she taught sixth grade at Little Flower School. She was offered a contract with Montgomery County Schools, which she turned down to teach in the Catholic schools.

"I’m a Catholic school person," she said. "I realized I had a ministry. It was where I was comfortable and where I would be happiest.

Before she married, she taught in California and Ohio before returning to Maryland. She and her husband moved to Northern Virginia in the 1970s and she was a substitute teacher at St. Bernadette School in Springfield and Our Lady of Good Counsel in Vienna while she raised her children.

When she returned to full-time teaching, Wells taught eighth grade at St. Leo the Great School in Fairfax, and spent seven years at Paul VI Catholic High School in Fairfax where she served as department chair of the foreign language department.

"I consider myself a teacher first, but enjoyed the administrative part," she said about being department chair. She decided to pursue a master of education degree in school leadership at George Mason University, the only public school she ever attended.

In 1993, Wells took the position of principal at St. John School.

"The beauty of Catholic education is that we have the opportunity of formation of the children and evangelizing to children and their families," Wells said. "That’s what attracted me to them and kept me here."

Like Wells, Sally Berra, principal at St. Ann School in Arlington, will miss being around children.

"Seeing the children everyday and spending time in classrooms — they’re fun, they’re funny, they’re interesting, they’re heartbreaking," she said about her students.

While she has only served as principal for three years, she has been a part of St. Ann School for 15 years.

Originally from Connecticut, Berra graduated in 1970 from Randolph Macon Woman’s College in Lynchburg with a degree in French and earned her teaching certificate from the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. She moved to Virginia after getting married about 30 years ago, and volunteered with the Great Books program at St. Agnes School in Arlington when her children were in school.

In the 1980s, Berra substitute taught for three years before taking on a full-time job in 1991 teaching seventh-grade at St. Ann.

Berra became principal in 2002 after a six-year mentoring relationship with former principal Marlene Tennier.

What Berra will remember in her retirement is "how rich my time at St. Ann’s has made my life," she said. "I will take all of those 15 years of memories with me."

Virginia Connell has been principal of St. Ambrose School in Annandale since 1997. Before that, she taught fifth grade in Baltimore County, Md.; worked in elementary school guidance for 12 years in Pennsylvania, England and Germany; and was the school psychologist at St. Timothy School in Chantilly.

Connell received her bachelor’s degree in elementary education from St. Francis College in Loretto, Pa., in 1962, and a master’s in counselor education from Pennsylvania State University in 1966.

"I have so many good memories," Connell said about her time at St. Ambrose. Among those memories, she said, is "just seeing the change in the children over the years — seeing how they grow and mature in faith and academics."

Connell said she will miss three things when she retires — the intellectual challenge of balancing curriculum and student needs, the interaction with the staff of the school, and the innocence and spontaneity of the children.

"They can be such a boost," she said.