Eastern Oklahoma Catholic July/August 2012 : Page 7
New principals at Holy Family Cathedral School, St. Catherine Two new elementary school principals will serve in the dio-cese next school year. Leslie Southerland, a teacher at Holy Family Cathedral for the past three years, has been named principal for the upcoming school year. She replaces Jay Luetkemeyer, principal since 2008, who has returned to the Leslie Southerland Archdiocese of Oklahoma City to serve as principal of St. John Nepomuk School in Yukon. Mrs. Southerland graduated from the University of Tulsa School of Law with an undergraduate degree in literature. She worked as a licensed attorney for several years until she heard the call of teaching. “I knew that God was calling me to teach but I also had fi-nancial obligations at the time,” she said. She tested the waters working in the Early Childhood Development program at Mar-quette School and then as a substitute teacher in the Tulsa Pub-lic School system, and that only confirmed her discernment. “I finally took a leap of faith and quit my job as an attorney.” Al-most immediately, Bishop Kelley High School called with an offer of a long-term substitute position. After that position ended, she applied at the diocesan Catholic Schools office and was hired as a third grade English teacher at Holy Family Cathedral School, moving on to teach fifth grade English and civics. Mrs. Southerland and her husband, Stuart, are active pa-rishioners at Christ the King Church in Tulsa and have two children; Ellen who recently graduated from Oklahoma State University with a degree in elementary education and Nick, who just completed his law degree from the University of Tulsa. Also, Vicky Adams, principal at St. Catherine Parish School in Tulsa since 2002, has accepted the same position at Monte Cassino Elementary School. Michelle Anthamatten, assistant principal at St. Catherine, has been named as her replacement. Mrs. Anthamatten has taught at St. Catherine since 1993 and has served as assistant principal since 1999. She has a bachelor’s degree in El-ementary Education and Early Childhood Development from Northwest Missouri State Uni-versity and a master’s degree in Educational Administration from Oklahoma State Univer-sity in Tulsa. She and her husband, Rusty, have three children; Kayley is a sophomore at Cascia Hall, Daniel is an eighth grader at Cascia and Emma is a first Michelle Anthamatten grader at St. Catherine. They are dedicated members of St. Catherine Parish where Mrs. Anthamatten serves as a Eucharistic minister. ACE returns to the Diocese of Tulsa After a four-year absence, Notre Dame University’s Alliance for Catholic Education (ACE) will, once again, send teachers to five Catholic schools the Diocese of Tulsa. The ACE teacher formation program is a two-year plan of study for graduate students seeking a master’s degree in edu-cation. Students take two summers of intensive classroom work at Notre Dame. They spend the school year, August through May, teaching in under-resourced Catholic schools across the country. Students are paid a small stipend to cover expenses by their host schools. The ACE program first came to the diocese in 1996 and, over the course of 12 years, sent some 25 teachers. ACE teachers served not only in a badly needed teaching capacity, but also as models of strong Catholic faith for the children. Due to a greater need in the Gulf Coast area after Hurricane Katrina, ACE left the diocese in 2008. There are three ACE teachers who remained in Tulsa after completing their master’s degree: Father Brian O’Brien, president of Bishop Kelley High School; Matt Vereecke, principal of Monte Casino School; and Elizabeth Brands Vereecke, former teacher at St. Catherine School. For the past year, a small group of people has been working hard to get ACE teachers back in the diocese. The good news was received early this year. “ACE teachers have academic excellence and high standards in everything that they do,” said Patrick Martin, principal of Ss. Peter and Paul School. “They will meet some of our greatest needs here. We’re looking forward to working with them again.” Six ACE teachers will arrive in Tulsa in August. They will serve at St. Catherine, Ss. Peter and Paul, Holy Family, Bishop Kelley and All Saints schools. Crozier Society dinner Suzanne Pisaturo, director of the Diocesan Development Fund, speaks to members of the Crozier Society at a special Mass and dinner on May 15 at Holy Family Cathedral. The dinner was held to thank the society members and everyone else who helped the DDF reach this year’s goal of $2 million. The Crozier Society consists of those fortunate enough to be able to give $1,000 or more to the annual DDF appeal. This year, donations from 547 society members accounted for half of the goal. of Brindisi, priest and doctor of the Church July 21 | St. Bridget of Sweden, religious July 23 | St. Sharbel Makhluf, priest July 24 | Feast of St. James, apostle July 25 7
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