New principal does recess duty

By Andy Gates - Argus Observer
Monday, August 27, 2007 11:06 AM PDT

Malheur County Engineer Jim Kimberling (left) discusses Senate Bill No. 994, as Harney County Judge Steve Grasty (right) listens Monday at TVCC during a meeting of the Southwest Regional Alliance.

ONTARIO - A young girl with borrowed white socks stuffed into her tiny party shoes walked beside her mother Friday down a hall at St. Peter Catholic School in Ontario.

They approached the new principal of the elementary school, Carolyn Hedrick, and asked when they should return the socks.

“She had a little blister,” Hedrick said to the mother, looking down at the bright socks slumped around the girl’s ankles. They can be returned later, the principal said.

Hedrick has only been in Ontario since July, and after her first two days of school, she already knows most of the 73 young students — down to their blisters.

The school’s new principal is not like the Wizard of Oz behind a curtain — she does noon recess duty.

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“After two days of school I think I know the majority of students,” Hedrick said.

Hedrick smiles and laughs a lot, and she leaves her office door open.

That means she hears the daily shuffle, as teacher lesson plans are dropped onto her table, and administrators leave for the weekend — but not before saying “see you at Mass.”

Hedrick spent most of her career as a teacher and knows what it is like to be on the “front line,” she said.

“I’ve been a teacher for a very long time … From 5-year-olds to college (students),” she said.

An educator at heart, she initially counts herself into the teacher tally at St. Peter’s School — but quickly corrects herself.

“There’s seven (teachers),” Hedrick said. “No, six. I always count myself.”

She moved to Ontario July 1 from Medford, with a Masters degree in elementary school education administration. She recently taught hundreds of students at Sacred Heart Parish in Medford, and oversaw religious instruction.

Her move to St. Peter’s School was prompted by a job advertisement in a newspaper, The Catholic Sentinel.

“I saw the opening and thought I’m going to apply, and if God intends for me to have this job, it will happen, and it did,” Hedrick said.

One of the first things Hedrick discloses about herself, is she is a convert to Catholicism.

“I’m a convert. I became Catholic in 1990,” she said.

Saint Augustine in the Catholic faith was also a convert, Hedrick said while quoting with a smile, “Late have I come to love thee Lord.”

Medford, where Hedrick was born and raised, is a busier place than Ontario.

“There’s something about the stress of traffic,” Hedrick said.

In Ontario, though, the commute to work takes minutes, and the people are friendly, Hedrick said.

“They’re so friendly and willing to help you. I’ve just met some wonderful people in the neighborhood,” she said.

Even buying cat food in Ontario, elicits welcome conversations with store clerks, she said, which is not a normal happening in larger cities like Medford.

“The clerk asks about the cat … It’s an incredibly wonderful feeling,” she said.

With parents who clean the classrooms and raise money for its operations, St. Peter’s School is unique, Hedrick said.

“I’ve never seen another Catholic school that is like this one,” she said. “I love the family feel of this school.”

Tuition is approximately $100 per month per child, and most children begin in pre-kindergarten, and learn in small classes with about 10 students in attendance. The largest class is composed of 16 students, Hedrick said.

There are tuition assistance and adjustment programs, and parents can do things like clean, coordinate Bingo nights, arrange fundraising events and donate to the school, creating a sense of ownership and participation. Out of the school’s 73 children, there are 55 families who attend the school, she said.

“We don’t have janitors, we have parents who clean,” Hedrick said. Eight families do the cleaning, and Friday afternoon, after children had gone home, parent cleaners were already beginning to make their rounds.

“The generosity of parents is amazing … They invest time and talent, it’s not just about the money,” she said.

It is a Catholic school, but students do not have to be Catholic to attend, Hedrick said.

“Children of all faiths are welcome … We stress the value of children in God’s eyes,” she said. Those are the tenets of what all religions teach, she said.

The teachers are also dedicated.

“The teachers could make more in public education. But they’re dedicated to the Catholic tradition of education,” Hedrick said.

Common school problems like bullying are extremely minimal at the St. Peter’s School because “the value of each person is stressed in the classroom,” Hedrick said. Every morning the school’s children are gathered for a reading and prayer. Something new this year, Hedrick said, is teachers pray in front of the children, for the children and their safety. The school has had morning readings and prayer in the past, but having the teachers pray too is new, she said.

“To show them it’s OK to all pray out loud together … I feel it’s an important image for kids to see,” Hedrick said.

Another change this year is there are no “split” classes. Those are classes of two grade-levels with one teacher in one room, like fifth and sixth grade, which Hedrick said, are a difficult “art” to accomplish and master.

“It works if teachers understand the blending concept,” Hedrick said, and schools have to be careful about what age levels are blended. This year, the school is teaching pre-kindergarten classes of 4-year-olds through fourth grade, with more future growth anticipated like a new cafeteria and parish.

Her first priority this year is for educators to work together as a team on continuing to develop a cohesive curriculum, and expand classes.

“My vision is developmental in nature, with each year building on the last,” she said.