People often ask why I decided to start a school. I wish I could say I had a vision of educating our youths in the fullness of the Catholic faith. The truth is that I needed a job.
It was 1975, the year of Mother Seton’s canonization, so what better way to have a job than to start a school named after the woman who helped found the U.S. Catholic educational system?
A local pastor I consulted said that we would need a million dollars. We had $300 in the bank. I decided it was close enough.
The only other person I consulted was my husband, Warren Carroll, who had the even more improbable plan of founding a college (eventually establishing Christendom College in Front Royal). Of course, he encouraged me to press on.
In September 1975, Seton began by educating 16 students in two rented rooms in an Episcopalian church. In 1978, we first moved to the property we now own.
Despite a leaky roof and floor heaters that would melt the shoes of anyone who stood on them, we were on the cutting edge of curriculum development.
A core of faithful parents stuck with us through it all and gave countless volunteer hours, setting a standard that has been met for almost 50 years. In fact, we still have some of the original teachers.
Some students arrived from other states because their parents heard about Seton through the Catholic grapevine and decided it was worth taking a chance. The Busers came from New Jersey; the Fogelbergs and the Pennefathers from New York; the Gregory-Muench-Brock clan from the South; and the Vander Woudes from Georgia. Robert Pennefather is director today, and guided Seton through the pandemic so that the show could and did go on.
Families from near and far responded when we didn’t have much and made it possible for Seton to survive and grow. After years of struggling to attract even 100 students, in the 1990s enrollment took off and reached 360. We needed waiting lists. Today we have two large buildings and a good chunk of property in Old Town Manassas.
But the essence of Seton has not changed. We still rely on parent volunteers and are countercultural in a culture that is increasingly hostile to truth, morality and the Catholic Church.
Our first letterhead read, “Personalized education in a Catholic environment.” We still have personalized education even though we have more persons now. And we still have a Catholic environment. We want the students to leave Seton loving God more than they did when they entered and to be prepared to bring others to Christ.
We had some bumpy roads at first, but it never occurred to us to give up. We persevered, and God took care of the rest, as He always does and always will.
Carroll is executive director of Seton School in Manassas.
